Fairholme Funds' Bruce Berkowitz reaffirms his confidence in Bank of America (BAC +3.3%), saying "it doesn’t get any better when it comes to value investing" in noting tangible book value of $12-$13/share and earnings power of $4/share. On ongoing BofA litigation, he says the bank already has reserved for most of any settlement money. (earlier) [View news story]
Mark to maturity book value is as good as the value of last week's Wall Street Journal stock picks.
Update: U.S. Unemployment Rises To 12.2% [View article]
Carlos, Have you asked why the labor participation rate has fallen? Heard of the demographic shift by Richard Dent? And how about 10,000 boomers retiring EACH DAY?
While there are plenty of risks, 2012 is "nothing like the 2008," Goldman Sachs' Jim O’Neill tells CNBC. "The key to this market movement over January is that people were worried about everything that could go wrong... So just the cessation of bad news itself has sort of appeared a bit of a positive." Germany is improving, China seems headed for a soft landing, and the U.S. is "moving forward," he says. [View news story]
Sounds like the same script from last year and 2010 ... up 5% to 6% in Q1 that suckered many retail investors back to the market, Then comes the selling. QEs from US and Europe being priced in.
Boeing (BA +1.8%) stands to take a revenue hit with word that the Pentagon plans to cut $1.75B in V-22 Osprey orders over the next five years from its budget. The cuts are part of a broad-based plan to trim $259B from defense spending through 2017. [View news story]
They should cut the F-35 program entirely as Gates recomended last year.
GM (GM) Jan. U.S. sales: -6.1% Y/Y to 167,962 vehicles. Chevrolet -1.2% to 123,864; GMC -9.7% to 24,966; Buick -23.1% to 10,208; Cadillac -29.1% to 8,924. (PR) [View news story]
Not so bad ... Ford was actually up and both gm/F exceeded forecasts.
GM January Auto Sales Down 6.1% As Truck, Crossover Sales Fall 02/01 07:32 AM
----------------------...
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
General Motors Co.'s (GM:$24.29,00$0.27,001... U.S. auto sales fell 6.1% in January as the auto maker reported lower truck and crossover sales, though Chevrolet strength helped boost passenger car sales.
The results beat expectations from car-shopping website Edmunds.com, which had projected GM sales to slip 8.9% on the year and slip 30% from the prior month. Broadly, Edmunds projects U.S. new auto sales to rise 5.8% in January from a year earlier and to slide 30% from December's total.
Dec. Nonfarm Payrolls:+200K vs. consensus of +155K, +100K (revised) prior. Unemployment 8.5% vs 8.7% expected. Avg. hourly earnings +0.2% to $23.24. Workweek +0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. [View news story]
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)
Yahoo (YHOO) investors may not be happy PayPal's Scott Thompson has been named CEO ... but eBay (EBAY) investors are even more upset Thompson will no longer be in charge of their company's biggest growth engine. Shares -3.4% premarket. [View news story]
Thompson's appointment should be positive for yahoo's spin-off of its Asian assets. They need a CEO's signature on those legal documents.
Bank of America (BAC -0.2%) employees are massively overpaid, asserts Rochdale's Dick Bove. After reviewing total compensation versus pretax earnings at the 23 companies he covers, BofA employees stood out, earning a whopping 38 times what the company itself brought in during that time period. [View news story]
Bove may be wrong in everything else, but the excessive executive compensation for those highest paid BAC employees is true. Those crooked idiots ought to be fired by crushing the shareholders and employees with their missteps like buying Countrywide to monthly fees on debit cards!!!!!!
Bespoke's review of analyst ratings for S&P 500 companies finds 53% of all ratings are Buys, and just 6.1% are Sells. The data begs the question of whether investors should at least sometimes treat Neutral ratings as the equivalent of Sells - especially for a company like Groupon (GRPN), which fell after 6 IPO underwriters issued Neutral ratings, but none dared issue a Sell. [View news story]
Time to have all analysts to have their hit/miss record hyperlinked to each of their new ratings.
On the hour: Dow +0.41%. 10-yr -0.05%. Euro +0.21% vs. dollar. Crude -1.42% to $93.61. Gold -1.12% to $1569.05. [View news story]
Gold's all time high was near $1,900 ... down $331 but still a multi-bagger over the past few years. Relative to the S&P, it has been a winner. Question now is pause or revert to the mean. Place your bets.
Fairholme Funds' Bruce Berkowitz reaffirms his confidence in Bank of America (BAC +3.3%), saying "it doesn’t get any better when it comes to value investing" in noting tangible book value of $12-$13/share and earnings power of $4/share. On ongoing BofA litigation, he says the bank already has reserved for most of any settlement money. (earlier) [View news story]
Update: U.S. Unemployment Rises To 12.2% [View article]
http://bit.ly/AyUwv0
Surging Jobs Data Signals Strengthening Economy [View article]
Highlights From Today's Employment Report [View article]
While there are plenty of risks, 2012 is "nothing like the 2008," Goldman Sachs' Jim O’Neill tells CNBC. "The key to this market movement over January is that people were worried about everything that could go wrong... So just the cessation of bad news itself has sort of appeared a bit of a positive." Germany is improving, China seems headed for a soft landing, and the U.S. is "moving forward," he says. [View news story]
Boeing (BA +1.8%) stands to take a revenue hit with word that the Pentagon plans to cut $1.75B in V-22 Osprey orders over the next five years from its budget. The cuts are part of a broad-based plan to trim $259B from defense spending through 2017. [View news story]
GM (GM) Jan. U.S. sales: -6.1% Y/Y to 167,962 vehicles. Chevrolet -1.2% to 123,864; GMC -9.7% to 24,966; Buick -23.1% to 10,208; Cadillac -29.1% to 8,924. (PR) [View news story]
GM January Auto Sales Down 6.1% As Truck, Crossover Sales Fall 02/01 07:32 AM
----------------------...
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
General Motors Co.'s (GM:$24.29,00$0.27,001... U.S. auto sales fell 6.1% in January as the auto maker reported lower truck and crossover sales, though Chevrolet strength helped boost passenger car sales.
The results beat expectations from car-shopping website Edmunds.com, which had projected GM sales to slip 8.9% on the year and slip 30% from the prior month. Broadly, Edmunds projects U.S. new auto sales to rise 5.8% in January from a year earlier and to slide 30% from December's total.
Investing In Small Cap Bio-Pharma: Striking It Rich Or Going Bust [View article]
SunTrust And BB&T: 20% Upside Not Worth Risk [View article]
Dec. Nonfarm Payrolls: +200K vs. consensus of +155K, +100K (revised) prior. Unemployment 8.5% vs 8.7% expected. Avg. hourly earnings +0.2% to $23.24. Workweek +0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. [View news story]
referred to as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 371,000 to 8.1
million in December. These individuals were working part time because their
hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
(See table A-8.)
Dec. Nonfarm Payrolls: +200K vs. consensus of +155K, +100K (revised) prior. Unemployment 8.5% vs 8.7% expected. Avg. hourly earnings +0.2% to $23.24. Workweek +0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. [View news story]
Yahoo (YHOO) investors may not be happy PayPal's Scott Thompson has been named CEO ... but eBay (EBAY) investors are even more upset Thompson will no longer be in charge of their company's biggest growth engine. Shares -3.4% premarket. [View news story]
Bank of America (BAC -0.2%) employees are massively overpaid, asserts Rochdale's Dick Bove. After reviewing total compensation versus pretax earnings at the 23 companies he covers, BofA employees stood out, earning a whopping 38 times what the company itself brought in during that time period. [View news story]
Bespoke's review of analyst ratings for S&P 500 companies finds 53% of all ratings are Buys, and just 6.1% are Sells. The data begs the question of whether investors should at least sometimes treat Neutral ratings as the equivalent of Sells - especially for a company like Groupon (GRPN), which fell after 6 IPO underwriters issued Neutral ratings, but none dared issue a Sell. [View news story]
On the hour: Dow +0.41%. 10-yr -0.05%. Euro +0.21% vs. dollar. Crude -1.42% to $93.61. Gold -1.12% to $1569.05. [View news story]