Abbott Laboratories (ABT -4%) says it's laying off about 550 workers and plans several hundred more layoffs throughout 2013, citing "evolving business needs." The disclosure comes on the back of a Q3 earnings report earlier today showing surging profit amid a double-digit percentage fall in expenses. [View news story]
Oh, come on that is a low blow, worse than any that Romney has attempted. Is it always the President's (dem/rep) that a company lays people off! Companies have been laying off people at all times and under all presidents. If Republicans want no lay offs, they can pass a law (at least in the House) banning companies from laying off people.
Social Security => well, we promised to pay later and took the ,money and spent it. Better pony up. Unemployment assistance => employees/employers (at least in CA) are required to pay into this pool. No choice. They should be allowed to avail themselves of this when they lose their job
That leaves basically healthcare which is a fraud anyway in this country. Encourage healthy lifestyles, get more doctors/nurses from other countries, adapt remote/wireless healthcare etc...
Texas Instruments (TXN) is lowering its investments in its OMAP mobile app processor line, and will instead focus on growing OMAP sales for embedded applications such as cars and industrial gear. Though OMAP chips power Amazon and Barnes & Noble's tablets, smartphone competition from Qualcomm (QCOM) and Nvidia (NVDA) has been fierce, and TI recently claimed Apple and Samsung's heavy reliance on their own app processors made the market "less attractive." [View news story]
>>Qualcomm will be beat on price and technology
Perhaps on price to make inroads. But on technology, not so sure. Competition will not be standing still. Intel will end up spending loads of money on new fabs & processes that will get outdated sooner than they can extract the cost and some profits. Mobile processor market is quite unlike the PC processor market to monopolize.
Heavy equipment makers lag the broader market after Caterpillar (CAT -3.2%) lowered its 2015 guidance due to slumping demand for mining equipment as well as a sluggish global economic recovery. CAT's cautious forecast is infecting other stocks that also depend on countries like China to keep building homes and factories: JOY -4%, TEX -4.2%, MTW -5.5%. [View news story]
CAT will do well, as dollar printing continues, as PMs continue to be hoarded, as home building recovers at least in the US with low rates - will spur demand for digging for all kinds of raw materials.
Should Banks Get To Deduct Their Interest Costs? [View article]
I did not know that banks could deduct the interest they pay to depositors from whom they borrow. If so, why can't people deduct the interest on credit cards, car payments etc...? Why should the banks get this preferential treatment?
Yup, the notion that the active labor force as the sole driver for price inflation is inaccurate. It is a component among others. There are a bunch of countries in Asia with high unemployment & high inflation. Their central banks are caught in a quandary as to what to do now with rates - the only thing they can control. Fed is driving us to the same.
Rewarding innovation, savings, and prudent consumerism is what is needed to boost confidence among the creative to risk their capital and hire. The bail-out friendly govt & fed have been encouraging just the opposite.
Salesforce.com Still Climbing The Wall Of Worry [View article]
Excellent comment, dean! Salesforce is simply a packaged web application that does some things without you having to maintain the hardware & software systems. Yes, it is just SaaS but with a high licensing cost. Their 'No Software' slogan is misleading at best. To do anything useful at enterprise level you have to hire consultants/programmers to write a bunch of code to integrate with internal systems. Plus with their usage/size/api 'limits' (that their sales guys tread lightly over) enterprises have to pony up extra cash to up these limits. All this, plus of course the hefty licensing fee, before you set up a single useful service on their platform.
That said, they have done a good job (all that R&D money is showing) with their core product & apis. But their product is expensive, and so is the stock.
Thursday: PMI Still A Drag On Global Indexes [View article]
California is screwed in more ways than one :) Unending tax increases, bond proposals for every damn thing under the sun .... The sun is of course the best thing going.
Baby Boomer Demographics: The Shift Ahead [View article]
>>"I paid in, so I'm taking out"
What is unfair about that? They have been promised payments in return for various trims on their pay checks. And, there was no choice to opt out. Now that the payments are due, the folks that have taken the money are balking. Any different from those voting for principal reductions, or the house builders getting special tax benefits, or the banks getting bail outs?
As expected, Salesforce.com (CRM) kicks off its Dreamforce conference by announcing several new products. Among them: an enterprise cloud storage platform called Chatterbox (competes with Dropbox and Box); a cloud employee performance solution called Work.com (competes with CSOD); and Marketing Cloud, a suite that ties together solutions from Buddy Media and Radian6 (competes with ORCL). Salesforce is also giving its Chatter enterprise social networking solution (competes with JIVE) a major overhaul. [View news story]
Their 'No Software' slogan is misleading at best. Before you can put up a single app, you have to pony up a hefty fee. After that, to do anything useful at the enterprise level one has to hire programmers/consultants. But if you are going to have to hire programmers, you might as well avoid the license fee and choose from several open source alternatives.
The Treasury Department pushes back against General Motors (GM) over its increasing calls to have the government sell its entire stake in the company. The automaker recently proposed repurchasing 200M of its 500M shares from the U.S. with the remaining shares to be sold in a public stock offering, only to see Treasury officials demur as they wait out a higher stock price for GM in order to recoup losses. [View news story]
If you are bailed out every time you screw up, there is no need for you to succeed. If I get paid whether I work or not, hey why work? Just collect the pay check and party.
The govt should try to get the max they can for the shares we own. May be GM can be broken up and mat be the sum of the pieces may be worth more than the whole is now.
Well, hopefully all this monetary stimuli mean we do not need any more fiscal stimuli from the government, and the next President can send some tax cuts our way.
Monday Market Movement: A Little Perspective Does Wonders [View article]
Abbott Laboratories (ABT -4%) says it's laying off about 550 workers and plans several hundred more layoffs throughout 2013, citing "evolving business needs." The disclosure comes on the back of a Q3 earnings report earlier today showing surging profit amid a double-digit percentage fall in expenses. [View news story]
The 3 Scariest Government Charts [View article]
Unemployment assistance => employees/employers (at least in CA) are required to pay into this pool. No choice. They should be allowed to avail themselves of this when they lose their job
That leaves basically healthcare which is a fraud anyway in this country. Encourage healthy lifestyles, get more doctors/nurses from other countries, adapt remote/wireless healthcare etc...
Texas Instruments (TXN) is lowering its investments in its OMAP mobile app processor line, and will instead focus on growing OMAP sales for embedded applications such as cars and industrial gear. Though OMAP chips power Amazon and Barnes & Noble's tablets, smartphone competition from Qualcomm (QCOM) and Nvidia (NVDA) has been fierce, and TI recently claimed Apple and Samsung's heavy reliance on their own app processors made the market "less attractive." [View news story]
Perhaps on price to make inroads. But on technology, not so sure. Competition will not be standing still. Intel will end up spending loads of money on new fabs & processes that will get outdated sooner than they can extract the cost and some profits. Mobile processor market is quite unlike the PC processor market to monopolize.
Does Yahoo's Turnaround Plan Make Sense? [View article]
Heavy equipment makers lag the broader market after Caterpillar (CAT -3.2%) lowered its 2015 guidance due to slumping demand for mining equipment as well as a sluggish global economic recovery. CAT's cautious forecast is infecting other stocks that also depend on countries like China to keep building homes and factories: JOY -4%, TEX -4.2%, MTW -5.5%. [View news story]
Should Banks Get To Deduct Their Interest Costs? [View article]
Could Rates Be At Zero Until 2016? [View article]
Rewarding innovation, savings, and prudent consumerism is what is needed to boost confidence among the creative to risk their capital and hire. The bail-out friendly govt & fed have been encouraging just the opposite.
Salesforce.com Still Climbing The Wall Of Worry [View article]
That said, they have done a good job (all that R&D money is showing) with their core product & apis. But their product is expensive, and so is the stock.
Thursday: PMI Still A Drag On Global Indexes [View article]
The sun is of course the best thing going.
Baby Boomer Demographics: The Shift Ahead [View article]
What is unfair about that? They have been promised payments in return for various trims on their pay checks. And, there was no choice to opt out. Now that the payments are due, the folks that have taken the money are balking. Any different from those voting for principal reductions, or the house builders getting special tax benefits, or the banks getting bail outs?
As expected, Salesforce.com (CRM) kicks off its Dreamforce conference by announcing several new products. Among them: an enterprise cloud storage platform called Chatterbox (competes with Dropbox and Box); a cloud employee performance solution called Work.com (competes with CSOD); and Marketing Cloud, a suite that ties together solutions from Buddy Media and Radian6 (competes with ORCL). Salesforce is also giving its Chatter enterprise social networking solution (competes with JIVE) a major overhaul. [View news story]
The Decline Of Credit Cards [View article]
The fed should open up the 0.25% credit spigot to all - not just their banker buddies who turn around to loan it to us at 5%
The Treasury Department pushes back against General Motors (GM) over its increasing calls to have the government sell its entire stake in the company. The automaker recently proposed repurchasing 200M of its 500M shares from the U.S. with the remaining shares to be sold in a public stock offering, only to see Treasury officials demur as they wait out a higher stock price for GM in order to recoup losses. [View news story]
The govt should try to get the max they can for the shares we own. May be GM can be broken up and mat be the sum of the pieces may be worth more than the whole is now.
There's No Longer A Bernanke Put [View article]