ProShares, a leader in “short” and “ultrashort” shares that profit when baskets of stocks fall in price, has released a new fund with a hybrid strategy of buying certain companies and short-selling others. The fund is the ProShares Credit Suisse 130/30 and trades… Read More
Results
Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) said it earned $143 million in the second quarter, or 49 cents a share, down -31% from last year, when the company earned 70 cents a share. The results reflect a $110 million expenditure on Fampridine, a new drug to treat multiple sclerosis. Excluding the purchase,… Read More
Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) said second-quarter earnings fell -91% from a year ago. The manufacture of iconic motorcycles said it earned $19.8 million, or 8 cents a share, versus last year’s profit of $222.8 million, or 95 cents… Read More
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) said it will spend $600 million to develop biofuel from algae. The petroleum giant, the most profitable company in the United States, will work in partnership with privately held Synthetic Genomics. Exxon will spend $300 million on its research and provide… Read More
Manufactured home builder Palm Harbor Homes (Nasdaq: PHHM) said it lost $10.0 million, or 44 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, compared with a loss of $0.5 million, or 2 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue fell -36.6%, to $82.4 million, from a year ago. The company… Read More
After looking at some of will have a better journey elsewhere. 10. Croatia With its long, beautiful coastline down the Adriatic Sea, tourism accounts for about 20% of the country’s GDP. The slowdown in that industry explains a big portion… Read More
Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) said this morning that second-quarter earnings amounted to $1.15 a share. The results, a -4.7% decline from a year ago, beat expectations, despite challenges facing the company’s pharmaceutical unit and a stronger dollar. The company said… Read More
Smaller business inventories and increased sales are good signs in a recession. Economic data released today show the first has already happened and the second appears to be happening. Consumer products and basic materials shares gained on the news, up +1.2% and +1.5%, respectively,… Read More
There is no doubt that investors flock to gold as a safe haven hedge during times of political and/or economic distress and instability. And up until recently, the economic backdrop was about as bad as it could get. Furthermore, with the printing presses… Read More
A key measure of wholesale prices rose in June at nearly twice the increase economists had forecast. It was the sharpest rise for the index since November 2007. The Producer Price Index, which tracks how much it costs for manufacturers to make things,… Read More