Yesterday, Circuit City, with 721 US stores and 43,000 employees, filed for bankruptcy. Starbucks (SBUX) announced their worst quarter ever with same store sales in the US down -8% from the year ago period (SBUX FY 4Q Earnings Release). Up…
The economic news over the last 24 hours has been just horrible: After the close yesterday, Cisco (CSCO) said orders in October fell off a cliff – down 9% from the year ago period – and forecast a 5-10% drop…
Back in January, I wrote about how the fast Asian restuarant Pick Up Stix had closed its location on the corner of Douglas and Sierra College Boulevard – along with all its other Sacramento locations. This past Saturday I went…
With the Fed slashing the funds rate to 1% today, it’s worth remembering what happened the last time they did this: We got the most massive housing bubble in the history of mankind. Well, today, in the midst of this…
The problem is that this is worse than the worst-case scenario. – An executive closely involved with the Harrah’s LBO on the worst case scenarios factored into their models at the time of the deal, quoted in “Harrah’s Changes Its…
On February 8th, with the S&P trading around 1330 I wrote “Stocks Now Priced For Mild Recession”. Because I was expecting a severe recession, I didn’t yet feel that stocks fully discounted what was on the horizon. Nine months later…
So far in this bust the pain has been concentrated in single family homes and their associated mortgages and mortgage backed securities. But that’s not the only kind of debt that got out of hand during the boom. There were…
Under these agreements, Treasury will ensure that each company maintains a positive net worth. – Statement by Treasury Secretary Paulson on the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac If anybody thought we had a pure free market system, they…
Four earnings reports out today from prominent retailers show that US consumer spending is clearly in recession: Men’s Warehouse (MW) – “You’re gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it!” – reported a 7.8% decrease in same store sales at…
This morning Darden Restaurants (DRI), owner of The Olive Tree and Red Lobster, lowered their full year forecast (Press Release). They lowered same store sales expectations for fiscal year 2009 from 2% growth to 0%-1% growth, revenue growth from 14%-15%…