Since mid-September, rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen. – Brad Anderson, CEO, Best Buy In 42 years of retailing, we’ve never seen such difficult times for the consumer. People are making…
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…
Deutsche Bank came out this morning with a pretty bold call, that is almost certainly right, slapping a sell rating on General Motors (GM) and a $0 price target. They forecast that GM might not have enough cash to operate…
Even if GM implements the planned operating actions that are substantially within its control, GM’s estimated liquidity during the remainder of 2008 will approach the minimum amount necessary to operate its business. Looking into the first two quarters of 2009,…
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…
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…
Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone – we sold more phones than RIM. We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we’re armed with…
eBay (EBAY) reported 3rd quarter earnings after the close today and while the 3rd quarter was okay their 4th quarter guidance was well below Wall Street estimates (EBAY 3Q Earnings Release). They guided to EPS between 39 cents and 41…
Intel (INTC) kicked off 3rd quarter tech earnings after the close today and they did it in style (INTC 3Q Earnings Release). They reported EPS of 35 cents a share compared to estimates of 34 cents and revenue of $10.22…