Markets

Rattled by concerns about Dubai's debt, investors fled gold for the safety of the U.S. dollar during early trading on Friday. The move comes as the booming appetite for the precious metal among smaller investors has led to near record prices and shortages of American Eagle gold coins at the...

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Is Dubai market crash a Black Friday buying opportunity?

By Peter Cohan | Nov 27th 2009, 10:30AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing, General Electric

Dubai Global stock markets, overreacting to Dubai's debt woes, could mark down stocks too much. Dubai -- which is famous for building a palm-shaped island, the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope, and paying Rihanna $500,000 to perform at a New Year's Eve party -- wants a six-month reprieve from repaying a $3.5 billion bond.

Why would this be an overreaction? The cost of writing-off Dubai's debt is a tiny fraction of the write-offs from the financial crisis that took $30 trillion off world stock markets in 2008.

Reuters reports that even if Dubai defaults...

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Stocks in the news: AIG, HSBC, Apple, ING

By Melly Alazraki | Nov 27th 2009, 9:20AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Investing, General Electric , JC Penney, Sony, Apple, American International Group, INC., Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Sanofi Aventis, Amazon.com Inc.

AIG (AIG) announced late Wednesday it agreed to settle a long-standing legal battle with the insurance giant's former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. The agreement, announced Wednesday, effectively ends years of costly legal battles and barbs between AIG and Greenberg. AIG shares tumbled nearly 5% in pre-market trading.

HSBC Holdings (HBC) tumbled more than 6% ahead of the bell as investors try to figure out its exposure to Dubai's debt, since it is one of the top two lenders in the United Arab Emirates. HSBC has...

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This stock, says advisory service, could be a 'potential double'

By Steven Halpern | Nov 27th 2009, 8:30AM EST Filed Under: Investing, Stock Picks

"Holly Corp. (HOC), an independent petroleum refiner, gave a solid 'Buy' signal a little over two months ago and appears poised to continue moving a lot higher," suggests Mike Turner, editor of the newly-launched advisory service, Mastering the Markets.

"Holly Corp. is my top-ranked 'Doubler' -- my list of stocks with the potential to double in price. With regard to HOC's fundamentals, I like the following:

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Stocks poised to join global selloff on Dubai's debt problems

By Melly Alazraki | Nov 27th 2009, 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

U.S. stocks are poised to open sharply lower this Black Friday morning, joining a global selloff that began Thursday when U.S. markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Late Wednesday, Dubai said it has asked for a stay on two of its largest companies' debt, sending world markets skidding as investors lost confidence and tried to get a grip on banks' exposure to the debt.

As U.S. markets play catch-up to global stocks, they will do so only until 1:00 p.m. Eastern when markets close. Trading could be thin, which may contribute to the downward move. Investors will also focus on retail today as Black Friday starts the holiday shopping season.

More here: Before...

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Dubai trouble rattles Asian markets, building and banking shares plunge

By Lauren Cooper | Nov 27th 2009, 7:00AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

Asian stocks plunged Friday with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plummeting 4.8% to close at 21,135. In China the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.4%, ending the day at 3,096 and in Japan, the Nikkei Index fell 3.2% to 9,082.

News that Dubai's government-owned investment company, Dubai World, was asking to delay paying back $60 billion in debt, triggered a wave of heavy losses for banks and other companies with investments in the region. Dubai has been on a massive spending spree, investing in construction and development that has transformed this desert locale into a financial and tourism center. Recent additions to the landscape include the gravity-defying Burj Dubai, intended to be the tallest building in world and slated to be completed this January, and a mall with an...

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No Thanksgiving for investors: Dubai's debt woes rattle stocks around the globe

By Peter Cohan | Nov 26th 2009, 9:27AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing, Earnings, Real Estate

Thursday is one of those days when I wish I could be reincarnated as Jon Stewart. I am certainly hoping that when he returns to live broadcasts, he can find the funny in the media's obsessive coverage of the State Dinner crashers. And if he does this, he should note that while the media salivated over the Salahis, it ignored a far more important story -- Middle Eastern petro-state, Dubai, was defaulting on its debt.

Problems with Dubai's finances are not a big surprise. As I posted in February, I first got wind of the potential for a huge collapse there back in 2005 when I read an article in the New Yorker which discussed Dubai's world record breaking pace of commercial real estate development as its government sought to diversify...

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Chinese banking stocks continue to slip and Japanese carmakers slide

By Lauren Cooper | Nov 26th 2009, 7:05AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

Shares in Asia tumbled Thursday. In China the Shanghai Composite index plunged 3.6%, ending the day at 3,171, and in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 1.8% to 22,210. In Japan the Nikkei Index lost 0.6% to close at 9,383.

Chinese banks sank lower again Thursday as investors and the Chinese authorities await plans as to how banks will raise capital to support the massive loans they have made this year. In addition, Yin Zhongqing, deputy head of the finance and economic committee announced that the amount banks are predicted to lend in 2010 will fall to $730 billion to $1.2 trillion. That's far lower than the estimated $1.4 trillion loaned in 2009. "A level higher...

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Is Dollar Tree's stock as cheap as its prices?

By Dan Burrows | Nov 25th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Investing, Earnings, Stock Picks

It's no secret that cash-strapped consumers have been flocking to discounters and dollar stores for more than a year. A bit more surprising is that even after a 50% rally off their 52-week low, shares in Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR) still look as cheap as the retailer's wares.

The company posted yet another impressive quarter of profit, sales and operating margin growth Tuesday. Dollar Tree's third-quarter earnings rose 58%, beating Street estimates by an almost embarrassing (for the analysts) 10 cents a share. Sales rose 12%, exceeding expectations by more than $4 million and same-store sales -- a key retailer metric -- grew 6.5%. The company has a nice habit of exceeding analysts' average...

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Stocks rise after weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level in a year

By AP | Nov 25th 2009, 4:30PM EST Filed Under: Investing

Stocks climbed Wednesday following a drop in weekly unemployment claims to the lowest level of the year and a rise in new home sales. The market's gain was modest on light trading volume ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The government said new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 35,000 last week to 466,000. That's the fewest claims since September last year, and better than the 500,000 that economists had expected. The drop in claims suggests the job market is healing, but concern remains that the improvement will be temporary as the weak economy continues to push unemployment higher. The jobless rate hit 10.2% in October and many analysts believe it will keep rising before starting to improve next summer.

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