In Case You Missed Tuesday

by Michael Goodman | March 2, 2011 4:44 am

• Stocks continue to be the tail, oil prices continue to be the dog. Crude went north of $100 a barrel again, and what is usually a shoo-in for a rally — the first trading day of the month — turned into a disaster. The S&P 500 is now nearly 3% below its intraday highs set just 11 days ago. That may not sound like much — and it could probably be half that if oil slides to $95 on Wednesday — but a longer-term rally is now in question without another new high in the next week or so. As you’d imagine, airlines and transportation services took a hit, and the flight-to-safety bid was on. Gold hit a new all-time high, while silver made do with just another 31-year high. Bonds gained, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 3.41%.
• After the closing bell, shares of MBIA (NYSE:MBI[1]) fell 4.5% after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report. The company said its net income largely came from a $1.1 billion pretax unrealized net gain on the fair value of insured derivatives. And while its adjusted pretax loss narrowed, the company’s adjusted book value per share fell from a year earlier. Verifone (NYSE:PAY[2]) shares gained nearly 5% after the company’s fiscal first-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates. It also guided higher for second-quarter and full-year results. Shares of Tivo (NASDAQ:TIVO[3]) slipped 1.7% after the company’s fourth-quarter loss was wider than expected; the company also said first-quarter revenue would miss current Wall Street expectations. According to Reuters, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO[4]) is in talks to exit its joint venture in Japan with Softbank.
• On Wednesday, you have an a.m. earnings report from Costco (NASDAQ:COST[5]). Economic data includes the February Challenger job-cut report, the ADP payroll estimate for February and the Fed’s Beige Book report.

• A reality check on the public pension crisis[6].
• Wisconsin governor not winning[7] the hearts and minds, it seems.
• And why would they? The amount of people thinking a home is a safe investment falls 19 percentage points[8] in 8 years.
• This seems like it could be a big deal: Fewer new bank loans[9] in China this year.
• Stay classy, MetLife[10]: turning accidental death into suicide.
• Why we didn’t hit Dow 36,000. Turns out we’re soft. Right[11].
• Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN[12]) ability to avoid collecting sales tax[13] may be running out of time.
• With Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL[14]) new iPad 2 on tap, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT[15]) may not compete[16] for a loooong time.
• Would you take an airline for free[17] right now?

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/03/in-case-you-missed-tuesday-3/

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