piggy bank

The personal savings rate is an item of contention and debate as the profligacy of the US Consumer has been in focus throughout the 2000s decade. During the height of the housing market boom, the savings rate got down to zero and at times was even negative. US Consumers in the aggregate were thought to…

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eu leaders

After keeping the world on edge and pushing up against the brink of a European recession, details of the European fix are trickling out. It is sure to be a headline filled Thursday, Friday, and weekend. I won’t focus on the specific details because many of them still aren’t known and the ones that have…

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greece riots

Economies don’t function well in a “crisis steady state”. In Europe, the business environment has been surprisingly good during the third quarter despite what seems like a concerted effort to induce a collapse. A number of consumer and industrial companies pointed out that growth hasn’t fallen off a cliff and if Europe can simply instill…

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caterpillar

Caterpillar (CAT) reported very strong earnings this morning, beating estimates quite handily. EPS of $1.71 compared to consensus of $1.57 (a 9% beat). As important, the company outlined an environment consistent with global growth persisting and a strong outlook for 2012. Caterpillar’s organic sales grew by 34% this quarter excluding the recent acquisition of Bucyrus.…

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factory

Lyondell Bassell Industries is a manufacturing company producing chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for clean fuel, construction materials, automotive parts and medical equipment. LyondellBasell announced a shareholder-friendly $2.6B special dividend ($4.50/share). I believe this reflects management’s confidence in the company’s financial condition and substantial free cash flow in the medium and long term. Management indicated…

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cal

Earnings season officially gets started this week, with reports already released from Alcoa, Pepsi, JP Morgan and a few others. Tonight Google will be reporting after the close – a stock I continue to view favorably. Next week the reports will pour in and by the end of next week we’ll have a pretty good…

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dove

The Fed minutes released today at 2:00pm didn’t provide anything that was too much of a surprise. The general impression I felt after reading the 12 pages was that the Fed remains exceptionally dovish. Economic growth, while not rolling-over, remains disappointing, so the Fed is looking to remain accommodative. Inflation was discussed in dovish terms.…

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ruby tuesday

Ruby Tuesday (RT) is one of the largest players in the US bar and grill segment. The restaurant chain consists of 841 restaurants with the vast majority of the restaurants company operated and 95 franchised. The secular trends have been working against the bar and grill segment based on healthy lifestyle trends and consumers moving…

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