Trader Talk
- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
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Reporter
New highs brings little excitement. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are sitting at highs for the year, but why doesn't it feel like it? Is it the light volume, the low volatility?
A little of both, but the reason it doesn't feel exciting is ... the rally is getting narrower and narrower. We're down to commodity and techs; that's it. Banks? Nothing for a month. Pharma/consumer: sideways to slightly down.
Bonds are higher after 1) the Japanese prime minister said his confidence in the dollar was "unshakable," and 2) The WSJ front page says it's unlikely the Fed will unlikely boost the size of their asset purchases beyond what's already in place. That's helping to send are sending yields to their lowest level of the week.
Elsewhere:
1) Barclays sold Barclays Global Investors to Blackrock [BLK
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] for $13.5 billion, about half in cash and half in Blackrock stock. Because Barclays will retain a 19.9 percent economic interest in the combined entity, Bank of America's [BAC
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] stake in Blackrock will decline to about 34 percent from 47 percent and PNC's [PNC
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] stake will fall to 24.6 percent from 32 percent.
The good news is that this will add significantly to Barclays capital base; the bad news is that they are selling their crown jewel. BGI was a pioneer in the ETF business through its iShares, which continues to expand rapidly.
Blackrock now becomes a truly big, global player in investment management services. John Varley, Barclays Group CEO, and Bob Diamond, Barclays Group President, are being nominated to the board of Blackrock.
2) Hartford Financial [HIG
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] trading down 2 percent pre-open following its announcement of accepting $3.4 billion in TARP money. The property & casualty insurer said it will raise additional capital through a $750 million stock sale.
Maria's Blog: Hartford Financial CEO On His Retirement
TARP Repayments to Start Next Week: Report
3) Semiconductor manufacturer National Semiconductor [NSM
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] is down 1 percent pre-open despite posting Q4 results that beat analyst estimates. Just like Texas Instruments [TXN
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] earlier this week, the company noted improvement in business conditions, with "increasing orders from our wireless handset customers."
In its first quarter outlook, the company sees revenues between $285 million-$305 million, above the consensus forecast of $282 million.
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POPULAR TRADER TALK POSTS
- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
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