Electronics retailer Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) slashed its full-year outlook today, saying it was “the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen.” But Paul Moore says Best Buy isn’t likely to head the same way as mismanaged Circuit City (NYSE:CC). In fact, BBY should even get a lift from the bankruptcy of its main rival just before the holiday season.
Another stimulus check should be coming our way as the market keeps falling.
If it doesn’t happen as one of the final acts of the Bush administration, it will happen as one of the first acts of the Obama one.
The question is, will it help the fast-falling auto industry?
It’ll help retailers. The overwhelming evidence is that the last round of stimulus checks helped pick up consumer spending in the second and third quarters.
But big-ticket retailers like auto dealers play in another sandbox entirely. Unless these checks have a couple of more zero’s than the previous ones, the auto industry’s fate is tied to getting another $25-billion loan package from the government.
The auto industry needs it. And from Obama’s latest statements, it…
Wise investors have traditionally headed for real estate investment trusts (REITs) for their regular, sizeable dividends. Over the past two years, we have grown accustomed to bi-annual payments of 6%, 8% or even 10% of share price.
What if I could tell you one REIT is currently paying over 350%? You would think it is too good to be true.
Of course, you would be right. General Growth Properties (NYSE:GGP), with its $0.43 share price and last dividend payment of $2 per share, may pop up on the screens of investors looking for a big dividend, but there is absolutely no way you should expect to see any dividend from this REIT, let alone anything close to a double-digit payout.
Desperate for cash
General…
If you thought the earnings report released this morning by Ford (NYSE:F) was scary, you had better be sitting near a trashcan to hear the news from its cross-town rival, General Motors (NYSE:GM). These figures will make you nauseous.
One of the granddaddies of Silicon Valley, Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) may finally have to give up the good fight – presenting investors with the prospects of a quick profit grab.
It’s becoming clear that subprime lending wasn’t limited to the housing market. Companies in the auto-loan business are battling hard to keep their heads above water. Andrew Snyder says small firms like AmeriCredit (NYSE:ACF), United PanAm (NASDAQ:UPFC) and Consumer Portfolio Services (NASDAQ:CPSS) will struggle to survive.
This week United Airlines’ stock (UAL) fell to a quarter of it’s price within minutes, from $12.50 to $3, after a 2002 article about the company’s bankruptcy circulated the internet as fresh news. The SEC is currently investigating the matter, but here are some interesting details about what happened
US airlines are forecast to lose a record $7.2 billion this year, in part because most use gas-guzzling elderly Boeing 767s as opposed to newer, more fuel-efficient planes common in European fleets.
American Airlines, Continental and Delta have all announced cutbacks due to rising fuel costs.
Consumers are also being squeezed. USA Today reports that summer airfares in the US are set to rise by as much as four times thanks to spiraling oil prices.
“The sector-wide downturn is pretty textbook,” says Theo Casey in Fleet Street Daily.
