Greedy Pigs Get Slaughtered
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
GM doing very good, SFI good, FITB good!!!
Going to be a very good day imho. Will be trading from my PDA today. Out on business!
SFI $1.53 AH , Hope everyone had a Green day!!! Later everyone, go out and enjoy some Mardi Gras!!
Wish I bought more GM, but very happy with FITB, SFI, and GRDO
Very Nice =]
Bernanke: Recession may end in '09; Stocks climb
By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer Tim Paradis, Ap Business Writer – 32 mins ago
Bernanke: Economy suffering 'severe contraction' Play Video AP – Bernanke: Economy suffering 'severe contraction'
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in AP – Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, …
NEW YORK – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has steadied Wall Street by telling Congress the recession might end this year.
In his semiannual report to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke predicted the economy is likely to keep contracting in the first six months of 2009. But he also said "there is a reasonable prospect" the recession will end this year. He warns that a recovery will require getting credit and financial markets to operate normally.
Bernanke's comments helped the market absorb a worrisome report on consumer spending. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for February came in at 25, well below expectations. The finding is the latest sign that consumers are deeply worried about the recession and the safety of their jobs.
The Fed chairman spoke a day after the government moved closer to dramatically expanding its ownership stakes in the nation's banks, including Citigroup Inc. The Treasury Department, the Fed and other banking regulators said Monday they could convert the government's stock in the banks from preferred shares to common shares.
The market was up a day after another sharp drop in stocks that left the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index near 12-year lows. Some bargain-hunting was to be expected after a big pullback; the Dow fell 251 points and the major indexes all fell more than 3 percent.
In midday trading, the Dow rose 44.92, or 0.6 percent, to 7,159.70. On Monday, it had its lowest close since May 7, 1997.
Broader stock indicators also rose. The S&P 500 index rose 6.39, or 0.9 percent, to 749.72. On Monday, it logged its lowest finish since April 11, 1997.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 13.57, or 1 percent, Tuesday to 1,401.29.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.84, or 1.2 percent, to 399.42.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume amounted to 554.8 million shares.
Many analysts expect the market to remain volatile for the foreseeable future.
Ryan Larson, head of equity trading at Voyageur Asset Management, said the market is looking for insights into the Treasury Department's plans to "stress test" the banks and remove the toxic assets from their books.
"The market is desperately looking for more clues to piece together this bailout," he said.
Investors are focused on Bernanke's comments, he said, but particularly curious about what President Barack Obama has to say during his address to the nation Tuesday night. He is expected to make the case that more has to be done to revive the economy. The speech is scheduled for 9 p.m. EST.
Rich Hughes, co-president of Portfolio Management Consultants in Los Angeles, said any rallies are likely to be based on hope or on rebounds from selloffs. He contends Wall Street still hasn't seen the wrenching decline that is often needed to scare investors from the market and set the ground for a lasting recovery.
"The underlying fundamentals just aren't there to support anything that's sustainable right now," he said. "We haven't seen the capitulation that you'd want to see before you'd get thoroughly enthused."
The market's slide has been tough on long-term savers. An investor who in 1997 had $50,000 in a fund that tracks the S&P 500 would have lost money; the fund would now be worth $46,256. Still, stocks tend to perform better after steep pullbacks and their long-term returns often outpace other investments.
Bond prices were mixed Tuesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.74 percent from 2.76 percent late Monday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.30 percent from 0.29 percent Monday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light, sweet crude rose 14 cents to $38.30 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Home Depot Inc. posted a loss but the nation's largest home improvement retailer's results topped expectations when excluding costs for shutting four home-improvement brands. The stock rose $1.25, or 6.7 percent, to $19.96.
Target Corp. and Macy's Inc. said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings fell sharply as shoppers cut back on purchases. Office Depot Inc. posted a loss for the quarter. Target fell $1.20, or 4.2 percent, to $27.23, while Macy's rose 45 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $7.85.
JPMorgan Chase Co. fell 39 cents, or 2 percent, to $19.12 after announcing late Monday it would slash its quarterly dividend to 5 cents from 38 cents in a move to preserve capital to protect itself should the ongoing recession worsen. The decision will save the bank about $5 billion per year.
Stocks fell in afternoon trading in Europe after Monday's drop on Wall Street. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.78 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.73 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.73 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.5 percent.
next resistance probably at $1.75
GRDO on run watch. already loaded up
If SFI breaks past $1.35, watch out!!!
I found the best way to deal with this market stress is to have a giant punching bag next to your desk. Just print out the picture of the person that pissed you off in the market, tape his/her face on the bag, then let all that stress out!
DOW bounced off 7.20 today =)
QuiK, might get some .80's. SFI is freaking smokin!!!!
Heres a good sign, SFI up on low volume
sfi 5min support at 1.03
SFI weeeee
In FITB, SFI for quick money
U.S. wants to keep banks private in new rescue plan
Updated 5h 36m ago
By Stephen Bernard, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK WASHINGTON — Federal regulators pledged Monday to do all they can to shore up the struggling banking system while keeping banks "in private hands" as they plan to launch a revamped program to inject capital into financial institutions on Wednesday.
The new plans are the Obama administration's latest attempt to bolster the banking system without nationalizing any institutions, which the White House has said it does not intend to do.
The Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Reserve jointly issued a statement about the plan Monday amid growing concern that some of the country's biggest banks may need additional assistance to survive the worst financial crisis since the 1930s
LOL, SFI did beat FITB on % up today on my scottrade. 127,000 share trade brought the price up to .98 AH!!! Very Interesting...
Darn, SFI almost beat FITB on % up today. Well, this is a day I am glad to be green on, hope it is the same for most of you. Later everyone!
SFI .88, they are trying harder to hold us LMAO
I feel a rally coming for SFI
anyone trading SFI today. They are trying to hold us back here at .86
shorts trying to hold us back .86
Good support SFI .84
I am hoping for and many of you for an EOD rally. Right now there is decent support on SFI at .81.
up on fitb, sfi, grdo then down on dow
I'd have to say, GRDO is the best stock I have right now. ITs the only one green, and very green!
maybe
SFI starting to move up
Load up on some SFI
wow, total BS today. Almost everyday
FITB looking good for a buy
FITB, DOW , and SFI!!!
buying some SFI this morning
iStar Financial Declares Preferred Stock Dividends
* Thursday February 19, 2009, 7:00 am EST
* iStar Financial Inc.
NEW YORK, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE: SFI - News), a leading publicly traded finance company focused on the commercial real estate industry, announced today that the Company's Board of Directors has declared dividends on the Company's Series D, Series E, Series F, Series G, and Series I Preferred Stock. For all five series of Preferred Stock, dividends are payable on March 16, 2009 to holders of record on March 2, 2009.
A dividend of $0.50 per share will be paid on the 8.00% Series D Preferred Stock; a dividend of $0.492188 per share will be paid on the 7.875% Series E Preferred Stock; a dividend of $0.4875 per share will be paid on the 7.80% Series F Preferred Stock; a dividend of $0.478125 per share will be paid on the 7.65% Series G Preferred Stock; and a dividend of $0.46875 per share will be paid on the 7.50% Series I Preferred Stock.
I want GM below $2, so I can pick some up hehehe
Go FITB!!!
up on FITB 1.42
Fed downgrades economic forecast for this year
Fed downgrades economic forecast for this year, warns of long road to recovery
* Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer
* Wednesday February 18, 2009, 2:49 pm EST
* Yahoo! Buzz
* Print
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sharply downgraded its projections for the country's economic performance this year, predicting the economy will actually shrink and unemployment will rise higher.
Under the new projections, the unemployment rate will rise to between 8.5 and 8.8 percent this year. The old forecasts, issued in mid-November, predicted the jobless rate would rise to between 7.1 and 7.6 percent.
The Fed also believes the economy will contract this year between 0.5 and 1.3 percent. The old forecast said the economy could shrink by 0.2 percent or expand by 1.1 percent.
The last time the economy registered a contraction for a full year was in 1991, by 0.2 percent. If the Fed's new predictions prove correct, it would mark the weakest showing since a 1.9 percent drop in 1982, when the country had suffered through a severe recession.
The bleaker outlook represents the growing toll of the worst housing, credit and financial crises since the 1930s. All of those negative forces have plunged the nation into a recession, now in its second year.
"Given the strength of the forces currently weighing on the economy," Fed officials "generally expected that the recovery would be unusually gradual and prolonged," according to documents on the Fed's updated economic outlook.
Against that backdrop, unemployment -- now at 7.6 percent, the highest in more than 16 years -- will keep climbing and stay elevated for quite some time, the Fed predicted.
Fed officials anticipated that unemployment would remain "substantially" higher than normal at the end of 2011 "even absent further economic shocks."
The Fed forecast calls for the jobless rate to dip to between 8 and 8.3 percent next year, and to between 7.5 and 6.7 percent in 2011. All those projections are worse than the Fed's previous estimates and would put unemployment higher than the normal range around 5 percent.
Employment is usually the last piece of the economy to heal once the country is out of recession and in recovery mode. Businesses are usually reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel confident that any recovery has staying power.
Under the Fed's new projections, the economy should grow between 2.5 and 3.3 percent next year. Fed officials "generally expected that strains in financial markets would ebb only slowly and hence that the pace of recovery in 2010 would be damped," according to the Fed documents.
Fed officials, however, predicted the economy would pick up speed in 2011, growing by as much as 5 percent, which would be considered robust.
Still, given all the economy's problems, there are risks that the Fed's forecasts could turn out to be too optimistic.
And a few Fed officials -- none are identified -- feared that it could take five or six years for the economy and employment to get back into a sustainable mode of health.
On the inflation front, the weak economy should mean that companies will keep a lid on price increases this year as they try to lure skittish consumers.
The Fed expects prices to rise between 0.3 and 1 percent this year, down from a projection of between 1.3 and 2 percent in the fall. Prices will pick up slightly in 2010 and 2011 as the economy strengthens.
For now, Fed officials are more worried about falling prices, than rising ones.
The Fed didn't use the word "deflation," which is a dangerous bout of falling prices, but officials noted "some risk of a protracted period of excessively low inflation."
Falling prices sound like a gift at first -- at least to consumers. But a widespread and prolonged decline can wreak more havoc on the economy, dragging down Americans' wages, and clobbering already-stricken home and stock prices. Dropping prices already are hurting businesses' profits, forcing them to slice capital investments and lay off workers.
America's last serious case of deflation was during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Japan was gripped with a period of deflation during the 1990s, and it took a decade for that country to overcome those problems.
What the hey, will take some FITB 1.37 for a quick trade