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Volume today is extremely muted, once they pull the rug from under this market... watch out below...
Just shorted 134.10 AZO - DJI has resistance at 8180's level...
Dividends being cut at fastest pace in 50 years
Dividends being cut at fastest pace in 50 years
Dividends being cut at fastest pace in 50 years; Pfizer slashes its dividend in half
Rachel Beck, AP Business Writer
Tuesday January 27, 2009, 12:09 am EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- Dividends are being cut at the fastest pace in at least 50 years, and many of the reductions are coming from U.S. companies investors have been relying on to provide income during the recession.
Already this year, seven companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index have decreased their dividends, removing some $12 billion from shareholders' pockets in the coming months. On Monday, Pfizer became the latest blue-chip company to do so.
These cuts serve up another hit to shareholders who have already been battered by the steep declines in the stock market. That is especially true of retirees, who tend to be attracted to so-called "widows and orphans" stocks that provide them with a steady cash flow.
If the trend continues, this will be the worst year for dividend cuts since 1958, when annual payments fell by 8.4 percent, according to new research from S&P.
"It is easy to say this is going to be the worst in 50 years, but the bigger question is whether it is going to be much worse than that," said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P.
That's not to say that companies shouldn't cut their dividends if they can't afford to pay them. The financial industry, for example, has been most active in slashing payouts because it had to -- companies need to cut costs and those that have gotten federal aid also have faced pressure from the U.S. government to reduce their dividends.
Of the seven S&P 500 companies that have said they will cut dividends in 2009, six are in the financial industry and all reduced their payouts by at least 50 percent, according to the S&P research.
The largest decrease has come from Bank of America, which said earlier this month it would slash its dividend from $1.28 a share annually down to 4 cents a share. That wiped out $6.2 billion in yearly payouts to investors.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company disclosed its dividend cut as part of a deal with the government to inject another $20 billion into the ailing bank to help it absorb losses from its recent acquisition of investment bank Merrill Lynch. In total, Bank of America has received $45 billion in federal aid.
Only one financial company, Hudson City Bancorp Inc., has raised its dividend this year, from an annual rate of 52 cents to 56 cents. Ten other companies in industries retailing to energy have raised their payouts, too, but all by a tiny margin. In total, those increases equal about $200 million annually.
Companies in other industries haven't been able to escape the financial and economic malaise either. Their profitability and cash flows are under pressure, and they look to preserve cash by slashing their dividends.
"Over the longer-term, cutting a dividend might actually been seen as something positive" for the health of the company, said Paul Davis, a portfolio manager at Charles Schwab & Co. Inc.
But dividend cuts can surprise income-seeking investors who have increasingly turned to higher-yielding shares in sectors presumed to be safer than financials.
Pfizer's announcement on Monday that it would knock its annual dividend down to 64 cents a share from $1.28 a share caught many investors off guard, said Michael Krensavage, who runs Krensavage Asset Management and owns Pfizer shares.
That came as part of the news Pfizer was acquiring rival drugmaker Wyeth for $68 billion in a cash-and-stock deal that will solidify Pfizer as the world's largest pharmaceutical company.
Pfizer had long been a reliable dividend payer, raising its dividend annually for more than 40 years until December when it announced its quarterly payment would be flat when it made its next quarterly payout. But it still paid out the third-most in annual dividends among S&P 500 companies, trailing just General Electric and AT&T Inc.
Pfizer will drop to No. 7 when the Wyeth deal closes, with total payouts of about $5 billion, according to S&P's Silverblatt.
Pfizer chief financial officer Frank D'Amelio said during a conference call with analysts that the dividend cut was done in part to "redeploy capital" and assist in financing the transaction with Wyeth.
Dividend-seeking investors may want to take note of Pfizer's action when analyzing their own income-generating portfolios, said Josh Peters, editor of Morningstar DividendInvestor.
One rule of thumb that Peters employs is to look at the dividend yield -- the annual dividend per share divided by the price per share -- to see how it ranks with its sector's peers. That shows how much a company pays out each year in dividends relative to its share price.
Pfizer's nearly 8 percent yield had put it well ahead of its rivals including Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, which had dividend yields closer to about 3 percent -- right about where Pfizer will be going forward.
Silverblatt has been looking for companies with estimates of earnings per share for 2009 that won't cover what they've promised in dividends. Of the companies in the S&P 500 that pay dividends, some 16 percent of them are what Silverblatt deems as "under stress."
LINK: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dividends-being-cut-at-apf-14161707.html
***VIX FIBONACCI***
36.88 to 57.36 recent run adds up to 20.48, pull back of 61.8% would be 44.70, today's low was 44.29... next bullish wave could target 78?
1.62 times the 20.48 added on to the 61.8% fibonacci retracement?
Other case is a gap fill or even a test of the 200 day MA before the VIX turns bullish, this would be the extreme case. Either way the VIX looks bullish for 2009 to me...
Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost
Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost
Seven companies announce massive job cuts in a scary start to the week.
By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com contributing writer
Last Updated: January 26, 2009: 5:58 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.
At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.
More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.
"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."
Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) said Monday it will cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment." The company had already planned to cut 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008, but added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000.
Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) said in an earnings report it would cut 10% of its staff of 81,900 and close five of its manufacturing plants. And a second round of cuts will shed about 15% of employees from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000. That makes a total of 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S, Fortune 500) will cut a total of about 8,000 jobs by March 31, the company said in a release. The telecommunications company's plan is to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annual basis.
Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced Monday it will eliminate its EXPO design center business and cut 7,000 associates, or approximately 2% of the company's total workforce. The company blamed a lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects.
Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) said it will slash its workforce by 3,400 employees to cope with weak demand and the slowing economy. More than half of those cuts will be layoffs while "voluntary retirements and departures" will make up the rest.
Dutch financial group ING said Monday it will take a 2008 loss of $1.3 billion and cut 7,000 jobs. The company could not comment on where the cuts would take place. ING employs around 130,000 people across 50 countries.
Deere& Co. (DE, Fortune 500) , the world's top farm-equipment maker, said it would cut nearly 700 jobs between factories in Brazil and Iowa.
The job cuts across sectors didn't surprise Brusca, as nearly all are weak, he said.
"The services sector is shedding jobs at a horrific pace, because that's where most of the jobs are," Brusca said. "When the consumer is in tough shape it's hard for business to do well, because it all depends on consumption or investments."
Continuing the scary trend
The cuts mark a horrific start to the week, and a brutal start to 2009. In the previous week, around 40,000 cuts were announced across multiple industries.
Wednesday, in particular, was littered with a slew of job cuts: BHP Billiton, Clear Channel Communications, Intel, Rohm and Haas Co., UAL Corp. and Williams-Sonoma all announced job cuts totaling over 27,000 positions.
Schlumberger said Friday that it will cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, with 1,000 of the cuts taking place in North America.
Also last week, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would cut about 800 jobs, or 10% of its worldwide staff in the upcoming weeks, while Microsoft unveiled its plan to cut up to 5,000 jobs - 5.5% of its global workforce.
Outlook: A recovery in sight?
Brusca said he agreed with many economists' predictions that the recession will end after the second quarter of 2009. Americans might feel the job market start to bounce back a bit sooner than expected, he said.
"These recessions are like geometry," Brusca said. "It looks like we'll have a V-shaped cycle, in that we're going into this with very sharp losses. This intense-phase recession will probably recover fairly quickly, with the job market coming out it at the same angle it came in."
In the short term, the economy and the job market are in trouble, Brusca said. But "it doesn't look like the bottom is falling out of the economy," he said.
And there's a silver lining to the gloomy clouds over America's economy.
"The good news is it's so bad right now that we will have a definite, noticeable recovery when it comes," Brusca said. "We're getting a lot of adjustment out of the way early."
LINK: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm
Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost
Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost
Seven companies announce massive job cuts in a scary start to the week.
By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com contributing writer
Last Updated: January 26, 2009: 5:58 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.
At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.
More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.
"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."
Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) said Monday it will cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment." The company had already planned to cut 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008, but added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000.
Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) said in an earnings report it would cut 10% of its staff of 81,900 and close five of its manufacturing plants. And a second round of cuts will shed about 15% of employees from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000. That makes a total of 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S, Fortune 500) will cut a total of about 8,000 jobs by March 31, the company said in a release. The telecommunications company's plan is to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annual basis.
Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced Monday it will eliminate its EXPO design center business and cut 7,000 associates, or approximately 2% of the company's total workforce. The company blamed a lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects.
Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) said it will slash its workforce by 3,400 employees to cope with weak demand and the slowing economy. More than half of those cuts will be layoffs while "voluntary retirements and departures" will make up the rest.
Dutch financial group ING said Monday it will take a 2008 loss of $1.3 billion and cut 7,000 jobs. The company could not comment on where the cuts would take place. ING employs around 130,000 people across 50 countries.
Deere& Co. (DE, Fortune 500) , the world's top farm-equipment maker, said it would cut nearly 700 jobs between factories in Brazil and Iowa.
The job cuts across sectors didn't surprise Brusca, as nearly all are weak, he said.
"The services sector is shedding jobs at a horrific pace, because that's where most of the jobs are," Brusca said. "When the consumer is in tough shape it's hard for business to do well, because it all depends on consumption or investments."
Continuing the scary trend
The cuts mark a horrific start to the week, and a brutal start to 2009. In the previous week, around 40,000 cuts were announced across multiple industries.
Wednesday, in particular, was littered with a slew of job cuts: BHP Billiton, Clear Channel Communications, Intel, Rohm and Haas Co., UAL Corp. and Williams-Sonoma all announced job cuts totaling over 27,000 positions.
Schlumberger said Friday that it will cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, with 1,000 of the cuts taking place in North America.
Also last week, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would cut about 800 jobs, or 10% of its worldwide staff in the upcoming weeks, while Microsoft unveiled its plan to cut up to 5,000 jobs - 5.5% of its global workforce.
Outlook: A recovery in sight?
Brusca said he agreed with many economists' predictions that the recession will end after the second quarter of 2009. Americans might feel the job market start to bounce back a bit sooner than expected, he said.
"These recessions are like geometry," Brusca said. "It looks like we'll have a V-shaped cycle, in that we're going into this with very sharp losses. This intense-phase recession will probably recover fairly quickly, with the job market coming out it at the same angle it came in."
In the short term, the economy and the job market are in trouble, Brusca said. But "it doesn't look like the bottom is falling out of the economy," he said.
And there's a silver lining to the gloomy clouds over America's economy.
"The good news is it's so bad right now that we will have a definite, noticeable recovery when it comes," Brusca said. "We're getting a lot of adjustment out of the way early."
LINK: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm
Not sure on that one QuickTrade, I'm kind of 50/50 on it... birds can take down planes at lift-off apparently, but I'm thinking they took out both engines and why didn't they get out of the way to begin with... but I'm sure if it wasn't birds, we'd have heard about it with everyone surviving...
Since you like what I have to say, here goes my next rant>>>
Next major date is February 9,
9-2-9
09-02-2009
02-09-2009
9229
2929
etc...
has the reflection on both ends - adds up to 11 on both ends, (22 in total) - master number to illuminati - they love prime numbers/prime dates - etc. - If something happens - bet the bank "they" did it to further their agenda...
Remember the previous dates added up to 1929 because they are orchestrating the second Great Depression...
911
707
311
Now watch for European dates, like the 1-8-7 (signal it's time to kill the "KON-trolled economy") bridge collapse in Minnesota - very suspicious IMHO!!! This make 9-2-9 a high-risk date for strange activity... as if a bridge being cut up like slices a pizza was alarming enough!
***I'm also hearing rumors of a banking holiday in February for our country, and no I'm not talking President's Day!***
***KEEP IN MIND THEY HAVE USED THE FEAR OF A "BANKING HOLIDAY" TO REAM THESE SPENDING PACKAGES THROUGH CONGRESS... SEE THEY OWN ENOUGH OF THE SENATE TO WORK THEIR MAGIC THEIR, THEY STILL DON'T OWN ENOUGH OF THE CONGRESS TO HAVE COMPLETE TRUST IN THEM TO PASS "THEIR" BILLS... SO THEY USE FEAR TO GET JUST ENOUGH OF THEM ON "THEIR" SIDE...***
55 million shorts... considering the outstanding shares on this one, that's not much, they are notorious diluters.
What they need to do, and I know I'm going to get a lot of slack for this, but they need to do a reverse split, get the shares to about 5/share and stop diluting!
Of course, if they want to continue to dilute, that would defeat the entire purpose of the split. Until then, this stock is going to be extremely weighted. It's good because it creates a great bit of liquidity in a bull market, but in a bear market, it makes it very hard to get this back over a buck!
As a side note, I bet a lot of the shorters are the financiers hedging their bets...
This is about to roll-over in a big way, right back to under 100 >>>
Could get a retest of previous resistance at 40's with the 200 day MA >>> Next support below that is at 38 (if they want to do a nice shakeout and that wouldn't surprise me) >>>
~~~~~~~COMPX 1/27/2009~~~~~~~
Previous Close 1489.46 +12.17
1443 SSKILLZ1
1428 FinancialAdvisor
***WATCH THE VIX***
*I have a target of 78 on it for next wave up>>>
Up VIX, means DOWN market!>>>
Dow burning down into the close... could see full-fledge panic develop later this week on a break of 8K!
Very nice trade, it might be that time again, perhaps a fade into the close...
Indexes starting to fumble, might be 'go short' time...
Out AZO 133.91 (+.94) - Market buying binge early on here... huh?
Nice sharp buying surge to start the week off, looks like the hype is already starting to fade... 8142.95 ten minutes ago might be it...
Short AZO for a day-ride at 134.84...
Was this the P&F chart that was aiming for 12? Now 26.5>>>
Have a good weekend frenchee!
Thanks enjoy your weekend as well, all out 29.04...
Covered half Q's at 28.87, the rest ride into the sunset... unless 29.16 is hit...
Short-squeeze done, I'm calling it short here... short Q's at 29.30/tight stop, target much lower intraday
Intraday triple-top, waiting on this range to be broken>
Given the timing and how things are trading, maybe even DB or HBC, if the world keeps printing up cash out of thin air, we're going to see $ GOLD $ double very quickly.
***BANKING HOLIDAY IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!?***
Say it isn't so... Rumors of one taking place in February, folks you may want to have cash on hand, this would be a wake-up call if this were to happen.
It can easily be orchestrated from the top-down due to the fact that the Federal Reserve Bank is privately-owned and operated, be warned, knowledge is power. This would almost assuredly represent their push and plans to orchestrated the Great(est) Depression II
Another RUMOR - Banking Holiday coming to U.S. in February - You amy want to have have cash on hand in case this happens folks, I'm dead serious...
Warned ya last week JPM (ala Federal Reserve Bank insiders/owners) were buying gold... do ya' believe me now?
HINT - It's ok if ya' don't, I really don't care... but damn look at this move...
Now this is RUMOR - but a HUGE bank is due for imminent failure within 3 weeks... stay TUNED...
I hear that, but I'm sure the same could've been said through the past year and filled in the blank with 'recession' - Of course until they came out in December and said we'd been in one for the past year... People are still taking their jobs for granted, once they start seeing the axe fall on their co-workers, going out to eat will quickly stop, it still hasn't hit close to home for many...
Bearish on AZO (currently 131) - When it rolls over, it rolls hard!>>>
Rollover about to commence imho...
Recession? I think we may already be in a depression, of course you won't hear about it till next year though...
Might be time to intraday short if this is a false break of the 50 per below, eyes wide open...
Never did hear what happened to NEM/gold shorts... maybe it's best I don't know...
***AZO - Strong gap down this morning, watch for a break of yesterday's low, and I like the 115 put options if you're into increased volatility; I believe they offer great potential, The February one closed yesterday at 1.70, it expires Feb 20th>>>
~~~~~~~COMPX 1/23/2008~~~~~~~
Previous Close 1465.49 -41.58
1507 SSKILLZ1
1418 FinancialAdvisor
***VIX - Market decidedly bearish, even the VIX has immense volatility this week, shows signs of potential breakout in the markets to the downside coming in short order with new lows across the board, S&P 500 going to at least 670... and maybe even 500 later this year to reflect its' name!
VIX on the other hand... all-time highs on the horizon!>>>
Market decidedly bearish, even the VIX has immense volatility this week, shows signs of potential breakout in the markets to the downside coming in short order with new lows across the board, S&P 500 going to at least 670... and maybe even 500 later this year to reflect its' name!
VIX on the other hand... all-time highs on the horizon!>>>
NEM breaches 200 day MA, and you can't give me that 'crap' that a rising tide lifts all boats, cause the rest of the market has been down considerably this week so far!!!
Wouldn't be surprised if NEM is the best performing stock this past week in the S&P 500...
The volatility we've seen recently forecasts a large move coming, wouldn't be surprised to see a confirmed breach of the 50 day MA on the VIX very soon... earnings reports are coming in and not looking friendly. Some of the biggest news today could be the headline 'Microsofts lays off 5,000 people'
Microsoft folks... that's BIG news! And yes it's related to 'commercial' real estate... if Microsoft is laying off people, then many retailers are destined for bankruptcy!
***AZO here at 132+/yesterday's close of 133.03 - Bearish into earnings, for some reason, AZO has defied gravity not only against retailers but the ailing auto industry as well... I like it bearish into and through earnings here>>>
*Once/If the 50/200 break as 122/123 area, expect a quick acceleration to below 100!>>>
Are they still shorting against JPM danno!?
Dan, bearish on GOLD... talltale sign to be superbullish?