Empiric Student Property Share Discussion Threads

[briarberry] 19/1/2011 13:05

Goldman Sachs Q4 $3.79 vs $8.20

[briarberry] 18/1/2011 21:52

Are Apples earnings peaking ??? There is much more competition in the smart phone and tablet markets now-a-days

Apple Q1 revenue $26.74 bln vs $15.68 bln
Apple Q1 net income $6.43 vs $3.67 a share = a record $6 billion
Apple sold 16.24 mln iPhones in Q1, up 86%

Apple expects lower earnings in Q2...

Apple expects Q2 EPS of about $4.90 (down from $6.43 in Q1)
Apple sees Q2 rev of about $22 bln

[briarberry] 18/1/2011 21:17

Western Digital Q2 net income 96c vs $1.85
Western Digital Q2 rev $2.48 bln vs $2.62 bln

Cree shares drop 12% after Q2 results
Cree's net income rose to $49.8 million, or 45 cents per share, from $33.8 million, or 32 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue rose 29 percent to $257 million from $199.5 million.
The company expects fiscal adjusted profit between 38 cents and 45 cents per share on revenue between $245 million and $265 million in the fiscal third quarter.

IBM said its fourth-quarter profit rose to $5.3 billion, or $4.18 a share, compared to $4.8 billion, or $3.59 a share in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 7% to $29 billion.

[briarberry] 18/1/2011 20:49

Apple, Cree + Western Digital report after the bell

[briarberry] 14/1/2011 23:15

China, yet more tightening...


BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday announced the seventh increase of the bank reserve requirement ratio in the past year amid heightened concerns about inflation... China' s major banks will have to set aside 19 percent of their reserves, and small and medium banks will have to maintain 15.5 percent of their deposits as reserve, a record high for the country's financial institutions.

[briarberry] 13/1/2011 19:52

The Euro could cost Germany a fortune...


Charles Dumas at Lombard Street Research said Germany faces an impossible demand. "If the German people go along with plans to prop up the economies of Club Med to save the euro, it means that they will have to pay subsidies for the next decade or two that significantly exceed what they have had to pay for German reunification," he said.



(but what if the EU just prints the money QE-EU ?)

[briarberry] 12/1/2011 15:47

35% price increase, sounds hard to believe ???


Rising Chinese Inflation to Show Up in U.S. Imports

BEIJING - When garment buyers from New York show up next month at China's annual trade shows to bargain over next autumn's fashions, many will face sticker shock.

"They're going to go home with 35 percent less product than for the same dollars as last year," particularly for fur coats and cotton sportswear, said Bennett Model, chief executive of Cassin, a Manhattan-based line of designer clothing. "The consumer will definitely see the price rise."

...
The effect of higher prices in China on broad measures of American inflation is far from clear. The rule of thumb for many consumer products, from shoes to garments to toys, is that the import price is only a quarter to two-fifths of the final retail price, which also includes transportation within the United States and the wages, rent, electricity bills and other costs incurred by stores.

[briarberry] 10/1/2011 15:33

I guess this global reflation caused by low rates is likely to be unstable...


Bangladesh stock market record fall

Trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange index was halted after it fell by 660 points, or 9.25%, in less than an hour.

It was the biggest one-day fall in its 55-year history.

The benchmark index had climbed by 80% in 2010 but has lost more than 27% since early December.



(just like the 6th May 2010 flash crash)

[briarberry] 10/1/2011 02:19

Some signs of price inflation in the USA...


One of California's largest health insurers - Blue Shield - announced plans to hike its premiums by as much as 59%.

The jacked up premium rates are set to take effect on March 1, pending review from state insurance regulators. The move impacts 193,000 individual Blue Shield policy holders.




High Plains Journal: The average value of an acre of farmland in Iowa increased 15.9% in 2010, according to an annual survey conducted by Iowa State University Extension. Mike Duffy, ISU Extension economist who conducts the survey, said the statewide average land value as of Nov. 1 this year was $5,064 an acre, up $693 per acre from 2009.

[briarberry] 07/1/2011 20:20

Jim Rickards - from last month

[briarberry] 04/1/2011 17:49

I guess the situation hinges on the Fed's QE2 (with QE3 promised) vs Chinese rate rises ???

Some commentators are suggesting that China is tighening faster than anyone reading the mainstream media would imagine ??? Inter-bank rates being doubled in just a month ???

[briarberry] 29/12/2010 21:49

Euro - still not out of trouble though as money is being withdrawn from the southern states...


Italy's debt costs approach red zone

The poor auction in Rome may be a warning sign that EU leaders offered too little to restore confidence at their Brussels summit two weeks ago.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vetoed the creation of eurobonds or any serious move towards fiscal union, and shot down calls for an increase in the eurozone's €440bn emergency loan fund. The ECB has so far refused to step in to the breach with overwhelming action.

Willem Buiter, Citigroup's chief economist, said the response had been "woefully inadequate", raising the risk of fresh bank failures and a wave of sovereign defaults next year. He said the EU authorities may need a mix of measures worth up to €2 trillion to stop the rot.

[briarberry] 29/12/2010 18:14

Euro - not much chance of Euro haircuts...


As Ireland Flails, Europe Lurches Across the Rubicon

On Nov. 28, finance ministers approved a €67.5 billion rescue deal for Ireland. They also presented the details of the permanent bailout fund first unveiled a month earlier.

But Ms. Merkel, frightened by the uncertainty that her deal with Mr. Sarkozy had unleashed, agreed to a partial compromise. Instead of taking the hard line envisioned by the Deauville pact, the leaders agreed to restrict the use of haircuts: In most circumstances a country unable to borrow from bond markets would simply get a bailout. Only if the country were formally deemed insolvent by all other euro-zone members would bondholders face losses.

Still, the impact of the permanent bailout fund was undeniable: All the euro-zone countries now will become partly responsible for their free-spending brethren. That could prod the countries to head off fiscal irresponsibility by involving themselves more deeply in each other's tax and spending policies.

[briarberry] 29/12/2010 11:52

Banks, even with all the accounting fiddles and the bailouts lots of small banks have still gone bust...


2010 worst year for bank failures since 1992

By David S. Hilzenrath - Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 28, 2010; 11:33 PM

More banks failed in the United States this year than in any year since 1992, during the savings-and-loan crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Amid high unemployment, a struggling economy and a still-devastated real estate market, the nation is closing out the year with 157 bank failures, up from 140 in 2009. As recently as 2006, before the bubble burst, there were none.

Now, there are more on the horizon.

The FDIC's list of "problem" banks - those whose weaknesses "threaten their continued financial viability"- stood at 860 as of Sept. 30, the highest since 1993. Historically, about a fifth of banks on the watch list end up failing.

[briarberry] 20/12/2010 16:10

State Budgets: Day of Reckoning
December 19, 2010 4:59 PM

Steve Kroft reports on the precarious financial conditions many states are facing and what they're doing about it.

(13min 50sec)

[briarberry] 17/12/2010 17:58

The U.S. Congress passed an $858 billion bill extending for two years all Bush-era tax cuts, sending the measure to President Barack Obama for his signature.

As the renewed tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012 they are certain to be a focus of the next presidential campaign.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index is up 1.6 percent since the tax deal was struck on Dec. 7.

[briarberry] 14/12/2010 13:01

India's November inflation eases to 7.48%

[briarberry] 13/12/2010 14:22

Market alarm as US fails to control biggest debt in history

The US government is now servicing $13.8 trillion (£8.7 trilion) in declared liabilities – making it, by a long way, the world's largest debtor. Around $414bn of US taxpayers' money went on sovereign interest payments last year – around 4.5 times the budget of America's Department of Education.

Debt service costs have reached such astronomical levels even though, over the past year and more, yields have been kept historically and artificially low by "quantitative easing (QE)" – in other words, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's virtual printing press. Now borrowing costs are 28pc higher than a month ago, with the 10-year Treasury yield reaching 3.33pc last week, an already eye-watering debt service burden can only go up.

[briarberry] 01/12/2010 18:19

European Union states have underwritten their financial sectors with 4.5 trillion euros ($5.9tn; £3.8bn) of aid since the banking crisis hit.

Top of the league is the UK, which pledged 850.3bn euros of support between October 2008 and October 2010.

The figures come from the European Commission, which must approve state aid to the EU member countries.