Verizon Wireless announced today that it is going to offer an unlimited voice plan for $139.99 a month.  This raised the hairs on all the wireless giant’s necks, as all hell broke lose during trading today – sending shares of AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon through the floor - losing 5.6%, 2.6% and 6.2% respectively.

Fears of a pricing war have started to run wild.  Now that a company has decided to break wireless “gentleman’s agreement” – ... Read More »

THE FINAL NUMBERS

NEWS:  A late session rally helped pare the losses and push the S&P 500 into positive territory. The S&P 500 managed a 1-point gain and closed the week up 1.5%. The Dow lost 28 points and gained 1.4% for the week. The NASDAQ had the roughest day, falling 10 points and only adding 0.7% for the week. The small-cap stocks continued to struggle also, falling 0.5% today and putting together a paltry 0.4% rally on the week.

THE BOTTOMLINE:  The resilience the market showed today in the face of more negative comments by blowhard Alan Greenspan regarding a recession and a worse-than-expected economic numbers was impressive. It has now been 4 weeks since the market fell several hundred points on the open and the Fed came to the rescue. Since that time the major indices have been able to remain above the l ... Read More »

Stocks shot up today when Warren Buffet announced an offer to reinsure $800 billion in municipal debt.  This offer was extended to three top bond insurers:  FGIC Corp, MBIA Inc and Ambac Financial Group.  It was a bold move – and I’ll tell you why…

Along with the $800 billion comes a 50 percent premium charge on top of what the bond insurers are already receiving from the d ... Read More »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chances of a big bank failure are remote but regulators are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst to deal with a strong industry hit hard by credit problems, a top U.S. regulator said on Tuesday. (Read Article)

It's scary isn't it?  Thinking of the U.S. banking system is like thinking about Christmas canceled... Right now though, the simple fact that regulators are even considering the possibility is a worrisome situation.  Right now, FDIC bank failure is a disaterous thought. 

During the dot.bomb era, even when markets were falling through the floor, a banking c ... Read More »

Market Summary

The markets traded slightly higher today – but not by much.  Homebuilders and retail rose on expectations that there will be more interest rate cuts, as insurers and banks took a nosedive as woes of the mortgage market crisis resurfaced.  Word on the street is that there’ll be another interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve’s next meeting on March 18^th.

  Read More »