Credit Crunch » Finance News

Markets Advance Against More Bad News

scott — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:42:47 +0000

After Fridays losses Wall Street began to climb as investors attempt to predict weather a worsening housing market will persuade the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates yet again.”Anticipation of another Fed rate cut is the main magnet in the market today,” said Alfred E. Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. Goldman made the statement citing a move of more than 70 points in response a possible rate cut after the Commerce Department reported sales of new homes fell by 4.7 percent in December and 2007 new home sales fell 26.4 percent compared to 2006.

Talks of a possible rate cut come in the shadow of news that Jerome Kerviel, a trader at French bank Societe Generale, may have gone rogue and cost the bank over $7 billion by selling European index futures. If convicted Kerviel faces 7 years in prison.

In Washington the U.S. Senate plans to add to a $150 billion economic stimulus package widening the benefits for social security benefits recipients and the unemployed. This comes against the White House’s proposal for rebates to income earners and families with dependent children.

The dollar fell against all major currencies except the yen causing gold prices to rise. Crude oil rose 19 cents to $90.90 per barrel.

Fast food giant McDonald’s reported that their quarterly profit rose over 3 percent yet December U.S. Sales were the same as they were one year ago.

With the exception to Frankfurt’s DAX all major foreign exchanges saw losses. European markets fell between 0.61 and 1.36 percent. Tokyo’s Nikkei average dropped 4 percent, and Shanghai fell 7.2%.

Should I Use A Financial Planner?

scott — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:16:55 +0000

Do you know how to use your money? Who gives you advices on what you should do with your money? Is it your friend who is currently driving his BMW? You have to remember that not because your friend drives a very luxurious car means he is already financially successful because most probably, your friend is suffering from his monthly mortgage.Chances are you are also among those people who are on the verge of facing financial disaster. The irony of life in terms of money is that people spend hours and days to earn but it only takes hours to spend. It takes days or even months to borrow money from the bank but no matter how hard it is, it is still harder to pay the money you borrowed. Now that you are faced with mountain of debt, you’ve been asking yourself “should I use a financial planner?” Well, get real! You cannot just watch your finances bury you to debt and in this situation, the best thing you should do is hire a financial planner.

Hiring a financial planner is easy; the hard part is how to get the perfect financial planner for you. With so many people claiming thy know how to manage and plan your finances, how would you choose? In fact, finding the perfect financial planner is simple as long as you know what to look for in a financial planner. Basically, the financial planner you are eyeing to hire should be experienced and qualified in providing the services you want. The second thing you should look for is trust. He or she should be trustworthy that you will feel confident to make him manage your finances. He should also be someone who will not take advantage of your needs. That means his compensation should be reasonable because of his services and not because you badly need him.

One needs to be smart in managing his finances. Once in your life, you have forgotten this and that is the reason why you are suffering from debts now. However, there is still one thing you can do to save your finances and that is to be smart in hiring a financial planner.

Canadian Automotive Industry Receives Higher-Then-Expected Forecast

scott — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:11:43 +0000

Auto sales are suppose to be higher then last year in Canada which for a market that thought the auto industry was falling out on them it has regained some of it’s composure. The Canadian automakers will sell roughly 1.645 million cars and light trucks in Canada in 2008 which is higher then the projected forecasts as well as last years sales. The market is seeing a sudden push in the right direction and with a strong foreign automotive presence in Canada we need as much of the market share as possibly.One of the main reasons Canada is selling more vehicles is because they are lowering the prices of their vehicles by quite a bit. They still make their money though and sales are through the roof so I see it as a win-win type of situation for the automobile manufacturers and automobile drivers. The Canadian dollar has also helped sales of the Canadian vehicles as well as a strong current economy which is doing a lot better then our neighbors below us who are currently in a crisis right now.

Canadian automotive manufacturers hope to see the market continue up swinging like it has been and hope the bubble isn’t going to burst anytime soon. With summer around the corner though I don’t expect sales to dip quite yet but possibly in the winter they’ll be reconsidering the amount of cars to manufacture as sales will most likely decrease around that time of year.

Bombardier Reports Annual Profit Of US$317M

scott — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:11:07 +0000

Bombardier released there annual profit reports recently and announced that they had pulled in a profit of US$317M dollars in 2007 which is an increase of 18% from 2006. These results are from both their aircraft and rail divisions which are having huge results. Revenue for the year was also up 18% which makes it look like the aircraft industry is continuing to rise despite terrorist threats. Earnings per share came to 16 cents which again is up from last year. Bombardier had great numbers in 2007 and it should be interesting to see how they do in 2008. They have massive plans to increase the size of their production so it should only increase in my opinion.

The Market Is On the Upswing Due To Recent Unemployment News

scott — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:55:48 +0000

The stock market got a boost from recent economic news in regards to jobs and unemployment. The upswing of the market came as news of a lower unemployment rate and new jobs hit the media. This gives a better idea of the state of the economy in recent times. The news is good. The unemployment rate sunk to a new low, and the news of new job creation in certain sectors influenced the rate of the decrease. This is good for the economy. With such good news, we can only hope that it continues.The gloom and doom has finally ceased, if only for a moment. A ray of hope shines through and the mood of the public is lifted a little. Certainly more good news should stop the downward slide. That and other more favorable economic conditions would definitely improve the stock market by a good margin. With the housing market such a disaster, and other economic indications fluctuating wildly, a stop needs to be put on this roller coaster. It will also take time and patience to ride this storm out. No matter what, we can rebuild. We rebuilt once and can do so again.

We are a nation of explorers and pioneers. This attitude is always present no matter what the stock market does. This “Can do” attitude is starting to reach out to the public. With the improvement of the economic situation more can be done.

What Is Going On With The Recent Stock Market Crisis?

scott — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:34:40 +0000

The recent stock market crisis has caused a panic with U.S. investors. With fears of a recession, the stocks have violently seesawed with gains and losses vying for control. The recent news of J.P. Morgan’s bailout of Bears seemed at first to destabilize the market. Then it stabilized with the news that the unemployment rate was down. The recent stimulus package that is in the process of being released to the public will hopefully stabilize the market more. Even with the Federal Reserve Board cutting interest rates by a quarter point of interest, the full blown fears of a recession still linger.It hasn’t been easy to calm the American public’s fears of a full blown recession. In fact, they still linger and recent press on the situation seems to be inflaming the fears more fully. Of course the news isn’t good, so you can see why the pessimism of the American public is justified. When will the true stabilization of the stock market from all this violent up and down motion come? That is hard to say at this point. Only time will tell the tale of this stock market fluctuation. Time is what will be needed to get the stock market back on its feet. Time and patience will stabilize everything back to normal.

Due to the economic situation, urgent stabilization is needed to prevent a downward slide into a recession. Once this happens, things will calm down.

J.P. Morgan Bails Out Bears Bank

scott — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:33:53 +0000

The recent bail out of Bears Stearns bank by J.P. Morgan and the Feds reminds us of the 1907 panic. At that time, banks were looming on the brink of failure. Flash forward to present time. It is as if history is repeating itself all over again. With the current financial failure of Bears Stearns bank and the possible failure of others, it seems like time is recurring again. The recent financial crisis that is looming over the United States reeks of the problems associated with the first stock market crash. Too much done too late at that time, and we didn’t have the programs that are available today.In this day and time, we have programs that can help us out of this recession. This is going to need much more than a bailout in order to improve. We need more jobs staying in the United States and more fair pay scales. When the stock market crashed the first time, they didn’t have the worry that we do now. We need to also pull ourselves up and get on with turning the economic factor around. We are responsible for this mess. It is time to take action.

Is this going to become more common, big banks bailing out other banks? This is unclear at this time. If we are going to survive this financial crisis, we need to get busy on what we really know is needed and leave politics out of it.