Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) reported earnings of 89 cents in the third quarter of 2009, up 16% from the year-ago period and a cent above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Strong sales of Copaxone and in the respiratory business helped drive earnings in the reported quarter. Net sales increased 25% to $3.55 billion, with the Barr acquisition contributing to sales across different geographical segments. The strengthening U.S. dollar adversely impacted net sales by $160 million or 6%. Revenue performance across key business segments was mixed. While the Pharmaceuticals Sales segment posted growth of 27% with revenues coming in at $3.4 billion, the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) segment reported an 8% decline in growth with sales coming in at $136 million. Pharmaceutical segment sales were driven by strong performances in the North American, European and International segments. The launch of generic versions of Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo ...

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said it was impossible to tell a bubble while you were in it. Well Alan, I’ve got news for you: We’re in one now.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is up 58% from its March lows, gold has finally broken through the $1,000-an-ounce level – and may go higher – and bond yields have fallen substantially in spite of the huge U.S. budget deficit.

It’s really not difficult to tell when you’re in a bubble. What’s tough is trying to figure out how to invest while it’s developing.

When current Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke doubled the monetary base in a few weeks last fall, it was pretty obvious that the extra money would appear somewhere, either as zooming asset prices or as surging inflation. After all, the rapid increases in the U.S. money supply after 1995 produced

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I will be in Slovenia next week as I am taking a group of South African business people on a fact-finding mission to this uber-beautiful country. I am leading the delegation in my capacity as Honorary Consul of Slovenia for South Africa. (Click here for the Consulate’s website, including photographs of some of the most beautiful spots in the world.)

If you happen to be in Ljubljana on Monday, September 7, let’s get together at a special day the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and JAPTI have organized to facilitate interaction between our delegation and Slovenian business people. Numbers are filling up quickly, so please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining us. You can reach me via the “Contact” button in the top-right hand corner of the Investment Postcards site.

Blog posting will be slow (and totally absent

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High Frequency Trading: How This Toxic Trading Affects Investors

by Martin Hutchinson, Contributing Editor

Editor’s Note: With whipsaw markets like we’ve seen over the past couple of days, we thought an explanation from our esteemed colleague Martin Hutchinson at Money Morning might be in order. An expert on international finance, he guides us through the back rooms of institutional high frequency trading, why it’s affecting the markets, and what we can do about it…

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) disclosed recently that it had 46 “$100 million trading days” in the second quarter of 2009. That was a record number, even for one of the biggest players on Wall Street.

When the U.S. economy is facing collapse and merger and acquisition volume is way down, it seems odd that investment banks like Goldman had record quarters.

Well, here’s the secret: They’ve found a new way to skim more

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On July 28, 2009, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009. Net sales increased 20% y-o-y to $3.4 billion in the reported quarter, missing the consensus estimate by a small margin. The strengthening U.S. dollar adversely impacted net sales by $256 million or 9%. Non-GAAP net income increased 25% to $742 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.83 (up 15% y-o-y) exceeded our and consensus estimate of $0.81 and $0.80, respectively. Strong sales, improved gross margins (due to better product mix) and lower-than-expected R&D expenses helped drive earnings in the reported quarter. GAAP net income declined 2.3% to $521 million or $0.58 per share. Revenue performance across key business segments was mixed. While total pharmaceutical sales increased 22% y-o-y to about $3.3 billion in the reported quarter, total API business sales declined 13% y-o-y to $135 million. The ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /pa href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SlmdGD2bh-I/AAAAAAAAOoo/P8vnyB3RTno/s1600-h/bulgaria+population.png"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 258px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357485959172294626" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SlmdGD2bh-I/AAAAAAAAOoo/P8vnyB3RTno/s400/bulgaria+population.png" //abr /br /br /The International Monetary Fund this week forecast the recession in Bulgaria would be deeper than it previously predicted. Such a decision should come as no surprise to anyone, since the country's economic dynamics in both the short and long term look extremely unstable, and Bulgaria is now almost certainly headed towards a series of more or less hair-raising roller-coaster rides. Even the briefest of glances at the population chart above should lead even the most sceptical among us to stop and think a little about the possible economic implications of such an appauling demographic outlook. As can be seen, the opening to the west brought a sharp outflow of people in the late 1980s (mainly ethnic Turks), but the important thing ...

I will find myself in Slovenia and Switzerland over the next two weeks, taking a break and soaking up some Northern Hemisphere sun with my wife Isabel and two kids, Monique (10 years) and Jean (8 years).

Blog posting will be slow (and totally absent on some days) while I am on the road and “Words” from the Wise” will take a break for the next two Sundays (June 28 and July 5). The normal blogging service will be resumed on my return to Cape Town on July 11.

However, I will be “tweeting” regularly throughout my trip. For those not familiar with the concept, a Twitter feed has been added to the sidebar of Investment Postcards where I post short comments (maximum 140 characters) on topical market issues,

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Today’s Notes reads more like a John le Carre novel than an investment newsletter. But bear with us. It tracks one of the most fascinating news stories you’ve never heard of.  The news reports are maddeningly sketchy. And the mainstream media is doing a damn good job of not reporting the story.

But it’s clear the arrests by Italian authorities of two “Japanese-looking” men allegedly attempting to smuggle $134.5 billion worth of US bearer bonds across the Swiss border is the biggest financial crime in history. And one with major implications for America’s economic security.

For those of you who don’t know, a report surfaced on Monday, June 8, on an obscure Vatican-sponsored news website, AsiaNews.it, that Italy’s financial police (Guardia Italiana di Finanza) had “seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland.”

According to the report, these

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Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution extending the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia. At issue was the language used to describe the mission. Georgian leaders wanted it to continue to be called the "United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia," while Russian officials wanted the description to reflect Abkhazia's independence. Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly I. Churkin had this to say to the Washington Post:"The Sakaashvili regime put an end to the territorial integrity of his country, and on the world map two new states emerged, the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia." Alexander Lomaia, Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, told the New York Times:"It is very unfortunate and alarming that the Secretariat has submitted to Russian blackmail."Of the 15 Security Council members, the 10 who voted in favor ...

Lately, international investing, particularly emerging market investing, has been pretty poor. It’s hard to believe that, only two years ago, investors poured more than $16 billion into various emerging market mutual funds and exchange products. But then, the global slowdown came and growth, as well as stocks, have plummeted.

While the recent market rallies have brought some of these assets back, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (NYSE:EEM), the major proxy for these markets, is still well off of its highs. This has led to the questioning of the theory of decoupling. Emerging markets, at one time, offered low correlation to the developed world. However, as these nations grew in prosperity, their fortunes became inter-twined with global economy. For example, China is now the United States’ second largest trading partner, contributing $387 billion worth of trade. China will continue to grow and prosper

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