DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Tuesday August 4, 2009

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Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSEA) today announced that the company will deliver a presentation at the 11th Annual Pacific Crest Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, Colorado on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 9:30 am mountain time.

Allied Motion Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AMOT) today announced it had a net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 of $12,115,000 or $1.60 per diluted share compared to net income of $1,001,000 or $.13 per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, a quarter in which the Company achieved record sales and profits. The loss includes a pretax asset impairment charge of $15,986,000 ($11,105,000

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Highlights include Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM).Freddie Mac Loses $23.9 Billion in 4Q08, Asks Treasury for $30.8 BillionYesterday, after market close, Freddie Mac (FRE) reported its 4Q08 and FY08 financial results. During the quarter, the company had a net loss (available to the common shareholders) of $23.9 billion or $7.37 per diluted share.The huge increase in loss was driven primarily by net mark-to-market declines on the company's derivative portfolio, guarantee assets and trading securities. Increased credit-related expenses, security impairments and additional valuation allowance against its deferred tax assets were also the major contributors to the increased loss.For the full year, net loss came in at $50.1 billion or $34.60 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $3.1 billion or $5.37 per diluted share in 2007.As a result of the massive loss, the ...

Overall, we continue to maintain a negative outlook on both U.S. and non-U.S. Banks in the near-to-medium term.

The new Financial Stability plan announced by the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner fell short on the details and we think that the benefits, if any, will take a long time to come by. While the earlier programs launched by the government have helped alleviate the capital and funding concerns to a great extent, the efforts have not succeeded in restoring the lending activity at banks.

It remains to be seen whether these steps and others like them in other countries will be sufficient to restore confidence in the financial system and increase lending.

In the meantime, lower lending activity will continue to hurt the margins though the low interest rate environment should be beneficial to the banks with a liability sensitive balance sheet.

It still remains a bit

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Within the "Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan" announced yesterday, the Government laid out expanded role for the two mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), in the housing markets. The Treasury doubled the preferred stock back-stop funding for these two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) to $200 billion each, with the hope that this should enable them to maintain a positive net worth, as the losses will continue to rise in the coming months.The Treasury will continue the purchase of mortgage-backed securities issued by them. At the same time, they were also allowed to increase the size of their retained mortgage portfolios by $50 billion to $900 billion along with corresponding increases in the outstanding debt.The 2 GSEs have become very dominant players in the housing and mortgage markets in the country, with almost 75% of new homes loans in 2008 ...

This week has seen the US Government bail out a growing number of Wall Street firms, the largest insurance company in the world, and finally end at printing money without subjecting the backing instruments to international market scrutiny.

(Treasury is now selling T-Bills DIRECTLY to the Fed, no pretense of going through an investment bank anymore)

This is pretty shady stuff, and thats being kind.

To understand why this is BAD, we have to understand why inflation is bad.

Yes of course, inflation is bad because prices go up, but that is not what inflation really is, prices going up is just what happens AFTER inflation occurs.

Put simply, inflation is when you add more currency to the currency supply.

Price increases happen, because when you add more currency then each unit of currency already in existence becomes worth less.

So prices rising arent so much because what you are buying is

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Last week’s crude and gasoline inventories dropped more than expected as the effects of Hurricane Gustav resulted in some production disruptions. Gustav, which struck last month, was the fourth-most-destructive storm to hit the United States, causing $20 billion in damages. And then came Hurricane Ike. Ike made landfall in the Galveston area of the U.S. Gulf Coast on in the pre-dawn hours Saturday (the day I was penning this column) as a Category 2 storm with winds hitting 110 miles per hour.  Ike’s path toward Houston makes it the first storm to hit a major U.S. metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina eviscerated New Orleans in 2005, Bloomberg News reported. We won’t know how much direct damage those high winds from Hurricane Ike will cause for several days at least. From the initial reports, the results appear to be devastating. But the indirect costs are ...

A Wall Street Journal article released after the stock market closed on Friday, is sending financial stocks higher in after hours trading. According to the article which is entitled “Treasury Is Close to Finalizing Plan to Backstop Fannie, Freddie”, while actual details are not yet known, the plan would include a management reshuffle at the GSEs or Government Sponsored Enterprises, and capital infusion. The article also states that an announcement could come this weekend.

Depending on whether the bailout plan is just a cash infusion, shifting of bad balance sheet items that are weighing down Freddie (FRE) and Fannie (FNM) or an actual take over of the companies, shares in both companies could either rally, or tank on Monday.

As it stands right now, stocks in both companies are off about 20% after hours. If the government takes over the companies, the shares might tank as the government will not want to

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I've mentioned recently (including in this Money and Markets piece) that the fallout from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is spreading far and wide.  For instance, many banks and financial instiutions hold preferred shares issued by the two Government Sponsored Enterprises. There are a lot of questions about how those preferreds would be treated in any bailout. But what is not in question is that the value of the GSEs' preferred shares has fallen sharply. Today, another institution quantified the impact that's having. From JPMorgan's 8-K filing:"JPMorgan Chase & Co. disclosed today that it held approximately $1.2 billion par value of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac perpetual preferred stock. Such securities are held in the Firm's investment portfolio and are marked to market through the Firm's earnings. The Firm estimates that such preferred stocks have declined in value by approximately an aggregate $600 million in the third quarter to date,

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This week, shares of the two Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs, imploded again: Fannie Mae lost 39% between last Friday and yesterday's close. Freddie Mac tanked 46%. Freddie Mac fell to its lowest in almost 18 years ... Fannie Mae to its lowest in more than 19. It's not just the common stock, either. Investors are dumping their preferred shares and they're selling off Fannie and Freddie bonds. The message from the markets is coming through loud and clear: These companies are in big, big trouble. So today, I want to focus on why this is happening, and what it means for your investments and your finances. But first, I need to provide some background on just who the heck Fannie and Freddie are ... A Primer on "Securitization" and the "Secondary" ...

“The end is neigh” was what many despondent investors were starting to believe as the past week kicked off with volatile trading amid concerns that US regional bank IndyMac’s demise was a harbinger of many more bank failures.

Furthermore, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to rescue the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), left investors unconvinced.

The US government plan caused some agitation since Paulson was essentially asking for a blank check to ensure the funding backstop would be successful in helping the GSEs fulfill their role of providing financing for the US mortgage market. Debt holders were happy with the implications of the plan, but equity holders faced the possible dilution from a government purchase of

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