Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

_______________________________________

FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com

_______________________________________

Wednesday October 28, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

**************************************************************

PowerSafe Technology Corporation (PSFT.PK) subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a two stage thermoelectric cooler inside a hermetically sealed TO8 package and can be operated down to a temperature of -30oC.

Affinity Mediaworks Corp. (OTCBB:AFFW). Affinity is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to produce twelve films with Insight Film Studios/Odyssey Film

...

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) expects its loan charge-offs to increase in the third quarter, primarily due to the increase in charge-offs associated with the Shared National Credit (SNC) examination that has been recently conducted by regulators.

"The company, which intends to release its third-quarter earnings results on Oct 22, also expects its non-performing assets to accelerate, though interest income and margins are expected to improve in the second half of 2009.

Fifth Third expects net charge-offs in the third quarter to be approximately $775 million, up from $626 million in the second quarter. This would include approximately $110 million in net charge-offs related to SNC credits, compared with $17 million in the second quarter. However, management expects SNC charge-offs to fall in the fourth quarter. Non-performing assets are also expected to increase 20%.

The weakness in the overall economy and in the real estate market, including specific weakness within Fifth Third's

...

By Simon van Norden

Today, we're fortunate to have Simon van Norden, Professor of Finance at HEC Montréal (École des Hautes Études Commerciales), as a guest blogger.

"Once you've seen one financial market crisis...you've seen one financial market crisis."

-- Attributed to Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh by former US Treasury Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Phillip Swagel in The Financial Crisis: an Inside View, March 2009, p. 4.

The financial crisis has set a lot of records so far; it's certainly the worst US banking crisis of my lifetime. Some, as suggested by the above quote, see such crises as unique events; each one is singular and there's not much to be learned about how to handle one from looking at past crises. For example, there's no precedent that I know of for a banking crisis involves the failure of the biggest counterparties for credit default swaps.

...

Washington Federal, Inc.’s (WFSL) third fiscal quarter adjusted results of $0.07 per diluted share surpassed our estimate by three pennies and consensus by four pennies. However, the results continued to be impacted by higher credit costs. Credit quality and profitability metrics significantly deteriorated during the quarter.  Net income available to common shareholders for the quarter came in at $2.5 million or $0.03 per diluted share, compared to $33.2 million or $0.38 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Net income available to common shareholders for the reported quarter excludes preferred dividends of $3.5 million.  The quarterly results included a pre-tax loss of $4.8 million on real estate acquired through foreclosure. Also, during the quarter, there was a charge of $2.0 million related to Washington Federal’s repurchase of $200 million of preferred stock held by the Treasury under the TARP. Excluding these one-time items, we arrive ...

On July 17, 2009, A.M. Best Co. downgraded the financial strength rating to A+ from A++  and issuer credit ratings to “aa" from “aa+" for The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (MLI) (Toronto, Canada), John Hancock Life Insurance Company (JHLIC) (Boston, MA) and their affiliates. Additionally, A.M. Best downgraded the ICR to “a" from “aa-" and all debt ratings of Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) as well as the enterprise. The outlook for all ratings has been revised to stable from negative.

Declining real estate values, challenged mortgage markets and the consequent decline in business and consumer confidence and increased unemployment globally have precipitated a recession in many of the regions in which MFC does business, including the United States and Canada. All operating divisions of the company have incurred losses related to segregated fund guarantees and reduced capitalized future fee income on equity-linked and variable universal life products, reduced fees due

...

Waterford, Ireland

Our faith is weakening. That is, our faith that the government will be able to cause inflation, sooner or later. Let’s review our own narrative: deflation now, inflation later.

It’s very simple. Maybe too simple. After a half a century of credit expansion, we now have a credit contraction. In this sense, everything is happening as it should.

There was a crash and credit crunch at the end of last year. Then, the feds panicked. They fought back with monetary and fiscal stimulus. Rates were cut to nearly zero. The Fed flooded the system with cash and easy credit – buying up Wall Street’s bad investments…propping up bad banks…and guaranteeing trillions worth of bad debt. And the federal government passed a stimulus program that authorized more than $700 billion in spending.

Beginning on March 9th, we also got a big bounce in the world’s stock markets – just as we

...

By the time you read this column, Goldman Sachs will have probably reported a dazzling result for the second quarter. The rumors preceding this celebrated event sparked a stupendous 185-point rally on Wall Street yesterday.

But the trading day was not all about mere rumors. It was also about hearsay, hype and giddy optimism…

Meredith Whitney, “The Woman Who Called Wall Street’s Meltdown,” according to the Fortune Magazine cover of August 18, 2008, upgraded the shares of Goldman Sachs to a “Buy,” and predicted the stock would rise 30% from current levels. “Goldman has all the benefits of the capital markets in general,” said Whitney, “Without the ‘junk in the trunk’ as I like to call it.” Goldman shares jumped 5.3%.

Based on Whitney’s upgrade, and the subsequent market action, gullible investors could have deduced that the credit crisis has ended. The rest of us could have deduced that the

...

This post is a guest contribution by Paul Kasriel* of The Northern Trust Company.

In terms of the level of mortgage rates, the sale price of houses and the income of families, the affordability of home purchase of late is higher than it has been in about 40 years (see Chart 1).

With Thursday’s release of flow-of-funds data by the Fed, I can demonstrate yet another factor suggesting the current attractiveness of a home purchase - the implicit yield on owner-occupied housing in relation to the cost of financing a house purchase.

I calculate the implicit yield on owner-occupied housing by dividing the “space rent on stationary owner-occupied housing” (from unpublished GDP data pertaining to personal consumption expenditures) into the market value of household real estate (from the household balance

...

Today’s guest is Olivier Garret, CEO of Casey research. Oliver is going to give us his take on the ballooning deficit. Enjoy and be sure to leave us a comment giving us your thoughts on the deficit!

===================================================================

On March 20, 2009, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest forecast in an effort to take into account the impact of the recently released Obama budget.  The verdict?  A whopping $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, approximately four times larger than the all-time record established in 2008 ($455 billion).

The concerns raised by this latest forecast are many: 1)    A mere two months ago, the CBO’s estimate for 2009 was “only” $1.2 trillion. They have already grossly underestimated a deficit that will most likely continue to balloon in the coming months.

2)     While the new administration has focused its attention on the spending side of the budget, it has paid little attention

...

The Mexican government is investing $1.5 billion in a stretch of Mexican coast. This is a real estate opportunity you could profit from.

Infrastructure improvements are one of the biggest drivers of overseas real estate values. I’m talking airports, roads, bridges, and cruise ship ports. Anything that improves the accessibility of a piece of real estate makes it more desirable.

The development of a viable tourism infrastructure also drives values. Golf courses, hotels, man-made beaches, boutiques, restaurants, and marinas all bring visitors. Visitors spend money, which creates jobs. And jobs in turn heat up real estate values. Of course, it helps if the infrastructure improvements happen in a place with a great climate and a short flight from major affluent population centers.

Just north of Puerto Vallarta, along a stunning stretch of coast know as The Riviera Nayarit, the Mexican government is investing $1.5 billion to improve accessibility and develop tourism

...