Strong financial performance in the most recent quarter and continued growth in results despite a challenging economy have led Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services to raise Red Hat Inc.’s  (RHT) corporate credit rating from BB to BB+.   Red Hat is a leader in open source software solutions and has been upgraded thrice in less than two years. The company believes that it is still in the early stages of growth and has tremendous growth opportunity beyond 2010.   We believe the company’s strong market position, focused execution, strong balance sheet, impressive cash flow, international expansion and proven value proposition will help grow its business in the near term and deliver strong revenue growth beyond fiscal 2010.   We remain positive on the company’s long-term growth given its robust performance, driven by the record bookings and billings, substantial recurring revenue stream and growth in deferred revenues.  ...

A drop in the number of newly laid-off workers and upbeat remarks from bellwether Cisco Systems injected confidence about an economic recovery ahead of this morning’s highly expected October jobs report, propelling the Dow average to its first close above 10,000 in two weeks. 

Cisco Systems’ (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO John Chambers said he now sees a global economic recovery, fueling a rebound in the company’s sales this quarter.  The Dow average jumped 203 points, or 2%, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ, riding high on Cisco’s forecast, bolted up 50 points or about 2.4%. 

All ten S&P 500 industry groups ended in the green, with banking shares advancing 2.6% as analyst Dick Bove of Rochdale Securities noted the group will double by the end of 2010.  Technology shares advanced 2.2%.  Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) jumped 5.4% to $43.85 and Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MCHP) gained 3.9% to $25.37 after it was raised to “buy"

...

On Tuesday, Citigroup Inc. (C) sold 4-part fixed and floating-rate notes worth $5.0 billion guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP). The notes belonging to the first tranche worth $1.25 billion carry a coupon rate of 1.25% and will mature on Nov 15, 2011. The notes will pay coupons semi-annually with the first payment expected on May 15, 2010. The notes belonging to the second tranche worth $250 million carry a coupon rate of 3 basis points (bps) below the 3-month London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and will also mature on Nov 15, 2011. The notes will pay coupons quarterly with the first payment expected on Feb. 15, 2010. The notes belonging to the third tranche worth $1.0 million carry a coupon rate equivalent to 3-month London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and will mature on Nov. 15, ...

On Tuesday, Citigroup Inc. (C) sold 4-part fixed and floating-rate notes worth $5.0 billion guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP).  The notes belonging to the first tranche worth $1.25 billion carry a coupon rate of 1.25% and will mature on Nov 15, 2011. The notes will pay coupons semi-annually with the first payment expected on May 15, 2010.  The notes belonging to the second tranche worth $250 million carry a coupon rate of 3 basis points (bps) below the 3-month London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and will also mature on Nov 15, 2011. The notes will pay coupons quarterly with the first payment expected on Feb 15, 2010.  The notes belonging to the third tranche worth $1.0 million carry a coupon rate equivalent to 3-month London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and will mature on Nov 15, ...

Note: We are re-issuing this post after correcting a mistake in the original post that ran yesterday.

As a result of another sign of dwindling confidence about MBIA Incorporated’s (MBI) business prospects, Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded its ratings on the parent company as well as its structured finance insurance arm, MBIA Insurance Corporation. Rating of the parent company has been slashed to “BB-“ from “BB" and its subsidiary MBIA Insurance Corporation’s rating has been slashed to “BB+" from “BBB". The ratings for both the parent and the subsidiary are now below investment grade. The rating agency holds a negative outlook on the ratings, which means that there could be additional downgrades if the company incurs further losses. The rating action follows concerns about the company's exposure to residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations that ...

As a result of another sign of dwindling confidence about MBIA Incorporated’s (MBI) business prospects, Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded its ratings on the parent company as well and its structured finance insurance arm, MBIA Insurance Corporation. Rating of the parent company has been slashed by one notch to “BB+" from “BBB" and its subsidiary MBIA Insurance Corporation’s rating has been slashed by one notch to “BB-“ from “BB." While the parent company’s rating stands at one step below investment grade, the subsidiary’s rating has been reduced to three steps below investment grade. The rating agency holds a negative outlook on the ratings, which means that there could be additional downgrades if the company incurs further losses. The rating action follows concerns about the company's exposure to residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations that it delved into during the heights of credit boom, ...

 

Standard & Poor's will consider creating a commodity futures index that excludes commodities listed in the United States, according to a new report in the Financial Times. Michael McGlone, head of the S&P GSCI, says the firm has been flooded with requests from clients concerned about the impact of the expected regulatory crackdown on commodity investors by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The CFTC is widely expected to enact new rules this fall that would severely limit the size of positions that investors can take in the commodity futures market.

Many have predicted that such a crackdown would only serve to move commodity investors overseas, and the announcement by S&P is the latest sign that such a migration may in fact take place.

The S&P GSCI is the world's most popular commodity index. Approximately $60 billion is currently benchmarked against the index.

Read the full story here.

 

On Thursday, Citigroup Inc. (C) sold 5-year senior notes worth $2.0 billion. The notes are not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The notes, which were issued at a discounted price of $99.495, are non-callable and are expected to yield about 325 basis points over U.S. Treasuries. They carry a coupon rate of 5.5% and will mature on October 15, 2014. The notes will pay coupons semi-annually with the first payment expected on April 15, 2010. The company will use the proceeds of the debentures for general corporate purposes. Standard & Poor's (S&P) has assigned an 'A' rating to the notes, while Fitch Ratings and Moody's have assigned 'A+' and 'A3' rating to the notes, respectively. Citigroup was the sole book-running manager for the sale. The debt issue is in sharp contrast to the top-level management’s plans at Citigroup to downsize the ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 14, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: FedEx Corp. (FDX), United Parcel Service Inc. (SNDA), UBS AG (UBS), Moody’s Corp. (MCO) and McGraw-Hill (MHP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

FedEx Preannouncement Beats

Shares of FedEx Corp. (FDX) have jumped more than 5% so far today after the company preannounced fiscal first-quarter earnings, which topped Wall Street expectations.

The package-delivery major said that it expects to post earnings of 58 cents per share, which is well

...

On Sep 10, 2009, Metropolitan Life Global Funding I, a unit of MetLife Inc (MET) announced the sale of fixed-rate funding agreement-backed notes in the 144a private placement market worth $1 billion. The size of the deal represents a 100% increase from the originally planned $500 million. Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) were the joint book-running managers for the sale. The notes are non-callable and carry a coupon rate of 2.875% and will mature on Sep 17, 2012. The notes will pay coupons semi-annually with the first payment expected on Mar 17, 2010. The company will use the sale proceeds of the debentures for general corporate purposes. Standard &Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) assigned 'AA-' rating while Moody's assigned 'AA2' rating to the notes. MetLife’s ...