“Fortune 500's top stock: Freddie Mac - CNN Money” plus 4 more |
- Fortune 500's top stock: Freddie Mac - CNN Money
- Telecom Firm Weighs West Bank Pullout - Wall Street Journal
- The Shortlist for the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business ... - WebWire
- CVB Financial Corp. Announces 80th Consecutive Cash Dividend - PR Inside
- Russia's PM Putin urges foreign investment - Salon
| Fortune 500's top stock: Freddie Mac - CNN Money Posted: 18 Sep 2009 08:52 AM PDT NEW YORK (Fortune) -- With apologies to the Beatles, the list of the best-performing Fortune 500 stocks in the year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers reads like a stroll down Penny Lane. Penny stocks -- those that trade for less than $5 apiece -- are here, there and everywhere. The top returning Fortune 500 stock over the past year is, ironically enough, Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500). The irony lies in the fact that the government's seizure last September of the mortgage purchaser and its big sister Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) kicked off the most turbulent month in the financial markets since the Great Depression. Taking over the companies didn't just tip Fannie and Freddie shares into free fall. It also sent shock waves through the financial system, as dozens of banks and insurance companies were left with big losses on preferred shares of Fannie and Freddie they had viewed as safe. When Lehman failed a week later, Fannie and Freddie shares had a head start in the race to the bottom that many other giant financial firms, from AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) to Wachovia and Washington Mutual, would soon join. Since then, shares of Freddie are up 367%. Fannie Mae was No. 3, returning 167% over the year ended Sept. 15, 2009. Yet even after those gains -- much of the increase coming during the manic cheap-stock rallies this summer -- shares of Freddie were trading recently for only $1.87 each and those of Fannie were fetching just $1.60. Given the tens of billions of dollars of federal aid the companies have received, many analysts doubt the shares will hold even that value for long. Though Fannie and Freddie are the most prominent penny stocks on the list, they aren't the only ones. Shares in the eighth-best performer, drug store chain Rite Aid (RAD, Fortune 500), surged 82% over the past year -- to $1.82 each. The debt-laden Camp Hill, Pa., company posted a $2.9 billion loss for the fiscal year ended in April and is struggling to reduce a massive debt load. The top stocks on the Fortune 500 list aren't all lottery tickets, as some refer to the low-priced shares of companies with poor prospects. But, owing to the depth of the economic meltdown last fall, almost all the top performers have spent some time trading in the single digits. Take Oshkosh (OSK, Fortune 500), the military truck maker that was the No. 2 Fortune 500 performer over the past year with a 171% gain. It traded recently at $31.47 and fetched as much as $60 a share in 2007, following a big Army order. But shares dropped as low as $3.85 last fall, as the economy went into free fall. The only stock among the top 10 performers in the Fortune 500 to have spent the entire year above $10 a share was World Fuel Services (INT, Fortune 500). The Doral, Fla.-based provider of nautical and aviation fuel was the No. 6 gainer last year, rising 101% to a recent $50. Obviously, though, it wasn't all fun and games in low-price stock land last year. Three of the worst-performing Fortune 500 stocks -- not counting those that were delisted or filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, such as General Motors, cable company Charter Communications and numerous auto parts suppliers -- were AIG, Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and CIT (CIT, Fortune 500). AIG, the insurer that was taken over by the government as it teetered on the brink of insolvency the day after Lehman's failure, dropped 59% over the past year, adjusted for a 1-for-20 reverse stock split the company did in June to retain its New York Stock Exchange listing. It was the sixth-worst performer in the Fortune 500 among companies still listed on a major exchange. Citi, the big bank that is the biggest recipient of federal aid via capital infusions and loan guarantees, was the fourth-worst performer with a 73% decline. This despite the fact that the stock has more than quadrupled since March, when it hit a multidecade low below a dollar amid fears a government takeover was on the way. And CIT, the troubled small business lender that this summer pledged all its assets to get its hands on a $3 billion emergency loan, was down 81%. That made it the second-worst performer on the Fortune 500, after Crosstex Energy (XTXI, Fortune 500), the Dallas-based pipeline company that posted an 84% decline.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Telecom Firm Weighs West Bank Pullout - Wall Street Journal Posted: 18 Sep 2009 08:45 AM PDT By CHARLES LEVINSONRAMALLAH, West Bank -- A Qatari-backed telecom start-up in the West Bank is threatening to pull the plug on its investment here, citing the Israeli government's refusal to turn over all the bandwidth it promised in a deal with the Palestinian Authority last year. A pullout by Wataniya Mobile, majority-owned by Qatar Telecommunications Co., or Qtel, would be a big blow to the West Bank economy. Wataniya has promised to invest $700 million in the Palestinian territories over the next 10 years. A private investment fund linked to the Palestinian Authority and tasked with promoting long-term Palestinian growth owns a minority stake in the company. It already employs 250 Palestinians and says it expects to generate 3,000 jobs in indirect employment once it is fully operational. The company represents one of the biggest foreign investments in Palestinian history. The spat comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised economic improvements in the West Bank as a pillar of his Palestinian strategy. Mr. Netanyahu is in talks with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell over a possible deal on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Palestinians have demanded a freeze as a condition of restarting formal peace talks. Israel has been criticized for hindering the West Bank economy by erecting security checkpoints and enforcing restrictions on the movement of goods and people through the territory. In recent months, it has made good on promises to remove scores of those checkpoints. That has helped boost West Bank economic growth. But Palestinian officials criticize Israel for not living up its end of the bargain with Wataniya. "You have a major investment here trying to get started, and it's crucially dependent on getting spectrum from Israel," said Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a recent interview. "And still we don't have it." Israeli officials say that the bandwidth they have offered is sufficient for Wataniya to get started and that the remainder will be delivered later. According to a July 28, 2008, agreement signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority -- a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal -- Israel promised to turn over 4.8 megahertz of bandwidth to the Palestinians for Wataniya's use, in two tranches -- one on Jan. 1 and a second on March 1. Instead, Israel recently agreed to turn over 3.8 megahertz. Wataniya says that is insufficient to compete with Israeli and Palestinian cellular providers, since it won't be able to offer data-transfer services or serve enough customers to make the investment profitable. "From our point of view, the capacity we have transferred is enough for their needs," said Yechiel Shavi, a spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Communications. "We will enlarge the capacity to 4.8 megahertz as promised in the future." Mr. Shavi and other Israeli officials say they are withholding the remaining promised bandwidth because the Palestinian Authority has failed to meet certain commitments to Israel, though they wouldn't specify what those commitments are. "There are a few issues that the Palestinian Authority agreed to do that they haven't done," Mr. Shavi said. "It's a sensitive political issue." Mr. Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, said he didn't know why Israel was withholding the bandwidth. Stuck in the middle is Wataniya. The U.S. has been a supporter of the start-up. Some senior Israeli military officials in the West Bank have also voiced support as a means of helping the local economy and solidifying security gains. Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A17 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Shortlist for the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business ... - WebWire Posted: 18 Sep 2009 08:37 AM PDT The shortlist for the fifth annual Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award was announced today. The 2009 shortlist is: Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernankes War on the Great Panic Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers who Broke the World The Match King: Ivar Kreuger and the Financial Scandal of the Century The overall winner of the 2009 Book Award will be announced at an Award Dinner at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on 29th October, at which The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, will be the keynote speaker. Lionel Barber, Editor of the Financial Times comments: This years shortlist is outstanding. The books range from histories of the Depression era to a contemporary account of the recent market crash. We also have books from top business executives including a personal assessment of the state of India and its place in the global economy. The books on this years shortlist are both compelling and enjoyable, said Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs. Since its inception, the Business Book of the Year Award has attracted a wide range of submissions and has become a high watermark in the annual publishing calendar. Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times The Award is designed to highlight the book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics. Entries were invited from publishers of business books in the English language that were first published between 31st October 2008 and 1st November 2009. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperilling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. Acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviourally-informed Keynesianism, Akerlof and Shiller detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them. Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. How should we create wealth in societies, and why is it right and necessary to do so? What improves the lives of the largest number of people? And how do we, living in a globalised world caught in an age of financial and ecological turbulence, respond to the differing needs of individuals and institutions? Do businesses and banks in particular - have a duty to society that goes beyond the creation of profit? Does open market capitalism remain our best hope for creating wealth that benefits all aspects of society? And how can individuals, who work in profit-making workplaces, combine their moral, spiritual and ethical selves with their everyday work? Good Value presents us with a possibility: that through good bankers come good banking, and through good banking comes a richer, more dynamic world. Indian software entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani has written the definitive book about modern India. Nilekani gives us a fascinating new perspective for the twenty-first century, defying received and imported wisdom, and showing us what is really at stake in the worlds largest democracy. He reveals why Indias huge population has now become her greatest strength; how information technology is bringing the benefits of globalisation; why rapid urbanisation is transforming social and political life; and how we can learn from Indias difficult journey towards a single internal market. He also gets to the heart of debates about labour reform, the social security system, higher education and the role of the state. And he asks the key questions of the future: how will India as a global power avoid the mistakes of earlier development models? Will further access to the open market continue to stimulate such extraordinary growth? And how will all this affect - and be shaped by - her young people? That was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernankes vow as the worst financial panic in more than fifty years gripped the world and he struggled to avoid the once unthinkable a repeat of the Great Depression. Brilliant but temperamentally cautious, Bernanke researched and wrote about the causes of the Depression during his career as an academic. Then when thrust into a role as one of the most important people in the world, he was compelled to boldness by circumstances he never anticipated. The president of the United States can respond instantly to a missile attack with Americas military might, but he cannot respond to a financial crisis with real money unless Congress acts. The Fed chairman can. Bernanke did. Under his leadership the Fed spearheaded the biggest government intervention in more than half a century and effectively became the fourth branch of government, with no direct accountability to the nations voters. Believing that the economic catastrophe of the 1930s was largely the fault of a sluggish and wrongheaded Federal Reserve, Bernanke was determined not to repeat that epic mistake. In this penetrating look inside the most powerful economic institution in the world, David Wessel illuminates its opaque and undemocratic inner workings, while revealing how the Bernanke Fed led the desperate effort to prevent the worlds financial engine from grinding to a halt. Many of us take it as a given that the Great Depression the consequences of which reverberated for decades, crippling the future of an entire generation and setting the stage for WWII resulted from a confluence of inexorable forces beyond any one person or governments control. In fact, as erudite economist Liaquat Ahamed explains, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that was the primary cause of the economic meltdown. In Lords of Finance, we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England; the xenophobic and suspicious mile Moreau of the Banque de France; the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank; and the dynamic Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. These four men were as prominent in their time as Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson and Mervyn King are today, but their names were lost to history, their story untold, until now. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Lords of Finance brings a new understanding of the origins and global nature of financial crises, and offers a timely and arresting reminder that individuals their ambitions, limitations and human nature lie at the very heart of global catastrophe. Ivar Kreuger, the infamous Match King, is remembered as the most colourful and compelling business personality of the roaring 1920s. From 1929 to 1932, he was the most talked-about businessman in the world, for good reason. Wealthier than Morgan and as generous as Rockefeller, he miraculously survived the Great Crash, only to be found, one dark Paris morning, with a bullet through his heart. Opinions about Kreuger were deeply divided: hero or villain, innovator or fraudster, suicide or murder victim. Known as the Match King because he held monopolies on the sale of matches in many countries, Kreugers financial empire extended to banking, construction, film, mining, paper, railways, and telephones. He was a statesman as well as a financier, and usurped Jack Morgan as the leading lender to Europe. He rescued France from bankruptcy, and nearly saved Germany. He charmed everyone, from President Hoover to Greta Garbo, to the journalists who put his boyish face on the covers of Time and The Saturday Evening Post. When asked to name his three rules for success in business, Kreuger advised silence, more silence, and still more silence. Unfortunately, the silence killed, and by the end Kreugers shares were worth just pennies. Historians, including John Kenneth Galbraith and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., labelled Kreuger the greatest fraud in history. Notes to editors: The closing date for entries for The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2009, invited from publishers or bona fide imprints based in any country, was June 30, 2009. The judges reserve the right to call in titles additional to the published list. Details of the Terms and Conditions are available from www.ft.com/bookaward. The Financial Times, one of the worlds leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed at 23 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 397,600 (ABC figures, July, 2009) and a readership of 1.3 million people worldwide. FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 11.4 million unique users, generating 83.2 million page views (ABCe figures, March 2009) and now has over 1.4 million registered users. Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net worth individuals. Founded in 1869, it is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world. WebWireID104019
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| CVB Financial Corp. Announces 80th Consecutive Cash Dividend - PR Inside Posted: 18 Sep 2009 08:45 AM PDT 2009-09-18 17:44:01 -
CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) announced an eight and one-half cent ($0.085) per share dividend for the third quarter of 2009. The dividend was approved at the regularly scheduled Board of Directors meeting on September 16, 2009. It will be payable on October 15, 2009 to shareholders of record as of September 30, 2009. "We are pleased to be in a financial position to pay our 80 th consecutive dividend to our shareholders. This reflects the continued confidence of our Board of Directors in the financial performance of CVB Financial Corp.," said Christopher D. Myers, President and Chief Executive Officer.CVB Financial Corp. is the holding company for Citizens Business Bank, a $6.5 billion financial services company based in Ontario, California. Citizens Business Bank serves 39 cities with 41 business financial centers and 5 commercial banking centers in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, Orange County and the Central Valley areas of California. Shares of CVB Financial Corp. common stock are listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol of "CVBF." For investor information on CVB Financial Corp., visit our Citizens Business Bank website at www.cbbank.com : Safe Harbor CVB Financial Corp.Christopher D. MyersPresident and Chief Executive Officer909-980-4030  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Russia's PM Putin urges foreign investment - Salon Posted: 18 Sep 2009 08:23 AM PDT Sep 18th, 2009 | SOCHI, Russia -- Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged foreign businessmen Friday to invest in Russia, promising to remove bureaucratic hurdles, and called for currencies besides the dollar to be used as reserves amid "uncontrolled" U.S. debt. "Russia's economy is totally underinvested," and state spending alone is not enough to support a recovery, Putin said at an international investment forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which is to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia's economy has been hurt by a deep slump in commodity prices and a credit squeeze. Russian stock markets have lost nearly 30 percent of their value since August 2008 as oil and commodities prices took a hit. Putin said he "appreciated" that even in the crisis-hit first half of the year, $17 billion of foreign investment was transferred to Russia and pledged to take steps to "streamline the banking sector and stock market" to make them more attractive for foreign businesses. "We will step up our efforts to get rid of the administrative barriers," he said. "Russia is open for foreign investment." Russia's prime minister also used the floor to chide the United States for "an uncontrolled issue of dollars" and described the U.S. dollar's dominance on currency markets as "one of the triggers" of the global downturn Putin renewed Russia's call on the U.S. administration and global community to give the green light to alternative reserve currencies: "If there are several reserve currencies, this will not harm the U.S. economy in any way." Putin urged American businessmen to press the U.S. government to scrap restrictions on trade and technology imports to Russia. He said Moscow expects the U.S. to give clearance for World Trade Organization membership for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Russia has spent years trying to get the U.S. to scrap a handful of restrictive laws on bilateral trade, including a Cold War-era legislation that has been a key irritant in relations between Moscow and Washington. On the domestic side, Putin echoed government optimism that Russia is emerging from recession. "Our cautious, even too conservative forecasts show that economic trends will be developing in a positive direction," he said. "There have been increasingly more reasons to be optimistic." Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said earlier this week that recovery is under way. Russia's gross domestic output rose 7.4 percent in the April-June period compared to the first quarter, although it is still down 10.9 percent compared to a year ago. Industrial output declined 3 percent in August, reversing the growth of the previous two months and suggesting that the economic recovery is going to be volatile.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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