Companies & Markets

Walmart International: Lousy Economies ‘Everywhere We Operate’

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Walmart International: Lousy Economies ‘Everywhere We Operate’

With over 6,400 stores in 26 countries outside the US, Walmart International has smacked into the same problems Walmart has encountered in the US: it’s tough out there.

Corporate Colonialism: Winners and Losers of Global ‘Free’ Trade

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on Corporate Colonialism: Winners and Losers of Global ‘Free’ Trade

By Don Quijones: The new trade agreements have little to do with promoting free trade. They’re about extending the power and control of the world’s largest corporations.

“Serious Dysfunctionality” On Wall Street: Facebook-WhatsApp And The Deals That “Marked The Top” Of The Last Two Bubbles

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on “Serious Dysfunctionality” On Wall Street: Facebook-WhatsApp And The Deals That “Marked The Top” Of The Last Two Bubbles

Every bubble has its ultimate, craziest, mostest, farthest-outest deal. Its craziness can no longer be exceeded. Buyers simply vanish. Sellers get desperate. Newfangled theories and metrics sink into a morass of ridicule. And lots of money goes up in smoke.

The Mind-Game Of “Fixing” Europe’s Big Zombie Banks

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Mind-Game Of “Fixing” Europe’s Big Zombie Banks

Danièle Nouy, chair of the ECB’s newfangled bank regulator that doesn’t exist yet, had a term for it: “do whatever has to be done” so that the banking sector “is seen as sound and safe and transparent.” Is seen as…. Smoke and mirrors.

Stinking Corporate Revenues, Desperately Doctored Earnings-Per-Share

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Stinking Corporate Revenues, Desperately Doctored Earnings-Per-Share

Last quarter was tough on large US corporations – those in the S&P 500 index. Unperturbed, the index soared all year. But its 343 companies that have reported so far have exposed the ugly underbelly of the worldwide economy: revenue “growth.”

Cracks In The Tech Bubble (That Doesn’t Exist)

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Cracks In The Tech Bubble (That Doesn’t Exist)

It’s “a technology everyone is going to have,” said a Bay Area real estate broker as he explained why realtors use drones to shoot aerial videos of high-end properties. And it’s illegal. But no one is going to be able to stop it, he implied.

Giant Sucking Sound? Emerging-Markets Fiasco To Topple European Banks

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Giant Sucking Sound? Emerging-Markets Fiasco To Topple European Banks

It’s not like Europe is out of the woods, after years of recession, lurching from bank bailout to country bailout, and sweeping remaining fetid matters under the rug. But its banks are now sinking deeper into an even greater morass: the emerging-markets fiasco.

Stocks Plunge: ‘And This Too Shall Pass,’ Or Something

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Stocks Plunge: ‘And This Too Shall Pass,’ Or Something

The last stock-market bears have gone into hibernation, browbeaten and humiliated and ridiculed by years of brilliant rallies. Clinging to their analyses and the now silly notion that stocks should trade based on economic realities, they lost clients and money and their jobs.

Stocks on Speed: Margin Debt Spikes, So Does Risk Of Crash

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Stocks on Speed: Margin Debt Spikes, So Does Risk Of Crash

The Fed must have seen the relentlessly spiking margin debt. Leverage is a sign of investor confidence. The great accelerator. On the way up. And on the way down. Margin debt has a nasty, very consistent habit of peaking just when the stock market begins to crash.

Icahn’s “No-Brainer” Goes To Heck (Manipulation Works Only Most Of The Time)

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Icahn’s “No-Brainer” Goes To Heck (Manipulation Works Only Most Of The Time)

Carl Icahn must have tossed and turned Monday night, after the Apple debacle. Reeling from his losses, he was out there on Tuesday hyping the stock with all his might. They’re all doing it, from Warren Buffett on down, guys with billions of play-money and a loud voice.