Bloomberg via Getty Images • Here's the last thing you want as a feature on your slick new new laptop: the scent of a litter box. Seems a number of Dell (DELL) customers have been complaining that their Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks smell strongly of cat urine. Dell is assuring everyone that the odor is unrelated to pee of any kind, nor was there a biological contaminant involved. Just a problem in the manufacturing process, which it has sorted out. • Speaking of smells, among expats, China now ranks No. 1 for providing the best overseas experience -- its smog and other pollution issues notwithstanding -- according to HSBC's annual Expat Explorer Survey. Countries were ranked based on a variety of categories related to economics, experience and raising children abroad. China jumped from No. 7 last year to knock off 2012 top dog Singapore, which slipped to No. 3. • Thanks to a class-action settlement between video game titan Electronic Arts (EA) and a group of former college football players, we can now put a price tag on our high-caliber college athletes: Somewhere in the neighborhood of $133 to $200 apiece. Based on the $40 million its setting aside to cover the cost of the deal, that's about what EA will be paying each of the 200,000 to 300,000 past and current student-athletes whose likenesses were used without their consent in NCAA Football games by EA Sports. (And yes, after this year, EA will stop making new games in the franchise.) • It's good news, bad news out of Washington. Good news: The federal deficit for 2013 will be the smallest it's been since 2008, according to the Treasury. The $680 billion deficit is less than half of the record high hit in 2009 of $1.4 trillion. Bad news: While about 4/5 of the decline was due to higher revenues from taxes (yay, improving economy!), the rest came from the painful sequester (those across-the-board spending cuts that were designed to be so horrible that they'd force Congress to find a better solution.) And come January, a whole new round of sequester cuts is due to kick in, even more painful than the first batch. • And finally, during Facebook's (FB) earnings call Wednesday afternoon, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed two fascinating new projects under way at the social media giant: Artificial Intelligence, and a better speech-recognition product. No word for Zuckerberg about plans to combine the two, but if Facebook learns how to talk to us, and how to think, ... well, let's just hope this version of SkyNet will "friend" us before it conquers the world.
Smells Like Trouble for Dell; & 4 More Things to Know Today
Slow and Steady Wins the Succession Plan
“We see it as a process, not a triggering event; not something that just happens and then it’s all done,” Richard Dragotta, a branch manager for LPL Financial, said of succession planning. “Most folks start thinking about it too late, as an event happens.”
“What they don’t realize is the smarter or more successful succession plans have been thought about” for some time, he told ThinkAdvisor on Friday. “Retention is the key to succession. In terms of making that succession planning apparent to your clients, the introductions, the subtleties and the discussions about that need to happen as rapport is built over many years.”
That means that “the guys that decide to retire and say, ‘I’ve figured out who’s a successor’ and one month later they’re gone, the success of that succession plan is going to be poor,” Dragotta said.
The succession planning process begins with “first coming to the conclusion and buying into the idea that the inevitable is going to happen,” Dragotta said. Whether it’s a voluntary retirement or due to a disability, eventually everyone stops working.
However, once advisors accept the inevitable, they can plan for it in a way that they’ll be satisfied with the outcome.
“Some advisors want to slowly sell and stay involved,” Dragotta said. “Others want completely out, so you have to have a sit-down with yourself or with your other partners.”
Dragotta expects many advisors will opt to stay involved in some way with the business they’ve worked so hard to build.
“I think most advisors believe it’s a finale, and for some of them that may be the case,” he said. “What I find is that if you have a great practice and you love what you’re doing — which, most of the advisors that are still in the business at the ages that they are, they must love what they’re doing — that it doesn’t have to be that.”
He continued, “There’s a way that you can monetize your business so that you and your family or your beneficiaries [can benefit] without having to completely leave it.”
Some ways to do that, he said, include ESOP programs or stock options. “We see a lot of folks saying, ‘We’ve agreed upon a price. We’re going to do a work-out over so many years, so I’m collecting a good chunk of that money up front,’” he said. That helps advisors answer the question of “how can they get pension-like income themselves? How can they have ongoing residuals?”
As advisors leave the business, there are plenty of opportunities for other advisors who are willing to develop the expertise they need to serve older clients. The demand for advisors who are experts in specialties like Medicare and Social Security “has never been greater as the baby boomers continue to demand this advice,” Dragotta said. “Yet what’s happening is simple economics — supply and demand.”
He added that demand is only going to get stronger in the next 10 years, while the supply of advisors will “contract quickly.” He said, “I saw a statistic where a third of advisors plan to leave or retire in the next 10 years — $2.3 trillion in assets. Advisors 60 years old or older control $2.3 trillion.”
As for clients, they want to know what your plans are for leaving the business. “Believe it or not, clients ask,” Dragotta said. “At least my observation is if it’s not a topic they’ve asked about, they sure are thinking about it.”
He said that the succession planning topic comes up a lot when advisors start a new relationship, however, “the folks that are going to leave in the next 10 years, their clients have been with them forever. They were both 30 or 40 or 45 when they started, so maybe those conversations back then didn’t come up.”
That’s why it’s so important to make succession planning a process. Dragotta said that if a succession plan has been implemented correctly, advisors will have “slowly integrated a person and their role. They’ve sat on meetings and it’s almost a matter of fact. It’s not a stranger, it’s not someone they met six months ago.”
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Check out Save the Advice Industry! Hire a Retirement-Plan Intern on ThinkAdvisor.
Hertz Drops, Quiksilver Pops, and the Dow Approaches 17,000
A strong jobs reports sent stocks higher once again today as major indexes pushed further into record territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) finished the day up 88 points, or 0.5%, to close at 16,924, while the S&P 500 also added on 0.5% to end the session 1,949. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, gained 0.6%.
The Department of Labor reported numbers essentially in line with expectations in the always-anticipated monthly jobs report, saying 217,000 payroll jobs were added in May, and that the unemployment rate held steady at 6.3%. Economists had predicted 220,000, and for the unemployment rate to move up to 6.4%. The report marked the first time since January 2000 that the country has seen four-straight months of 200,000-plus jobs growth, a sign that the labor market is finally making a return to full health after several years of weakness following the financial crisis. The number of long-term unemployed, which spiked because of the recession, remained essentially unchanged at 3.4 million during May, but has fallen by nearly 1 million in the last year. Average hourly earnings also improved by 0.2% last month after no change in April, showing that the improving labor market may be starting to bring up wage levels.
Turning to individual stocks, Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE: HTZ ) shares drove off a cliff today, finishing down 9% after the car-rental company said it would have to restate three years of financial reports due to accounting errors. Hertz also said in a filing that its first-quarter results are "likely to be below consensus, reflecting costs associated with the accounting review." The accounting errors relate to depreciation of non-fleet assets, its allowance for doubtful accounts in Brazil, and other items. We should learn more when the company reports earnings on Monday. The car-rental industry also got a jolt from Uber, which was valued at $17 billion, in its latest round of fundraising today. The app-driven ride service is more of a substitute for cabs than car rentals, but that price tag makes it more valuable than even Hertz, the industry leader, which carries a market cap of $12 billion. As Uber grows, it could present more of a threat to traditional players like Hertz.
Moving higher today was Quiksilver, (NYSE: ZQK ) , which finished up 10% on insider buying. Shares of the surf-inspired apparel company had fallen 40% earlier this week on an unseemly earnings report, but today, the CEO and CFO both purchased 100,000 shares in the company, a sign of faith as the company struggles with falling sales and widening losses with competition increasing. UBS also released a note saying that Quiksilver remains an attractive acquisition target for V.F. Corp, the parent of clothing companies like Timberland and North Face, which is known for buying big-name brands. With its low price tag and collection of well-known brands including Roxy and DC, a buyout may be the best hope for Quiksilver investors at this point.
Top dividend stocks for the next decade
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Should I Buy Google Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons
Popular Posts: 3 Momentum Tech Stocks to Buy on the DipBBRY – Can BlackBerry Be Saved?Should I Buy Intel Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons Recent Posts: Should I Buy Google Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons 3 Momentum Tech Stocks to Buy on the Dip BBRY – Can BlackBerry Be Saved? View All Posts When Google (GOOG) got its start in the late 1990s, there was much skepticism. People wondered how a company could survive on just the search business. Shouldn't it be a portal instead?
Clearly, Google proved everyone wrong. In fact, many portals eventually went away — like Excite and Lycos — or would go on to struggle, like AOL (AOL) and Yahoo! (YHOO).
Search actually turned out to be a huge money maker, as seen with the massive move in Google stock. Since its IPO in 2004, the shares are up nearly 10 times.
As for the current year, however, Google stock has been under pressure, down -2%. So, should investors jump into the stock before it races higher, or is there cause for concern? Here’s a look at the pros and cons for GOOG stock:
Google Stock ProsMobile: Google stock should continue to get a strong lift from mobile. Over the years, the company has made savvy bets on innovations like Android, AdMob and apps like Google Maps. Keep in mind that mobile is likely to provide much higher monetization than the desktop search business. After all, a smartphone is something that is personal to each person — it's not shared. This means it is easier to understand user behavior, which allows for more targeted ads.
Video: Video should be another strong driver for Google stock. Of course, the marque asset is YouTube, which is the world’s dominant video-sharing platform, with more than 1 billion users. YouTube also caterers to a valuable demographic for advertisers: viewers between the ages of 18 to 35. While traditional advertisers have been slow to move brand campaigns to digital formats, it seems inevitable that this will change — all in favor of GOOG stock.
Financials: There is little to argue here. Revenues continue to grow at a nice pace, up about 19% to $15.4 billion in the latest quarter. Cash flow also remains solid, coming to $4.39 billion in Q1. In all, the company has $59.38 billion in the bank. And the valuation of Google stock is fair, with the price-to-earnings ratio is 28. In comparison, Facebook (FB) has a staggering multiple of 82.
Google Stock ConsHardware: Very few companies have mastered both software and hardware … the prime example being Apple (AAPL). But Apple has had decades to work on its strategy, and there were many blunders along the way. While Google is top-notch with software, the move into hardware has been mostly a bust. For example, Glass has not made much of an impact (except for lots of bad PR and jokes), and the Nexus phone is bit player in the mobile market. But perhaps the biggest example of Google's hardware failure was the acquisition of Motorola, which it ended up selling to Lenovo.
Bandwidth: Google has an extremely strong culture of innovation and risk-taking. This is why the company has been able to benefit from trends like mobile, while others — such as Microsoft (MSFT) — have lagged in that arena. If anything, the innovation in the company’s DNA has been a key driver of Google stock over the years. But innovation is far from perfect, and necessarily means risk. Investors never know when that might come back to hurt GOOG stock.
Social: In its early days, Google didn’t care about having users register. Anybody could come to the site and search. That strategy boosted growth because it meant little friction. But there was a downside to this: Google missed out on the social revolution. True, the company set up its own social network, called G+. However, it has remained mostly a ghost down. The social business is too big to ignore, and Google will likely need to be a player in the market if it wants to keep up the growth rate. Ultimately, this may mean that it will need to make a mega acquisition, for a company on the scale of Twitter (TWTR) or SnapChat.
Verdict on GOOG StockAgain, Google has had its missteps. Its forays into hardware and social networking have been failures. But hey, Google has a tremendously innovative workforce — and huge amounts of cash. So the company could still find ways to prevail.
Besides, Google already has enviable positions in must-win markets like mobile and video. These will provide lots of fuel for growth. The company should also be able to leverage the core technologies in new markets like wearables and the Internet of Things.
True, Google has many projects in the works and the company could easily get distracted. But the good news is that it has been able to find ways to manage its operations throughout the years. Investors can reasonably expect that to continue.
So should you buy GOOG stock? Yes — for investors who want to get exposure to mega markets, the company is a good bet.
Get more of my take on GOOG stock here.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook. He is also the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
FINRA Fines Barclays, Merrill, Goldman Over Inaccurate ‘Blue Sheet’ Data
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Wednesday that it has censured and fined Barclays Capital Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; and Merrill Lynch $1 million each for failing to provide complete and accurate information about trades performed by the firms and their customers, commonly known as "blue sheet" data, to FINRA, the SEC and other regulators.
Each firm has a prior regulatory history involving the submission of inaccurate blue sheet data, FINRA said.
In addition, FINRA issued a complaint against Wedbush Securities Inc. for failing to submit complete and accurate blue sheets.
"Blue sheets are mission-critical to conducting reviews and investigations of suspicious trading,” said Cameron Funkhouser, executive vice president and head of FINRA's Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence, in a statement. “When firms fail to submit timely and accurate blue sheet data, it compromises the ability of every regulator to identify the perpetrators of illegal insider trading and other market abuses. The actions announced today are a reminder to firms about their fundamental obligation to provide complete and accurate blue sheet data without exception.”
Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA's findings.
The Wedbush complaint is not yet adjudicated, FINRA said. A request for comment from Wedbush by ThinkAdvisor was not returned by presstime.
Blue sheets provide regulators with detailed information about trades performed by a firm and its customers, including the security's name, date traded, price, transaction size and parties involved.
Federal securities laws and FINRA rules require firms to provide this information to FINRA and other regulators electronically upon request.
FINRA found the firms’ violations included submissions that failed to include some customer names and contact information, failed to include some transactions, contained incorrect name and contact information for some customers, or contained inaccurate details of the transactions.
“The violations arose from problems with the firms' electronic systems used to compile and produce blue sheet data,” FINRA said. FINRA also found that “the firms failed to have in place adequate audit systems providing for accountability of their blue sheet submissions.”
FINRA ordered the firms to certify that they have conducted a comprehensive review of their systems related to blue sheet submissions, and to certify that they have established procedures reasonably designed to address and correct the violations.
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Check out FINRA Provides Free ‘Dark Pool’ Data to Investors on ThinkAdvisor.
Jim Grant Discusses Bubbles and Bargains - Do We Have Any of Either Today?
Jim Grant thinks that the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have wildly overdone the easy money policies that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
Today Grant thinks there is a great distortion if not a bubble in high yield "junk" bonds where rates do not nearly compensate for the risk involved.
As for stocks he likes, Grant is truly contrarian. He recommends Russian gas giant Gazprom (MIC:RTGZ) which sells at a price to earnings ratio of 2.5 times and has a dividend yield of 5% with only a 15% payout ratio.
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U.S. Service Sector Grows at Fastest Pace Since August
Lynne Sladky/APA construction worker at the site of the SoMa at Brickell apartment building in downtown Miami. WASHINGTON -- U.S. service firms grew more quickly last month as production, hiring and new orders increased, adding to signs that the economy is accelerating after slipping at the start of the year. The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its service-sector index rose to 56.3 in May, the best reading since August 2013. The figure is an improvement from the 55.2 posted in April. Any figure above 50 indicates expansion. The report points to solid growth after a brutal winter caused the economy to shrink 1 percent during the January-March quarter. The gains in new orders and the backlog of existing orders suggest a faster rate of hiring in the months ahead as businesses rush to meet the demand. "With this level of activity and new orders in the pipeline, employment is going to have to come up," said Anthony Nieves, chairman of the ISM's services survey committee. "There is no way that companies will be able to sustain a good level of output if they don't have the bodies to do it." The services survey covers businesses that employ 90 percent of the workforce, including retail, construction, health care and financial services firms. ISM is a trade group of purchasing managers. New orders rose for the fifth consecutive month, up 2.3 points to 60.5 and the highest reading since January 2011. The production component also climbed to 62.1, its strongest level since December 2010. Of the 18 industries surveyed in the report, only the mining sector contracted last month. Several other economic reports indicate that the economy is gaining momentum. The ISM's separate survey of manufacturers on Monday rose to 55.4 in May. Both production and orders notched solid gains. Auto sales improved in May as well. On Tuesday, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota all reported double-digit sales gains year-over-year. Ford's sales rose a better-than-expected 3 percent, while Hyundai's were up 4 percent. The government issues its May jobs report on Friday. Employers added 288,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent. Economists expect 220,000 jobs were created in May, according to a FactSet survey. But payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that private employers pulled back on hiring in May, adding just 179,000 jobs.
Stories Lie, Numbers Don’t – 3 Stocks to Sell
Popular Posts: 3 Undervalued Insurance Stocks to Buy Now2 Energy Stocks to Buy for Dividends and Long-Term GrowthStories Lie, Numbers Don’t – 3 Stocks to Sell Recent Posts: Stories Lie, Numbers Don’t – 3 Stocks to Sell 2 Energy Stocks to Buy for Dividends and Long-Term Growth 3 Undervalued Insurance Stocks to Buy Now View All Posts One of the more popular investing themes has been for several years: The demand for food around the world is going to grow, and the need for chemicals to fertilize and help grow food are going to cause demand to surge for many decades to come. Because of this, investors should own fertilizer and chemical companies that supply the products to meet this long-lasting demand.
As long as emerging markets were growing and lifting people out of poverty, it was a pretty good story. The companies had good earnings growth, so the stock prices soared. Now, however, growth is slowing and there is no way these stocks are worth their valuations.
The largest company in the sector is Monsanto (MON), and the past few years have been good to the stock. After bottoming in 2010, the stock has more than doubled over the past four years as earnings and revenue saw solid increases. Now the company is seeing much slower growth, and even the always-optimistic Wall Street analysts see only mid-single-digit increases for the next several years.
Global discontent with genetically modified organisms could cause results to fall short of even the most pessimistic expectations for the company. However, the stock is still trading at 24 times earnings and 4.6 times book value. With Monsanto’s slowing growth and relatively high valuations, I see no valid reason to own the shares at this time.
Stocks to Sell: Mosaic (MOS)Other than a brief run in late 2012, shares of fertilizer and animal nutrient company Mosaic (MOS) have done very little for the past five years. As emerging markets submerged, sales and earnings have fallen off a cliff, and no sustained improvement is in sight for the Mosaic.
Even with poor results and dim prospects, the stock isn’t exactly cheap at 20 times earnings and 1.75 times book value. Again with no growth, it seems unreasonable to pay a premium valuation for the company.
Stocks to Sell: CF Industries (CF)Investors who were clever enough to buy shares of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products CF Industries (CF) back in 2009 have seen their initial stake increase nearly fivefold. The near-term outlook for the fertilizer business isn’t terrible … but at best, that will mean high single-digit earnings growth for the next several years.
Trading at 7.8 times earnings, it is in the cheapest of the agricultural chemical companies but the stock fetches 2.7 times book value. If we use the Graham number to consider both earnings and assets, the company is overvalued by more than 20% at the current price. Being the least overvalued company in the sector is not sufficient reason to buy shares of CF Industries right now.
The story sounds great, but the numbers do not support the case for buying these stocks right now. At some point, they might … but that will require much higher growth rates or much lower stock prices.
As of this writing, Tim Melvin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
UBS to pay hefty settlement over unregistered assistants
UBS AG will pay $4.58 million to settle an investigation by state regulators into whether its sales assistants were licensed in states where they did business.
UBS's “client service associates” took orders without having the required state registrations, according to a statement Monday by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, which said it led the case. The Zurich-based bank didn't admit or deny the allegations.
“Over a six-year period, UBS failed to recognize a flaw in its order-entry systems that allowed unregistered persons to accept customer orders,” Abbe R. Tiger, the New Jersey agency's chief, said in the statement.
The multi-state case involved an unknown number of unsolicited trades handled by sales assistants who were not properly licensed in New Jersey and other states.
UBS on average employed 2,277 sales assistants from 2004 through 2010, the period covered by the case, according to the settlement agreement.
The fine will be split among the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Other states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, can participate in the settlement, said Bob Webster, spokesman for the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc.
UBS cooperated with the investigation, New Jersey said, and in November 2010 changed its order- entry system to validate employee state-registration status.
Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch brokerage settled a similar state investigation in 2009.
“UBS is pleased to have resolved this legacy registration issue which involved unsolicited orders,” Gregg Rosenberg, a UBS spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.
(Bloomberg News contributed to this story.)
Revett Minerals is Knocking on the Door (RVM)
If you've never heard of Revett Minerals Inc. (NYSEMKT:RVM) before right now, don't worry about it - you're not alone. The $25 million silver and copper miner doesn't have enough size to merit much media attention, and to make things more difficult, silver and miner has spent the better part of 2013 being out of favor. Yet, things are slowing changing for RVM and its shareholders.... for the better. Though a little more work needs to be done, this stock's knocking on the door of a monster breakout.
Just to set the tone, RVM was - up until last quarter - an active producer. In Q4 of last year, the company generated $7.2 million worth of metals, and $19.3 million in Q3 of 2012. Since then, however, the shut-down of a key mine (Troy) limited Revett Minerals' top line to $216K in Q1, and nil in Q2.
A shutdown is an alarming turn of events for shareholders to be sure; that mine's original access route became impassable, and the company was forced to pull out, and then re-approach the Troy mine from a different angle. The new entry should work, but it takes time and money, which has meant trouble for the stock; RVM shares have fallen from $4.00 in the fall of last year to $0.73 now.
So what makes it worth bringing Revett Minerals up now? A light at the end of the tunnel, which is (more importantly) being reflected on a chart of RVM.
Though it's not done anything riveting after finally hitting bottom in June, shares have quietly and inconspicuously wiggled their way back above the 20-day moving average line (blue). Better still, Revett Minerals is working on clearing its 50-day moving average line. They're small step to be sure, but all large moves start small. The fact that traders aren't balking as the 50-day line is being tested speaks volumes.
That being said, one final milestone remains - the ceiling at $0.74. That's where RVM shares peaked in mid-July, again in late July, and where it peaked today. Clearly there's a mental hurdle there, but if the stock can close above that mark, this long-brewing breakout will finally take hold. The safe thing to do is wait for the final clue to fall into place, but as good as things look already, it may be worth taking a pre-emptive plunge and not waiting for that convincing close above $0.74.
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Stocks to Watch for September 23, 2013
( click to enlarge ) Qlik Technologies Inc(NASDAQ: QLIK) Looks good as it breaks to new highs. Looking at the technical daily chart above, it shows very strong upward momentum as the stock is above all EMAs, with both 200-day and 50-day exp moving average going up. In addition, CMF and MACD also show very bullish signs.
( click to enlarge ) Oncothyreon Inc (NASDAQ: ONTY) is firming just above key support at $1.78 and a triangle has taken shape over the last few weeks. The stock is starting to show signs of accumulation with high upside days and low downside days. This stock is poised for a move and I suspect that it will explode to the upside. In addition, Inside trading has been very active over the last month. They are buying now after pausing years.
( click to enlarge ) Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) broke out of a small consolidation area with heavy volume and will likely have the attention of the swing-traders in the next days.
( click to enlarge ) Hittite Microwave Corp (NASDAQ: HITT) is holding up well and looks ready to move higher from here. Next buy point for HITT is at 65.2.
( click to enlarge ) Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) hits a new 52 week high and held up very well when the nasdaq was tanking. The stock is on fire.
( click to enlarge ) Facebook Inc(NASDAQ: FB) Friday's action suggested that there is more room for the uptrend to grow on stock before a more significant pullback. On the daily chart, technical indicators are bullish. The stock is regaining momentum with daily MACD back above its signal line and moving up in positive territory. Both the 50-day and 200-day EMAs are rising and the stock is trading well above them. Slow stochastic and RSI are both inside their overbought zones. On the downside, the stock has strong supports at 45.62 and 43.11
( click to enlarge ) Over the past seven weeks, Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd (NASDAQ: CSTE) has been consolidating in a sideways range near its all-time high. This price action and has led to the formation of a bull flag on its daily chart. CSTE is likely to breakout to new highs in the coming sessions. Keep it in your radar screen.
( click to enlarge ) Retail Properties of America Inc (NYSE: RPAI) has been in an impressive rebound since the lows of August and the stock price action continues to become Bullish. However, RPAI has run into the downtrend line resistance again and this could lead to a brief period of sideways consolidation or price correction from current levels. On watch.
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Disclaimer : This is not an investment advisory, and should not be used to make investment decisions. Information in AC Investor Blog is often opinionated and should be considered for information purposes only. No stock exchange anywhere has approved or disapproved of the information contained herein. There is no express or implied solicitation to buy or sell securities. The charts provided here are not meant for investment purposes and only serve as technical examples. Don't consider buying or selling any stock without conducting your own due diligence.
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The following article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
Vegas casino strike averted with agreements
The culinary and bartender unions announced Sunday that they struck a tentative five-year deal with the Golden Gate and will not picket there as planned.
On Saturday, the unions announced similar deals with four other downtown casinos: Four Queens, Binion's, Plaza and Las Vegas Club.
Hundreds of restaurant workers, hotel housekeepers, cocktail servers, bartenders and others had been scheduled to go on strike at 5 a.m. Sunday had agreements not been reached.
"We are pleased that we have settled new contracts with our major employers that will allow union members to have an opportunity to provide for their families through hard work under a fair contract," Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, said in a statement.
The settlements follow earlier deals with other downtown casinos, including The D, Golden Nugget, Fremont, Main Street Station and El Cortez.
Workers are scheduled to vote whether to ratify the contracts next week. If ratified, the settlements would be retroactive to June 1, 2013 when previous contracts expired.
Among other provisions, the agreements call for raises, more flexible scheduling and keeping employees' health care costs from increasing. Details have not been disclosed.
"I feel great," said Doug Anderson, a bartender at the Las Vegas Club. "I like working downtown, and having a union contract means I will continue to have a good job."
Union organizers had been preparing signs, scheduling members to stand in picket lines and planning how to feed protesters in the event of a strike.
"I'm very happy," said Janice Thomas, a housekeeper at the Las Vegas Club. "Going on strike would have been hard but I would have to protect my health care, pension and benefits."
The latest settlements conclude the culinary and bartende! rs unions' year-long citywide contract negotiations for 44,000 housekeepers, cooks, food servers, cleaners, cocktail servers, and other hospitality workers at major casino-hotels whose contracts expired June 1, 2013.
The new contracts would expire June 1, 2018. However, a union spokeswoman said talks usually begin before then.
Big-name casino operators on the Las Vegas Strip, including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Tropicana, Riviera, Treasure Island and Stratosphere, previously reached new five-year deals with the unions.
Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 represent more than 55,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno.
The last strike by hotel workers in Las Vegas occurred at the Golden Nugget in 2002 and lasted nine days.
Bank of America May Have $20B Resting on This Controversial 8-Page Report
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America's (BAC) efforts to win approval for a pennies-on-the-dollar $8.5 billion mortgage-backed securities settlement may be complicated by a controversial eight-page report that was the subject of two days of New York Supreme Court hearings last week on the proposed deal.
The report's author, Brian Lin, one of three principals at an obscure firm called RRMS Advisors, earned $500,000 to write it and another $500,000 to testify in hearings over the fairness of the proposed settlement. Those details came out Friday during the 24th day of hearings over the settlement, according to CLSA analyst Mike Mayo, whose team has appeared regularly in court in order to follow the proceedings.
Lin was hired by BNY Mellon (BK), which was the trustee assigned to protect the interests of investors in 530 mortgage-backed securities trusts that faced losses estimated at $108 billion at the time the settlement was proposed June 29, 2011. Using data provided him by 22 investors in the trusts, including Goldman Sachs (GS), PIMCO, BlackRock (BLK) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Maiden Lane entities, Lin determined the $8.5 billion settlement amount proposed by the group was fair.
The proposed deal has been called the largest private settlement stemming from the financial crisis. Objectors led by AIG (AIG) have said it is inadequate since it represents recoveries of only about eight cents on the dollar on securities stuffed with Countrywide mortgages that were fraudulent or in other ways did not live up to their original billing at the time they were sold to investors. On Thursday and Friday last week, AIG's attorneys tried to portray Lin's work as representing little more than a rubber stamp of the figures provided him by BNY Mellon and the 22 investors. BNY and the investors, according to AIG, were conflicted as a result of extensive business ties with Bank of America and so did not push hard enough to extract a larger settlement. CLSA's Mayo has a "sell" rating on Bank of America chiefly because of the risks he believes it faces if the settlement is thrown out. Relying on a pair of outside experts, Mayo believes Bank of America could face an additional $16 billion to $22 billion in additional legal damages if the settlement is rejected by Judge Barbara Kapnick. Most other sellside analysts who folllow Bank of America appear less concerned about the case. A call to Lin wasn't returned and Jason Kravitt, an attorney for Mayer, Brown, which is representing trustee BNY Mellon, declined to comment. The hearings so far have lasted 24 days and are likely to go on for considerably longer given that Lin, who finished his testimony Friday, was just the first of 16 people scheduled to testify. -- Written by Dan Freed in New York. Follow @dan_freed