Perry Ellis International Announces $20M Increase to Its Stock Repurchase Program
by Insider Scoop - November 30th, 2011 1:00 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga.
Perry Ellis International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PERY) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a $20 million increase to the Company’s stock repurchase program. This program now authorizes the Company to repurchase up to $40 million of its common stock over a twelve months period for cash in accordance with SEC requirements.
Total purchases under the program, since inception, have amounted to $17.4 million through the third quarter of fiscal 2012, leaving availability of $22.6 million remaining under the program.
For more Benzinga, visit Benzinga Professional Service, Value Investor, and Stocks Under $5.
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DiggSystemic Deficit Strategy
by ilene - November 30th, 2011 12:58 pm
Courtesy of Michael Hudson
Michael Hudson on the Super Committee and the deficit strategy.
Will Lipitor’s Patent Expiration Give Pfizer a Heart Attack?
by Insider Scoop - November 30th, 2011 12:57 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) has lost its patent for blockbuster drug Lipitor, crippling a product line that accounts for 20% of the company’s yearly revenue. The company has devoted significant resources into developing its pipeline to replace the lost revenue, as it is hoping that Eliquis, a blood thinner, and Prevnar, a bacterial infection vaccine can obtain FDA approval. While both drugs look promising, it remains to be seen whether they can win enough market success to replace Lipitor revenues.
Pfizer has been in contact with regular patients, discussing the benefits that Lipitor has had for them and encouraged them not to switch. The company is also in negotiations with pharmacies in attempts to sell Lipitor at generic level prices to prevent market share from eroding. Some of these bargain priced drugs could be sold directly to patients, cutting out the added cost of dealing with pharmacies. This has the potential to affect the bottom line of major pharmacies such as Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) and CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS).
CVS announced this month that it would continue to offer Lipitor to Medicare patients, as participants in the program sometimes avoid using generic drugs to avoid the “doughnut hole”, in which Medicare does not cover total drug spending between $2,830 and $6,440 per patient annually. The pharmacy also plans to offer lower priced Lipitor in exchange for a promise not to sell generic versions.
Pfizer has admitted that it wants to become a smaller, nimbler company. The company is looking to unload its animal nutrition and health businesses, preferring to focus on its primary care and medicine businesses. “We’re not going to be a one product company,” said Pfizer’s president of specialty care Geno Germano in an interview with Bloomberg. “We’re poised to deliver significant new pipeline assets in the coming year, and in the coming years.”
In a CNBC interview this morning, Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan stated that Pfizer was restructuring its business to account for lost Lipitor revenue. “Pfizer is focusing on maximizing cash flow from future Lipitor sales. They are developing their pipeline with a primary focus on their new stroke prevention drug and bacteria infection vaccine. Investors have also discounted…
Guest Post: China To Embrace Fracking In An Effort To Ramp Up Energy Production
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2011 12:51 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
Submitted by John C.K. Daly from OilPrice.com
China to Embrace Fracking In an Effort to Ramp up Energy Production
China is leaving no shale deposit unturned in its effort to develop indigenous energy resources.
On 24 November China’s Ministry of Land and Resources geological exploration department head Peng Qiming said during a press conference that China’s combined oil and natural gas output, 280 million tons in 2010, is projected to rise to 360 million tons of oil equivalent by 2015, a 23 percent increase in four years and will rise to 450 million tons by 2030, a 62 percent increase over 2010 production, impressive rises in production by any yardstick.
And Beijing authorities in their drive are embracing a controversial natural gas production technique that is coming under increasing government scrutiny in both the United States and Britain – hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking.” China has started drilling to meet an ambitious annual production target of 80 billion cubic meters by 2020 by which time the government is seeking to meet a target of generating 10 percent of its energy needs from natural gas and 15 percent from renewable sources and launched a national shale gas research center in August 2010.
In April the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that China has nearly 50 percent more “technically recoverable” shale gas than the United States, placing its reserves at 1.275 quadrillion cubic feet, 12 times the country’s conventional natural gas deposits, as compared with U.S. shale gas reserves of 862 trillion cubic feet.
Despite rising environmental concerns about fracking in both the U.S. and Europe, Chinese authorities up to now have shown no such hesitations. On 20 October in Shanghai China’s Ministry of Land and Resources Strategic Research Center deputy head Zhang Dawei said, “The government places high emphasis on developing shale gas and has been actively studying supporting policies,” adding that a national shale gas plan will shortly be announced and more than 10 shale natural gas blocks are to be offered to Chinese state and private companies a the second round of auctions
Earlier this year price and supply fluctuations in China’s oil and coal imports triggered disruptive electricity blackouts, increasing the Chinese government’s interest in the country’s vast reserves of shale natural gas, which will likely prove to be a more stable…
El-Erian on central bank action
by ilene - November 30th, 2011 12:45 pm
Guest post: El-Erian on central bank action
Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer at PIMCO, submits this guest post to FT Alphaville in reaction to this morning’s coordinated announcement.
Risk markets love liquidity injections, real and perceived. As such, they will welcome today’s announcement by six major central banks to reduce the price of emergency financing and broadening its scope. They will also like the possibility that this dramatic coordinated move provides a stronger context for further actions at the level of individual institutions.
In justifying the move, the central banks point to the need to counter pressure on “the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity.” This is an objective that will sell well to the public and politicians. But it is not one that will be effectively met by the announced measures. Indeed, the importance of the announcement is elsewhere, involving two related issues.
First, these monetary institutions feel that, again, they have to move because other entities have continued to be too slow and too ineffective; and second, they feel that they cannot, and should not ignore an actual or anticipated need to relieve acute pressures within the banking system.
Keep reading here: FT Alphaville » Guest post: El-Erian on central bank action.
Does today’s rally prove Einstein was correct Monday morning? Solve anything?
by Chart School - November 30th, 2011 12:37 pm
Courtesy of Chris Kimble.
Pre-market Monday morning the chart below was produced, reflecting two key pattern issues….500 Index and TLT were at polar opposites and the 500 index was on support, inside of a narrowing flag/pennant pattern (see post here)
CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE
Does does today’s rally prove Einstein was correct and solve any bigger pattern issues? See below…
CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE
The action this week proves that support highlighted Monday morning was strong in the 500 index as well as resistance was strong for TLT.
Does the big move today prove anything from a pattern perspective? NO!
As can be seen above, “life inside of the flag/pennant pattern” continues. Support and resistance continue to come into play. The summer of 2010, reflected a similar back and forth pattern, that once resolved led to quality upside gains. The action of today from a pattern perspective only proved that the bottom of the flag is support and not much more!
Where Are The Ratings Agencies Before UK & German Banks Go Boom? How About Those Euro REITs? Agencies Anybody?
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2011 12:25 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Reggie Middleton.
Last week I illustrated the interconnected EU master duo with the most ironic of divergent agendas: When The Duopolistic Owners Of The EU Printing Presses Disagree On The Color Of The Ink!
Basically, Germany and France are pulling in two different directions
trying to get off of a boat that will drown them both, regardless. Then I
posed the taboo question:
Are The Ultra Conservative Dutch Immune To Pan-European Pandemic
Contagion? Are You Safe During An Earthquake Because You Keep Your Shoes
Tied Snugly?
The Dutch are probably
in for a banging that the vast majority of the populace are not
expecting. The presentation below is a subset of the keynote speech that
I gave at the ING CRE Valuation Conference in Amsterdam last April.
Some may say it was quite prescient. I’d say it was a matter of paying
attention.
Before you peruse through the Power Points and related videos, glance over Interbank_Contagion_in_the_Dutch_Banking – 2006 (pdf) and then review Cross_Border_Bank_Contagion_in_Europe_- 2006 (pdf). It is apparent that I wasn’t the only one who used calculators and common sense before it was too late. To wit:
We investigate interlinkages and contagion risks in the Dutch interbank market. Based on several data sources, including survey data, we estimate the exposures in the interbank market at bank level. Next, we perform a scenario analysis to measure contagion risks. We find that the bankruptcy of one of the large banks will put a considerable burden on the
other banks but will not lead to a complete collapse of the interbank market. The exposures to foreign counterparties are large and warrant further research.
following presentation shows not only Euro-area banks going bust but
European CRE as well. So, why aren’t German and UK banks – and REITs
(yes, even Dutch REITs) on negative watch with the ratings agencies? And
even more interesting question is why isn’t the industry that I prepped my subscribers for in regards to the next forensic report
beng put on watch by the ratings agencies? The quick answer is…
Because they know they’ll get paid to come to a pile of smoldering ashes
with a fire hose, anyway. Let this be the official
…
Goldman Turns Bearish: Squid Releases Top Trades For 2012… And It’s Not Pretty
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2011 12:14 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
The much anticipated Goldman Sachs list of “Top Trades Recommendations for 2012″ is out… And the squid is very, very bearish. Let’s dig in.
In a nutshell:
And in detail:
Our First 2012 Top Trades Focus on European Cyclical Risk, Policy Asymmetries and Commodity Constraints
Given the acute economic and financial market uncertainties as we launch our 2012 Top Trade recommendations, we have focused on areas where our near-term confidence is high and where there are important asymmetries or possibilities of being rewarded in multiple states of the world. By the same token, we are likely to re-evaluate them more frequently than in previous years as the balance between market pressure and policy reaction changes.
The first theme is further near-term economic and financial deterioration in the Euro area. Market pressure is likely to be the key mechanism through which the crisis itself intensifies and a policy response is forced. So it makes sense to position for downside here. The risk is that, outside of disorderly ‘tail scenarios’ where it is easy to envisage significantly more market damage, markets are already priced for quite bad outcomes in most places. So in choosing our trades, we have tried to avoid areas that are more direct reflections of the overall Euro area risk premium (such as the currency and peripheral spreads), and instead have focused relatively more on cyclical exposures, given the economic damage that has already been set in train. The recommendation to be short an index of European high yield credits (Xover index) should benefit from the fact that tightening credit conditions and a contracting economy are likely to hurt high yield borrowers disproportionately hard.
The second theme is the possibility of more radical policy responses. We expect QE3 in the US, additional Gilt purchases in the UK and a reasonable chance of further Swiss intervention. The recommendation to be long EUR/CHF benefits from the asymmetry caused by the peg, with both a much better European scenario and a much worse one (that includes a slowing Swiss economy) likely to push the cross higher through a re-peg. The short German Bund trade also has some of this flavour, with the trade potentially benefiting both from a move towards ‘debt mutualisation’ in the Euro area or…
Market Snapshot: European Close
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2011 12:05 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
Equity and Credit markets rallied significantly on the day with credit catching up to equity’s recent strength in an unusually biased move. The higher beta XOver (high yield European credit) and Subordinated financial credit outperformed close to close but lags overall relative to equity and investment grade credit, suggesting less than stellar demand to lay out new risk and more likely shorts covering in a hurry. Seniors underperformed Subs in financials – again suggesting some covering on the SEN-SUB decompression trade on the back of the ratings actions this week. Sovereign spread moves were actually largely unimpressive with spread curves flattening, some decompressing, and the fulcrum security BTPs, not exactly ripping across the curve.
This table shows spread performance (relative to Bunds) for various maturities and Sovereigns.
BTP spreads and yields are better on the day in 10Y but hardly showing that anyone is out of the woods (as this effort by the Fed et al) is much more bank survival focused than the real problem of sovereign debt.
Equities are above those 11/15-18 highs but credit is unable to break it yet. Investment grade credit is outperforming which seems like the action of tentative longs (low vol bet) as opposed to high conviction longs being set out in what are relatively much cheaper securities (in HY and sub financials).
Charts: Bloomberg
YRC Worldwide Announces Preliminary Voting Results from Annual Stockholder Meeting; Board of Directors Approves Reverse Stock Split
by Insider Scoop - November 30th, 2011 12:00 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga.
YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) announced the preliminary results of its Annual Meeting of Stockholders held today, November 30, 2011, in Overland Park, Kan. During the meeting, security holders authorized the company’s board of directors to effect a reverse stock split of YRC Worldwide’s common stock and to proportionately reduce the number of authorized shares of common stock with the ratio and timing of implementation of the reverse stock split at the discretion of the company’s board of directors.
The company plans to amend its certificate of incorporation on December 1, 2011 to implement a reverse stock split with a ratio of 1:300. The reverse stock split will be effective on the NASDAQ exchange on December 2, 2011, at which time the company’s ticker symbol will temporarily change from “YRCW” to “YRCWD” in accordance with NASDAQ rules. The ticker symbol will revert back to “YRCW” on January 3, 2012. The reverse stock split will reduce the number of authorized common shares to approximately 33.3 million from the current 10 billion and reduce the number of outstanding common shares to approximately 6.8 million from the current approximately 2 billion.
For more Benzinga, visit Benzinga Professional Service, Value Investor, and Stocks Under $5.
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
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