Top 15 For 2008 (No. 14): M&A Wreckage Jan 2, 2009 02:21PM

StreetInsider.com has put together its 'Top 15 For 2008' which chronicles our view of the most significant news on Wall Street during the tumultuous year.

Number 14: M&A Wreckage

With the turmoil in the credit markets, 2008 was a horrible year for mergers and acquisitions. Not only were new deals not getting done, deals that were already announced were falling apart left and right. Dealogic said global deal volume was down 29% from a record 2007. Of the deals that did get done, some were fire-sales including Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) buyout of Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) and Wells Fargo's (NYSE: WFC) buyout of Wachovia (NYSE: WB).

Some of the biggest M&A blow-ups in 2008

- The mega-takeover of BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE) was cancelled.
- The most famous deal that didn't get done in 2008 was from laughingstock Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO). Yahoo! turned down a $31 per share deal ...


David Moenning's Daily State of the Markets: 4/17 Apr 17, 2008 10:05AM

Knocking On The Door

Here’s a link to listen to an Audio Version of the report:
http://PlayAudioMessage.com/play.asp?m=497839&f=AJLSLG&ps=13&c=FFFFFF&pm=2&h=25
After yesterday's furious rally of 256 points on the Dow, the bulls appear to be once again knocking on the door of a breakout. The rally, which left the venerable index about 80 points shy of the ceiling that has been firmly in place since the end of January, was induced by a solid earnings report from another tech bellwether (Intel – INTC) and then a couple of reports from the banking sector that were, believe or not, better than expected.

Intel’s strong showing came on the heels of IBM’s better than expected results and gave tech investors hope that the sector may actually be faring well in this recessionary environment.

However, the big news of the day was that the earnings reports from JP Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) were not ...


Notable Analyst Rating Changes 4/2: VOD, CHL, AZN Upgraded; UST, CROX, DKS Downgraded Apr 2, 2008 09:56AM

StreetInsider.com Notable Analyst Rating Changes:

UPGRADES:
Bear Stearns upgrades Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) from Peer Perform to Outperform.

Deutsche Bank upgrades China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) to Buy and raises its price ...


David Moenning's Daily State of the Markets: 04/02 Apr 2, 2008 09:53AM

Another Terrific Tuesday

Here's a link to listen to an Audio Version of the report:

If yesterday's blast of nearly 400 points felt familiar, give yourself a gold star because it turns out that three of the last four Tuesday’s have been accompanied by some impressive fireworks in the stock market. Looking back, on Tuesday March 11th, the Dow gained 417 points. The very next week, the Dow surged an eye-popping 420 points. And then after taking a week off, we got another 391 point move yesterday.

While we are not at all sure what's behind the propensity for the Dow to propel itself higher by some 400 points every seven days or so, it is fairly easy to understand why yesterday's move occurred. As has been the case for the better part of a year, stocks have rallied whenever traders felt that the worst of ...