Lou Gutheil

That’s right.  UBS is “too arrogant” and “corrupted.”  Hold on now.  We didn’t say that (yet). It was UBS CEO Andrea Orcel who said that UBS and other major banks have been “too arrogant.”  The other was that financial guru, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who called the bank a “corrupted” organization.  Wow!  What a surprise! […]

All it took was a a few simple words from Verizon (NYSE:VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam in an interview yesterday in Las Vegas prior to this week’s massive Consumer Electronics Show.  He simply indicated, regarding a buyout of Vodafone’s shares, that a deal is feasible.  The knee-jerk response of speculative investors was as predictable as the […]

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has agreed to pay $10.35 billion USD to settle claims for loans originated by the bank and sold to Fannie Mae between 2000 and 2008. The loans in question were actually originated by Bank of America N.A. and Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America acquired in 2008.  $3.6 billion of the […]

Cobham Defence Electronics (LSE:COB) watched its share price rise on the LSE today in the wake of an announcement that  it had been awarded a contract with the United States Navy in the amount of $31 million USD. The share price closed at 225.80 on 04 January but edged upward by 0.70% to 226.50 at […]

Transocean (NYSE:RIG) announced late yesterday that it had reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice for its part in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s right.  BP has not been the only deep pocket company that the DOJ has pursued.  Transocean  is the owner of record for the […]

Munitions and pyrotechnic supplier Chemring (LSE:CHG) started 2013 with a display of fireworks in the boardroom, to which investors have expressed their appreciation in trading that saw the company’s share price skyrocket by 7%, up 16.70 pence to 255.00 by early afternoon. In two separate press releases this morning Chemring CEO, Mark Papworth, announced a […]

Now you see it.  Now you don’t.  You’ve watched it for months.  Now, suddenly it’s gone.  Where did it go?  No one knows.  How did President Obama and the US Congress do that?  The simple answer is sleight-of-hand prestidigitation. Please don’t misunderstand.  The magic was not in making the Fiscal Cliff disappear.  The magic was […]

After a suffering a rough year at sea, it appears that smoother waters may lie ahead for oil rig manufacturer Lamprell (LSE:LAM) in 2013.  The company’s share price had dropped more than 60% during 2012 after a series of profit warnings drove investor confidence to the ocean floor.  The single worst day of the past […]

Platinum miner Lonmin (LSE:LMI) had asked Kris Kringle for only two things for Christmas: platinum in its stocking and peace on earth, especially at its Marikana mining site in South Africa.  Given the rough year that Lonmin had in 2012, it didn’t seem too much to ask. With the economy being as it is, Santa […]

Rangold Resources (LSE:RRS) share price dropped 55.00 pence today to 6065.00, likely in response to a fire in the Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire over the Christmas shutdown.  The holiday is typically a time when maintenance staff can make needed repairs without interrupting manufacturing operations.  Apparently, however, someone must have forgotten to snuff out the […]