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median, existing home price for all housing types was $215,100 in June, down 6.1% from a year ago when the median was $229,000.

Existing home sales varied by region. Sales rose 1% in West, but fell 6.6% in the Northeast, 3.4% in Midwest, and 3.1% in the South.

'Bad time to be a home seller'

Economist Peter Dawson said the June existing home sales statistic shows that the housing market remains a buyers market.

"No question, it's a bad time to be a home seller. Existing home prices continue to slide in most markets, and there's little in the data to suggest a turnaround, given the U.S. economy's doldrums," Dawson said. "My advise for those who are in the market to buy and don't have to buy a house right now - - wait it out, quarter by quarter. Prices in your market could drop considerably."

Continue reading U.S. existing home sales fall to 10-year low

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The Charles Schwab Bank provides banking and mortgage services. President and COO Walter Bettinger took the CEO reins from founder Charles Schwab this week. Schwab remains executive chairman.

Last week, the company presented its Q2 report. Earnings of 27 cents per share and revenues of $1.31 billion topped Street estimates 26 cents per share and $1.30 billion. Clients brought $26 billion in net new assets to the firm. Active brokerage accounts and retirement plan participants were up 5% and 13% from year-earlier levels and banking accounts more than doubled.

Continue reading Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW): Shares cycle in bullish 'flag'

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news may be good for banks that hold some of these loans and do not want to write them off if they fail, Goldman is making a bet beyond the fact that LBO loans may be selling at a discount now. Goldman is essentially betting the the economy will get better in the fairly near-term.

For many of these loans to perform well, the economy has to avoid a deep recession. Even loans with reasonable credit ratings, debt in companies with strong prospects and earnings, could fail if the general business conditions deteriorate into a prolonged period of negative growth, Under such circumstances, Goldman could pick relatively safe debt and still get burned.

Someone at Goldman sees light at the end of the economic tunnel.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Back then I noted that stagflation "prevailed in the US during the 1970s. For example, in 1979, US core inflation, excluding oil and food, rose at a 9.4% annual rate, GDP grew at roughly 3%, and unemployment averaged 6%. Furthermore, this condition was bad for stocks which rose an anemic 0.37% annual average during the decade." I also wrote about stagflation here and here.

Here are three key findings from the Beige Book:

Weak retail spending - The Post reported that consumer spending was weak, despite the economic stimulus checks from the government that went out starting in May. There was some demand for electronics, and discount stores got a temporary boost. But discretionary spending froze on housing-related items and vacations.

Continue reading Fed reports stagflation

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It's defensive in the sense that, as the cliche goes, people still want to eat their favorite foods even during recessionary times. It isn't in the sense that the stock is down by 16% (as of this writing) in the one-year time period. It does have a nice dividend yield, however, and Warren Buffet seems to like it.

What should investors be looking for on Monday? Well, they should definitely be looking at the margins. Is Kraft navigating this inflationary period in as efficient a manner as possible? I think Kraft will do OK in this regard. I'm not expecting any sort of wide expansion of gross margin, but I think management will report stability in this area.

Hershey (NYSE: HSY) , which recently reported numbers for its own quarter (see Brent Archer's idea for a trade involving Hershey options), did well in keeping margin-erosion at bay. Hershey also beat estimates by a penny. Considering that Kraft beat analyst estimates last quarter, that it has a good history of going beyond expectations and that Hershey was able to beat, then I would have to say that Kraft should have no problem beating on Monday. Hershey has had its share of troubles lately, keep in mind.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Does Kraft have the recipe for a successful quarter?

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by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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in May, McDonald's executives announced they had no plans to make changes to its "everyday affordability" concept, but the company's chief operating officer, Ralph Alvarez, recently noticed that the dollar menu is coming under pressure from rising ingredient costs. "The cost implications of having that value menu have changed when you see what's going on in beef and chicken," Alvarez stated to the Chicago Tribune.

Alvarez didn't offer too many details on how the dollar menu might change. However, the news is not great for all you lovers of the famous double cheeseburger. A spokesman for the hamburger giant said one of the company's strategies that is already tested in some markets was to lift prices for this best-selling U.S. sandwich.

Looking ahead, McDonald's said it expects cheese cost to jump by 21% this year in the U.S., while the price it pays for chicken may see a growth in a range between 5% and 6%. For 2008 U.S. beef costs, the company also anticipates an increase between 8% and 9%.

Rising commodity prices was one of the main reasons why the research firm Deutsche Bank to lower its rating on the company to a hold earlier this morning.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) to Hold from Buy following the company's in-line Q2 results, as they believe consumer headwinds and commodity inflation are likely to pressure EPS in coming quarters. The firm lowered their target to $80 from $100.

Deutsche Bank downgraded McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) to Hold from Buy as they believe higher beef costs and slower traffic could drive reduced profitability and limit upside. The firm reduced their target to $63 from $67. OTHER DOWNGRADES:

AT&T (NYSE:T) was lowered to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan.

Baird cut Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:CTXS) to Neutral from Outperform.

Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) was lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The firm does not expect share upside until margin visibility improves, which will not occur until next year's corn crop materializes in early 2009.

Lehman initiated the REIT sector with a Neutral rating; the firm started AMB Property (NYSE:AMB) and Kimco Realty (NYSE:KIM) with Overweight ratings and CBL & Associates (CBL) with an Underweight rating. OTHER INITIATIONS:

JP Morgan initiated BLADEX (NYSE:BLX) and Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) with Overweight ratings. KeyBanc assumed Capital Lease Funding (NYSE:LSE) with a Hold rating. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

of the bill that would help communities hit hard by foreclosures, said he will sign the legislation in its current form.

Continue reading Dollar rises to one-month high on Fannie, Freddie rescue bill's progress

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to Equal Weight from Underweight based on asset sales, improved top-line, and dividend.

Credit Suisse upgraded Sanmina (NASDAQ:SANM) to Outperform from Neutral citing valuation and margin traction. The firm raised Sanmina's target to $2.50 from $1.60. Cowen upgraded Sanmina to Outperform from Neutral following the Q3 report and guidance. OTHER UPGRADES:

Pharm Product (NASDAQ:PPDI) was upgraded at Baird to Outperform from Neutral.

Sunoco Logistics (NYSE:SXL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.

JP Morgan lifted Air Products (NYSE:APD) to Overweight from Neutral. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Computers have seen prices go down by 90% over the past 10 years. TVs have experience a 76% drop over the same period of time. Even autos have dropped by 3.4% What to make of all this? Professor Perry looks at these drops in light of the fact that average hourly earnings have increased by 40% over the last 10 years. Or, in other words, Perry posits "...there are many, many products that are significantly cheaper today than ten years ago, especially after adjusting for increases in earnings."

So, why don't we pay attention to these dips that make it massively more affordable for me to set up my 73" Flat Panel TV screen?

While Prof. Perry credits the gradual nature of these price drops, I think it's human psychology. Behavioral finance has shown that in investing, we focus a lot more on losses than on gains. So too at the pump -- we're thinking about how much more a gallon of gas costs us than how much less a MacBookPro costs from a couple of years ago.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fundPermalink | Email this | Comments

Windows/Windows Live and Online Services will become...

by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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Street is rewarding the stock nicely this morning, pushing shares up over 14% in early morning trading.(See more of today's earnings news).

While the company was able to show a nice increase in sales, it did caution investors that the current economic condition is challenging, and that it expects this to remain the case for the foreseeable future. It has been tough for RadioShack recently to compete with stronger rivals such as Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), but the company showed good signs of life during the quarter by posting a 6.4% increase in sales. This is a very good sign for the company, which has been struggling the past several quarters.

Continue reading RadioShack (RSH) soars after reporting second quarter numbers

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Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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WaMu did say that it would be trimming up to $1 billion in costs by the end of next year. Ah, how nice! If you're a WaMu shareholder, does that statement give you any comfort? Probably not.

To go from an $830 million profit in 2007 to a $3.3 billion loss in 2008 is unspeakable, but it's almost the norm these days with mortgage-involved entities floating at the top of the fishbowl. Even though WaMu reflected a capital raise in April in its loss, the company still lost $3.34 per share even at that. Writeoffs totaled $2.17 billion and the company changed the time period from three years down to a year in which to evaluate defaults in its prime mortgage portfolio. As of this morning, WM shares are down over 20% from before Tuesday's report, and down over 57% for this year as well.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode.

Can our newest ETF be far behind? The Pro Shares Trash-Gas Super Fund? Got a couple future candidates here.

Some companies want to use garbage. On Friday, a company called Fulcrum BioEnergy said it would start construction later this year on a $120 million plant at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, in Storey County, Nev., to make 10.5 million gallons of ethanol a year from 90,000 tons of garbage. Operation would begin in early 2010.

In Montreal, another firm, Enerkem, plans to use arsenic-contaminated utility poles from the provincial electric company. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a plan by BlueFire Ethanol to build a $30 million garbage-to-ethanol plant on 10 acres next to a landfill in Lancaster, Calif.; construction will start soon, the company said.

Forget octane, Who wouldn't want  arsenic-contaminated utility poles are in their tank?

If some of these ETF's look a bit different today, there's all sorts of splitting action going on. SLV kind of makes sense in that now it's like regular silver. FXI 3:1 though? IYE 3:1? EEM 3:1? All kind of annoying. You get used to certain price levels and behavior. I can see MAYBE it makes sense to split a high priced stock sometimes, but an ETF? Why bother. I mean imagine if the split the Dow or the S&P over the course of time.

The data from the study raises two questions. The first is who owns the rights? Russia claims some of them. So does Denmark. The U.S. is even making come claims for part of the territory.

The other issue is the standard environmental one. Will drilling in the Arctic endanger any wildlife, create oil spills, or disrupt the ice cap? Since the ice is melting due to global warming, that concern may not last for long.

As oil prices rise, it becomes more evident with each passing month there are deposits of oil off-shore, in protected lands, and in regions that could not be reached before because the technology did not exist.

Unfortunately, getting at the oil could involve years of legal battles. By then maybe the T. Boone Pickens windmill farms will be delivering vast quantities of energy and it won't matter.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Instead its stated goals are to help 400,000 people with foreclosures and to save Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE). Here are six key provisions according to AP:

Puts distressed real estate on the government's books - Provides $3.9 billion in grants for "devastated neighborhoods" -- a provision the White House hated since it looked like the S&L bailout's RTC, that Bush I approved. Gives Paulson unlimited Fannie/Freddie bailout power - Gives the Treasury Department an unlimited line of credit to bail out Fannie and Freddie and to buy an unspecified amount of their stock. Creates new debt for drowning borrowers - Lets 400,000 foreclosing homeowners refinance into more affordable, fixed-rate loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Continue reading Bailout bill to pour more fuel on the housing bonfire

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