Investment Banking & Brokerage

Johnny Depp is the most beloved, beautiful actor of his generation. He has starred in everything from small-budget art pieces to blockbuster cinema movies. His eyes are synonymous with sex for a lot of folks in the 25-50 age group. Today happens to be Depp's 48th (already?) birthday. In his honor,...

GeoGlobal Resources (NYSE: GGR) today announced that the Board of Directors has authorized management to investigate a broad range of strategic alternatives available to the Company to enhance shareholder value. These capital restructuring and financing alternatives could include, but are not...

The Financial Sector is one of the strongest areas of the S&P 500 in today's session, currently trading up 1.3% from yesterday's close. Today's best performing stocks in that sector are: 1) Moody's (NYSE: MCO): Shares of Moody's are currently trading up 3.5% from yesterday's close to $40.80....

U.S. securities regulators are looking into whether financial services companies including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) may have violated bribery laws with regards to dealing with Libya's sovereign-wealth fund. Fitch Ratings said yesterday it would put U.S. debt on watch for a potential downgrade if...

The major financial stocks have been one of the weakest sectors for most of 2011. Nearly every trading day since early May, which was the start of the stock market correction, the financial stocks have come under severe selling pressure. This morning, the financial stocks are actually catching a...

Shares of E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) are higher on the session by 0.04%, currently trading at $14.02. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past three months and is currently trading below the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Options traders are buying puts on the...

Wedbush is out with its report today on Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG), downgrading ITG to Neutral. In a note to clients, Wedbush writes, "We believe that ITG is well positioned to benefit from a return of cash equity trading volumes to growth. Nevertheless, we believe volumes are likely...

Private-equity firms Warburg Pincus and TPG Capital are said to be cooperating on a bid for General Electric's (NYSE: GE) railcar leasing business, which has about $3 billion in assets. Private-equity firms Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Global Management also reportedly have made bids....

Analysts at Ticonderoga downgraded Whiting Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: WLL) from “buy” to “neutral.” WLL's shares closed at $61.34 yesterday. Whiting Petroleum's trailing-twelve-month ROA is 6.78%. Analysts at Dahlman Rose downgraded International Coal Group Inc (NYSE: ICO) from “buy” to “hold.”...

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) today announced Company metrics for May 2011. Monthly activities included: An average of 378,000 client trades per day in May 2011, down 22 percent from May 2010 and down 6 percent from April 2011. Approximately $420 billion in total client...

Wedbush Securities has downgraded Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG) from Outperform to Neutral and has lowered the price target from $20 to $15.

On CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer said during the Lightning Round that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) is “owned by stock sage Warren Buffett.” He added, “I want to stick behind the Oracle of Omaha, so I remain bullish on this stock. For Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU), he said, "This whole market is way...

The major stock indexes are all struggling this afternoon to get into positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500 Index have been sold off sharply by the institutional traders since the beginning of May 2011. The major stock indexes are down by about...

Banks have been punished all year long. After making highs in early 2011, stocks like Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) have all come crashing down. Goldman Sachs hit a high of $175.34 in January before selling off to its...

Shares of The SPDR KBW Bank ETF (NYSE: KBW) are higher on the session by 0.24%, trading at $23.29. Overall call volume is now running at 3.03x the daily average, with 0% of all calls traded being purchases on the offer. 15,000 contracts have traded on the session so far. The SPDR KBW Bank ETF...