Fast Money Recap - The Bad Bank Is Coming (1/27/09)

Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday January 27.The Bad Bank is Coming

Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday January 27.The Bad Bank is Coming

  • Fast Money Recap - Financials, Who Needs Them? (1/20/09)

    Recap of CNBC's Fast Money Program, Tuesday January 20.Who Needs Financials? Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C ), JP Morgan (JPM)

  • Fast Money Recap - The Banks That Got Away (6/9/09)

    Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday June 9.Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Blackstone ( BX), Jeffries (JEF)

  • Fast Money Recap - Banks: Don't Lend TARP Funds (1/21/09)

    Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Wednesday January 21.Citigroup (C ), Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), JP Morgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS)

  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

    FDIC wants in on the action. After auctioning off more than 100 failed banks this year, the FDIC wants a bigger slice of the pie. Starting next year, it will ask bidders on some seized banks to offer the agency a chance to profit if the deal is well-received by the buyer's shareholders. Earlier this month, the FDIC collected $23.3M from New York Community Bancorp (NYB) based on an unusual condition in its bid that gave the FDIC the ability to reap gains from a rally in New York Community's stock price after it announced its purchase of AmTrust; shares rose more than 16% in the two weeks following the deal. GMAC looks for $3.5B lifeline. GMAC will likely receive another $3.5B injection, adding to the $12.5B the feds have already used to stabilize the ailing auto lender. Sources say the additional money will help GMAC absorb losses related to its mortgage operations and return to profitability by Q1 2010. The Treasury has said it will provide GMAC with as much money as it needs to plug its leaks, and earlier this year predicted it could require another $5.6B; the lower figure now being discussed is in part because the impact from the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler has not been as severe as originally projected. Japan lays out 10-year plan. Japan's four-month-old government vowed to enlarge the economy by Ą150T and draw the nation out of a "long, downward-sloping tunnel" with a new strategy it said would deliver annual real GDP growth of at least 2% between now and 2020. The scheme is an attempt to quash rising domestic concerns over the country's gargantuan public debt, which equals about 180% of GDP. The ambitions plan, which some investors said "smacked of desperation," pledged to expose Japan more closely to growth in Asia; despite its proximity to China, Japan has not managed to fully leverage itself to external growth. (ETF: EWJ) JAL bankruptcy worries mount. Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp., the Japanese-government-backed corporate turnaround fund charged with the rescue of Japan Airlines, told JAL's main creditors it was leaning toward a restructuring under bankruptcy protection, sending investors into a panic and shares down 24%. A bankruptcy could wipe out JAL's shares and trigger large losses for creditors - including Japan's biggest banks - who own much of JAL's $16B in debt. A bankruptcy filing could also impact talks with American Airlines (AMR) and Delta Air Lines (DAL), which are courting JAL with rival offers of financial aid. Speculation over a JAL bankruptcy helped send the Nikkei down almost 0.9%. GM reopens Saab factories as it mulls bids. General Motors dropped its Dec. 31 deadline for bids on its Swedish car brand Saab, which will restart some production lines as it continues to talk with potential bidders. "We are preparing the wind-down process. At the same time we are open to options, to bids that come in. Therefore the deadline has also been dropped," Saab said, noting it has orders for its 9-3 and 9-5 models. Flight demand still growing. International air passenger demand rose 2.1% in November from a year ago, IATA said, while air freight climbed a healthy 9.5%. IATA was cautious about the rise, noting the improvement was accentuated by a sharp drop in traffic at the end of 2008. "Demand continues to improve, but we still have a lot of ground... to recover. We cannot anticipate any significant improvement in yields in the coming months," the trade group said. Demand is now 6.4% higher than the Q1 bottom, but is still 6% lower than its early 2008 peak. Credit-card delinquencies tick higher. November U.S. credit card chargeoffs rose half a percentage point to 10.56%, halting a two-month run of improvement, Moody's said. Delinquencies also rose, to 6.2%. Trends suggest bad debts will continue to rise through much of the winter, and support Moody's outlook that chargeoffs will peak at 12-13% in mid-2010. The payment rate, or percentage of the principal balance cardholders repaid, fell to 16.4% from 17.3%, largely due to November being a shorter month. Fewer shoppers finish holiday buying. An unprecedented 22% of U.S. consumers didn't finish their Christmas shopping this year, as fewer discounts kept many wallets closed, according to a report by Britt Beemer. "This is the lowest number of consumers finishing shopping in all my 26 years of tracking retail sales during the holiday season," Beemer said. Typically, 82-88% of shoppers make it to the finish line. Many said they couldn't afford to spend more, while others opted to give cash instead of presents. Nokia fires new strike against Apple. Nokia (NOK) opened up a new front in its patent fight with Apple (AAPL), filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission saying that Apple infringes on seven Nokia patents in nearly all of its consumer products. The patents relate to Nokia's technology to create features in user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies. Analysts say the dispute reflects a shift in the balance of power as cellphones morph into handheld computers. Consumer confidence grows, in a sense. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 52.9 from 50.6 in November, just short of the consensus estimate of 53. The increase was fueled by a rise in the Consumer Expectations Index to 75.6 from 70.3, while the Present Situation Index declined to 18.8 from 21.2 - somewhat surprising given that the present situation index is highly correlated with the labor markets, which have improved significantly in recent readings. The index suggests consumers may be skeptical about recent employment data. Home price recovery flattens. The decline in U.S. home prices improved for the ninth straight month in October, according to S&P/Case-Shiller, but monthly growth flattened in most markets. Year-on-year prices in the index's 10-city and 20-city readings declined 6.4% and 7.3%, while prices remained flat from last month. "Coming after a series of solid gains, these data are likely to spark worries that home prices are about to take a second dip," the report said. "Before jumping to conclusions, recognize that the one time that happened, at the beginning of the 1980s, Fed policy saw dramatic reversals, which is very different from the stable and consistent Fed policy we have today."Suit alleges Morgan sold garbage as gold. A Virgin Islands pension fund sued Morgan Stanley (MS), alleging the investment bank marketed a $1.2B CDO, and collaborated with credit raters to ensure AAA ratings, while shorting nearly all the assets. The Libertas CDO was backed mainly by residential mortgage-backed securities. The complaint said Morgan Stanley knew securities in the CDO were suffering a dramatic rise in delinquencies, but provided a misleading risk factor in its prospectus, noting rising delinquencies "may" hurt values in the RMBS market, which the complaint compared to "Captain Smith's telling passengers of the Titanic that some ships have 'recently sunk' in the Atlantic, and therefore 'our ship may sink,' without mentioning the facts that his ship struck an iceberg, had a hole in it, and was filling with water." Today's Markets Tuesday recap: Stocks edged lower while bonds rose after successfully digesting another dollop of supply. The dollar rose on strong consumer confidence figures. Oil rose as a cold-snap in the North East fueled expectations for a drop in inventories, and gold fell, hit by the dollar's strength.

  • 50 Killer Mac Apps For Under $50

       Who doesn't need more for less? We present 50 Mac|Life-approved applications--many free, all under $50--that'll guarantee you get the most from your Mac without traumatizing your wallet. The Internet is full of noise--countless different applications for every occasion, with reviews everywhere that love and hate them at the same time. While that’s hardly news, it’s still a hassle that isn’t going away. Say you picked up a spiffy new MacBook Pro, and it’s time to kit it out with the leanest, meanest software. After all, Macs have that rich history of garage-roots development, of a few folks in a basement brewing up quality software that smokes the big-name stuff. So you’ve got a feeling there’s great, affordable software just waiting for you to find it--and you’re right. But how do you sift through the zillion calendar apps and jillion media players to find the gems worthy of your hard drive space? And more importantly, your time and money?We’re here to help with a compendium of essential software. It didn’t come easily--we debated, argued, haggled, and even pleaded to secure a prized position on this list for our favorite, most useful applications. But by limiting the software we’re highlighting to 50, we’ve guaranteed you the best of the best--no Internet spew here. And by capping the cost of the software we’ve selected at $50, we’ve made sure you can reasonably buy what you need. You may love your Mac already, but you’re not gonna believe how much it can do once you load up even a few of these choice applications.   Entertainment Sure, iPods and iTunes make music and movies easier to enjoy, but they're not without headaches of their own. That's where these awesome apps come in. They take the pain out of kicking back with your favorite flicks and tunes. Simplify Media Share & stream your iTunes library over the Internet.The iPod has made several portable music formats obsolete, and we sure don’t miss schlepping around fragile cassette tapes or heavy wallets full of CDs. But even the mighty iPod has its limits--namely capacity. That’s where Simplify Media (free, Simplify Media, simplifymedia.com) comes in handy. It guarantees that the size of your music library doesn’t matter by letting you stream music between computers via the Internet. Yup, this app will play your entire library on any computer (as long as the one that has your library is powered up and online).Stream your tunes from home or the next cube.Once installed, a simple login fires up your music. Simplify Media works with iTunes just like the built-in LAN sharing does, and the remote libraries appear under Shared, alongside any local shared libraries. Even better, you can add up to 30 friends’ shared libraries, and an iPhone app ($5.99) lets you pipe your music to your iPhone or iPod touch.  SuperSync SuperSync keeps multiple iTunes collections in sync. Speaking of iTunes libraries--streaming is great, but what if you want to sync libraries across multiple Macs? SuperSync ($22, SuperSync, supersync.com) makes it so. Sure, Apple introduced limited music-transfer capabilities with Home Sharing in iTunes 9, but that feature requires computers to be on the same local network. SuperSync one-ups iTunes by syncing iTunes libraries over the Internet. It’s perfect for anyone who uses multiple Macs, and SuperSync also has a bunch of other tricked-out features. In deference to the record companies, Apple makes transferring music from an iPod to a computer unnecessarily difficult. SuperSync handles the task with ease, making it a bacon-saver when the hard drive in your Mac kicks the bucket. SuperSync will even allow you to sync libraries cross-platform.SuperSync's color-coded interface helps you synchronize your iTunes tracks across multiple Macs.  VLC Media Player Never worry about video file types again. If most of your Mac video-watching happens in the form of DVDs or QuickTime movies, you probably don’t think too much about player software. But move beyond the most basic video types, and you’re asking for trouble. With the myriad formats, containers, and encoding parameters available, the simple act of playing back a cat video can become incredibly frustrating. VLC Media Player (free, VideoLAN, www.videolan.org) is like a Swiss Army knife for digital media. It’s open source and cross-platform, and the app will play back practically any audio or video file you throw at it. VLC also handles file conversions with ease, so you can use it to convert audio and video for use online or on portable devices.It plays, it converts, it makes toast (okay, maybe not that last one.)  RipIt Backup & convert DVDs with RipIt.There are plenty of legit reasons to rip a DVD. Backup copies of kids’ movies for the minivan, watching Glee on your iPod touch while you’re on the bus, or even just saving battery power on your laptop (playing back a file from a hard drive is much more efficient than spinning a DVD).RipIt's simple interface makes ripping DVDs seamless and easy.Once the domain of ĂĽbernerds, DVD ripping is a one-click affair thanks to RipIt ($19.95, The Little App Factory, ripitapp.com). And since it makes full rips, all of the menus, bonus features, and subtitles remain intact. You can play back the resulting files with DVD Player on your Mac or use a freeware tool like Handbrake to convert your rips into iPod-friendly formats.   Delicious Library We love the iTunes Store, but we still end up accumulating books, DVDs, console games, and, yes, even CDs. Delicious Library ($40, Delicious Monster Software, www.delicious-monster.com) helps catalog your collections by--get this--taking snaps of UPCs via your webcam and then automatically organizing your meatspace content onto virtual shelves for easy sorting and browsing. You can track loans to friends, post items for sale on Amazon, and publish Web catalogs formatted for your iPhone. That way, you can avoid buying another copy of John Hodgman’s More Information Than You Require.   Connect360 We’re Apple-faithful, but that doesn’t stop us from engaging in a little Modern Warfare 2 on our Xbox 360. And since the 360 is much more than a simple gaming machine, we also use it to stream iTunes tracks to our entertainment center and view pictures from our iPhoto library on our HDTV--with the help of Connect360 ($20, Nullriver Inc, www.nullriver.com), that is. It works over wired or wireless networks, and it even streams H.264 video straight from our MacBook. Sweet!   Peel Pack rats, beware: Peel ($14.95, Hjalti Jakobsson, www.getpeel.com) can get really overwhelming, really fast. But if you’re an avid follower of music blogs, Peel can automagically grab new tracks as they’re posted. So forget all that pesky right-clicking and manually adding to iTunes. Just feed Peel a list of your favorite music blogs, and then kick back as tons of new, free tunes get downloaded straight to your Mac. You may never have to buy (or pirate) music again.    CoverScout Cover Flow is one of those features that looks great in a demo but doesn’t quite translate at home. iTunes can attempt to find the album art that makes Cover Flow actually useful, but it’s limited in scope and can’t make fuzzy matches. CoverScout ($39.95, equinox USA, www.equinux.com) scours the Internet to find your missing album art and presents you with multiple options to let you choose the best images. Don’t Cover Flow without it.   TuneUp For all of those untitled and mistitled tracks in your music library, there’s TuneUp ($19.95/one year, $29.95/lifetime; TuneUp Media; www.tuneupmedia.com). Like CoverScout, TuneUp can find and download missing album art, but its best trick is cleaning up your ID3 tags--the artist, title, and album info displayed in iTunes. A quick search is all it takes to clear up all those Track 1s and Unknown Artists in your library. It sure beats cleaning up metadata by hand. Next Page: Productivity Apps >>  Productivity Takin' care of business, every day. Takin' care of business, every way. Workin' on a Mac, it's all right. This productivity software is workin' overtime. WriteRoom Blocks distractions so you can write in peace.Proving the tired adage that “less is more,” WriteRoom ($24.95, Hog Bay Software, www.hogbaysoftware.com) is a light text editor with a full-screen mode. Start a new document, and everything else fades away--your Dock, your menubar, and other windows on your Desktop. You’re left with a black screen and friendly green text for a clutter- and distraction-free experience. The Escape key toggles between full-screen mode and windowed mode, which resembles TextEdit with a live word count.WriteRoom can save your work as plain text, rich text, or Microsoft Word’s .doc format. The preferences offer tons of customization: auto-save, character counts, the appearance of text in full-screen mode, and more. But WriteRoom’s real magic is how it gets out of your way and lets you focus on what you’re doing.  BusyCal One calendar application to rule them all.BusyCal ($40, BusyMac, www.busymac.com) is iCal on steroids. It dances circles around iCal, chanting, “Everything you can do, I can do better.” And it’s right. Sharing is a snap: You can set up two-way syncing with your Google Calendar or with other BusyCal calendars on your local network or the wide-open Internet. But even aside from sharing, BusyCal offers tons of calendaring bells and whistles: customizable views, sticky notes, weather forecasts, moon phases, graphical icons, a to-do list, notes, tags, and much more. And since it uses the Sync Services built into Mac OS X, your BusyCal calendars can sync with MobileMe and your iPhone. You can even switch back to iCal anytime without losing any of the events or to-dos you entered in BusyCal.So what if iCal is free? BusyCal is better.  Things Flexible to-do list syncs with iCal and the iPhone. For busy people like us, a good to-do list is beyond essential. But some that we’ve tried are so complicated that just managing your tasks becomes a chore in itself. So the light, easy-to-understand Things ($49.95, Cultured Code, www.culturedcode.com) is a breath of fresh air. You can go the full Getting Things Done route, adding contexts, priority levels, a tickler file, and so on. Or you can keep it simple, with one-off and repeating tasks and multistep projects. iCal syncing can get your deadlines on your calendar, and Things on the Mac can sync wirelessly with Things on the iPhone ($9.99 in the App Store). We’ve tried multiple task-managment systems, from Web-based ToodleDo to iPhone apps like ToDo to Mail’s built-in To-Do list to good old paper and pencil. Things is the cream of the crop for its good looks, quick entry, and easy syncing.Things uses tags to organize your projects in a million ways--or you can ignore the tags altogether and just work.  Express Scribe Transcriptions made easy... well, easier.Transcribing an interview, lecture, or other recording is hard enough, just with the listening and typing. Toss in the extra arm movement as you frantically click from your text editor to your audio-playback application every time you want to pause the recording or rewind a few seconds, and your transcribing job just got tougher and more frustrating. Express Scribe (free, NCH Software, www.nch.com.au/scribe) lets you set system-wide hotkeys for audio playback so you can stay in your text editor, fully control the audio, and never need to reach for your mouse.Express Scribe can also slow down your audio without changing the pitch, supports video, works with lots of file types, loads recordings from analog or digital audio recorders, and more. Plus, it’s completely free. Wahoo!  NoteBook The Mac is silly with note-taking applications (Evernote, Yojimbo, ShoveBox, MacJournal…shall we go on?), but Circus Ponies’ NoteBook ($49.95, Circus Ponies, www.circusponies.com) is a standout. If you subscribe to “a place for everything, and everything in its place,” NoteBook can be the place for notes, Web clippings, bookmarks, documents, voice memos, photos, and more. It struts its flexibility with ready-made templates for planning a trip, writing a research paper, collecting recipes, keeping a journal, and so on, while its fun spiral-notebook interface is a nice touch.    TextExpander A thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters could produce Hamlet a lot faster if they knew how to use TextExpander ($29.95, SmileOnMyMac, www.smileonmymac.com). This wonder app installs as a System Preferences pane and lets you define shortcuts for your most commonly used words and phrases. Abbreviate long URLs, your email signoff, even your own photo or scanned signature file. Then as you type those shortcuts, they’re automagically expanded to what you really wanted to say. Brilliant.   iFinance 3 Sure, Quicken is popular and Mint.com is free, but iFinance 3 ($29, Synium Software GmbH, www.synium.de) was built from the ground up just for Macs, and it shows. The intuitive interface makes it a cinch--dare we say a pleasure?--to track your accounts, keep an eye on your cash flow, set up a budget, and graph your expenses. It can also import from CSV and QIF files for easier data entry. Plus, a companion iPhone app lets you enter transactions on the go.  FlexTime This charming timer app ($18.95, Red Sweater Software, www.red-sweater.com) lets you set up multistep routines that run once or repeat ad nauseam. Each step can be marked by a sound, spoken text, or even running a script. Once your routine is perfect, you can export the audio to iTunes--great for following a recipe’s carefully timed steps or taking your favorite yoga routines on the road.   DEVONthink Personal Another great catch-all for storing, sorting, organizing, and searching information, DEVONthink ($49.95, DEVONtechnologies, www.devon-technologies.com) can take almost anything you can throw at it. Documents, PDFs, photos, multimedia files, bookmarks, webpages, iChat logs--all of those can be imported, sorted, and read right in DEVONthink. Searching is easy, and you can cobble together a brand-new document from items in your DEVONthink database and export it to your favorite text editor for printing or as HTML for posting.  Next Page: Internet Apps >>  Internet It's a wild place, that Interweb, so there's nothing like a few primo apps to tame everything from blogging to FTPs to Twitter and Flash banners. Transmit Traveling the two-lane FTP highway.FTP has been around forever. Social networking and cloud computing may come and go, but FTP is in it for the long hall. Fortunately, there are a wealth of great FTP clients for the Mac, and the best of those is Transmit ($29.95, Panic, www.panic.com/transmit). The client utilizes a split directory window that shows the path on your computer and the path on the FTP site. With in-app search and the ability to sync folders on your Mac and on the FTP site, Transmit helps alleviate the search and drag-and-drop blues of other clients. The sync feature is especially helpful for Web developers and designers. You can even create desktop droplets for quick uploads to heavily used sites.Two-window FTP FTW.  Mac-Journal Web-based apps suck.Blogging about your life is a faux pas. Blogging about anything else that people actually care about is the proper way of utilizing of the blogging systems available out there. The ongoing problem is that most blogging platforms are bit of a pain to use because they’re Web-based. Plus, if you’re somewhere without Internet access, you can’t start laying out your blog posts for your site. MacJournal ($39.95, Mariner Software, www.marinersoftware.com) solves that problem with an easy-to-use multiplatform blogging client. Lay out your articles offline with images, video, and audio, then save them for later posting. The app includes the ability to both write in full-screen mode so you won’t be interrupted by your Twitter friends, and to record an audio podcast in the client.Create blog posts quickly and without browser issues.  Tweetie Multi-account Twitter action.After wowing the world with its iPhone Twitter app, atebits decided to release a desktop version of Tweetie ($19.95, atebits, www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/). The app can handle multiple Twitter accounts, compose tweets in a separate window, allow you to change the account you’re sending a tweet from on the fly, and let you drag and drop pics and videos right into the Compose window. Don’t have the perfect media on your Mac for a tweet? Record a video or shoot a pic from your iSight camera directly in Tweetie. And since Twitter conversations can be difficult to follow, Tweetie displays the conversation you’re having in a timeline if you just double-click one of the pertinent tweets. The Tweetie bookmarklet in Safari also allows you to share links quickly from your browser.Have an actual conversation on Twitter with Tweetie.  Dropbox Stop, drop, and roll on home.Transferring large files can be a huge pain. Where the hell did you leave that thumb drive? External hard drives leave an unsightly bulge in your pocket, and all those cables are always getting tangled in your shoes. That’s a safety hazard, son. Dropbox (2GB storage for free, 50GB for $9.99/month; Dropbox; www.dropbox.com) is a cloud-based storage drive that you can access from any computer or iPhone. Just pop files into the Dropbox folder on your Mac, and it automatically syncs up with the online disk (which you can view on Dropbox’s website) and with any other machines you have the application installed on. You can even share folders and files with other Dropbox users. If the free 2GB box doesn’t cut it, you can upgrade to 50GB for $10 a month.Access your files from anywhere in the universe (with an Internet connection).  LogMeIn If you need to remotely access a Mac or (gasp) a PC with Windows on it, LogMeIn (free, LogMeIn, logmein.com) allows you to peer into your remote computer from anywhere. You can launch apps, move files, and adjust your preferences via a Web-based interface, as if you were sitting at that computer. For $29.99, you can get your iPhone in on the action too.   TweetDeck If you’re a Twitter power user, TweetDeck (free, TweetDeck, www.tweetdeck.com) should be in your arsenal of Twitter apps. The interface is a series of columns that displays info like your friends’ feeds, saved searches, mentions, direct mentions, and Facebook updates. You can also keep up with trending topics with just a quick glance. If there’s something you need to track on Twitter, TweetDeck can make a column for it.   Vuze Allegedly, BitTorrent steals medication from senior citizens, but isn’t it time to forget about all the evil things it supposedly does? Instead, focus on the greatness of Vuze (free, Vuze, www.vuze.com) and its ability to download legally available video files. After you’ve done the downloading, Vuze can convert your files for use on the iPhone, Apple TV, iPod, Xbox 360, TiVo, and PlayStation 3. It’ll even stream videos to your set-top boxes. Nice!   BannerZest Creating Flash banners is difficult, especially when you don’t know or own Flash. BannerZest ($49, Aquafadas, www.aquafadas.com) takes the pain out the process and gives you a simple way to create quick, beautiful Flash banners. From a standard gallery to an interactive experience, BannerZest comes with a collection of themes for different uses, and it uploads your banners to your FTP or MobileMe disk.    FileChute Sending large files over email can result in the dreaded bounced email. FileChute ($17.95, Yellow Mug Software, www.yellowmug.com) works with your MobileMe-, FTP-, or WebDAV-accessible Web server. Drop your file into the app, and it uploads it to your online server of choice and then creates a URL to add to your email. If you drop more than one file, you get an archive uploaded to your server. Adios, bounced emails!  Next Page: Content Creation Apps >> Content Creation Sure, Adobe's stuff is the gold standard, but you don't want to have to count on a good night at the poker table to pay for it, right? Cue these killer applications, which let you effectively draw, edit photos, render, animate, and even scratch for a very fair price. djay 3 Budgeted beats to grow on.You want to spin phat beats, but your slim bank keeps you from purchasing the high-end DJ equipment and software. That’s okay, young DJ-in-training, djay 3 ($49.95, algoriddim, www.djay-software.com) gives you everything you need to rock the house without losing your shirt. This surprisingly robust audio-mixing software integrates with your iTunes library and puts all the usual mixing and scratching right on your desktop. The application supports multitouch trackpad scratching and fading between tracks, so it’s especially perfect for the last few generations of MacBooks. And as you grow as a DJ, the application will grow with you thanks to its support for MIDI controllers. That means when you get the cash for those fancy digital mixers and turntables, djay will be right there with you.With your iTunes catalog at your fingertips, you'll find some pretty interesting mashups.  Audacity Free audio editor extraordinaire.Audio editing seems simple at first. Then suddenly, you’re knee-deep in samples, frequencies, and bitrates. Sound editing really is part science, part black magic, so we’re thankful that Audacity (free, SourceForge, audacity.sourceforge.net) removes one of the biggest obstacles: choosing a quality application and figuring out how you’re going to pay for it. Audacity is both terrific and free, which is kinda hard to beat. An audio-recording and -editing application, it captures up to 16 channels at once from multiple sources, features noise removal, includes a metadata editor, and supplies unlimited undos. It can handle most of the audio files out there, and it’ll work with multiple files types in the same project. Audacity is also is cross-platform, so if you’re a recent Mac arrival, you may already know about its awesome power.So many features, you'll second-guess the price: free.  SketchUp 3D for you and me.Maya, 3D Studio Max, and SketchUp--all of these will let you create magical 3D worlds. Only one will do it for free, and you probably nailed it in one--it’s Google’s SketchUp software (free, Google, sketchup.google.com) that brings the world of 3D to the average Joe. You can create your own items or utilize Google’s 3D warehouse to find models created by other SketchUp users. With all those models at your fingertips, you can create floor plans for your home, build a level for your favorite FPS, or export the files to animation software or Photoshop. The application includes tutorials that’ll get you up and rendering in no time at all… so now nothing stands between you and virtual-world domination!Build a virtual man-cave for you and your stuff.  Ringer Wham-bam ringtone, ma'am.We get tons of people asking us, “How do I make a ringtone for my iPhone?” Until recently, we told them to launch GarageBand, cut a ringtone, and export it to iTunes. Now we recommend Ringer ($15, Pixel Research Labs, pixelresearchlabs.com/ringer) as the quickest and easiest way to create ringtones from your favorite songs and audio files. Ringer has access to your entire iTunes library and works with MP3, AAC, MOV, MP4, M4V, and QuickTime files. Yeah, you can make a ringtone from a video file. A super-simple editor with waveform information makes it a snap to select the perfect section of audio, and you can fade in and out of the file and preview the ringtone before cropping it and sending it to iTunes for a sync with your iPhone.   Acorn Using an image editor doesn’t have to cost you hundreds of dollars. In fact, with Acorn ($49.95, Flying Meat, www.flyingmeat.com/acorn), you’ll get features like layers, AppleScript support, 64-bit support, drawing, and filters in a package that’s easy on the wallet. This easy-to-use software strips away most of the features most people don’t use and gives you a clean image-editing tool.   Inkscape While raster-based image editors like Photoshop are great at pushing pixels around, the vector-based drawing programs are where all the real action happens. The open-source application Inkscape (free, Inkscape, www.inkscape.org) is similar to powerhouses like Illustrator and CorelDraw, but with one important difference--it’s free. The app utilizes the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format and includes a nice 3D drawing tool that allows you to set your vanishing points.    Screenflick With Snow Leopard, Apple introduced screen-capture into QuickTime, and it’s a nice feature if you’re looking to make a quick full-screen screencast. But if you want something that has features like fixed location output at up to 60 fps, Screenflick ($25, Araelium Group, www.araelium.com/screenflick) is an application you can get behind. It’ll highlight mouse clicks and keyboard events, adding a nifty visual cue into your screencasts that highlights what you’re doing.   Bracketeer While your eye can take in an amazing range of light to dark, your camera cannot. In order to help create images that include a tonal range that the average camera can’t capture, HDR applications and plug-ins have appeared on the market. These applications take a series of images that have been bracketed from dark to light and combine them to include the darkest darks to the lightest lights in one HDR image. Bracketeer ($29.95, Pangea Software, pangeasoft.net/pano/bracketeer) is a standalone application that does just that. Adjust the saturation, the contrast, and exposure from within the application. The application will even auto-align your images in case you got the hiccups while taking your pics.   iStopMotion 2 Home Most animators’ first animation was probably a stop-motion piece with Star Wars action figures. And whether those childhood lightsaber battles have you hoping to become the next Brad Bird, or you just love the look of stop-motion, iStopMotion ($49, Boinx Software, www.boinx.com/istopmotion/overview) is a quick, easy way to create simple stop-motion animations. Use your iSight or connect a camera to your Mac and start making your own Wallace and Gromit short. You’ll feel the Force, Lu… sorry.  Next Page: Utility Apps >> Utilities Slick utilities can add crucial functionality to your Mac, so we've selected the best options for everything from secure password managers and system-troubleshooting tools to an app that will let you play Windows games on your Mac... without Windows! AppZapper Completely trash applications.Unlike using Windoze, installing and uninstalling apps on a Mac is painless. Drag an application’s icon into your Applications folder, and you’re pretty much good to go. Deleting them is just as simple--just grab them and toss them into the Trash. But if you’ve ever dug around Library or System folders on your Mac, you’ll see that even after you Trash an app, many of them leave crumbs in different parts of your machine. For cleaning up those last little bits, AppZapper ($12.95, Austin Sarner and Brian Ball, www.appzapper.com) is a must-have utility that’s also great for troubleshooting problems. Wiping out all of an application’s preferences and other random files can often turn a troublesome app into a perfectly behaved one after a clean reinstall. Completely remove unwanted applications with a simple drag and drop.  Hazel Clean and organize your Mac--automatically.Hazel ($21.95, NoodleSoft, www.noodlesoft.com) is kind of like Rosie the Robot for your Mac. Or it’s like OS X’s Folder Actions… if they were super-awesome, easy to use, and perfect for helping you keep your Mac’s folders and files organized. Hazel installs as a pane in System Preferences, monitoring locations that you choose, and performs actions on files based on your criteria. By creating simple rules, you can delegate repetitive and annoying file-management tasks to Hazel--for example, automatically add downloaded MP3s to iTunes or move DMGs to an archive on an external drive. Hazel can delve deep into metadata for complex actions like copying images into subfolders by ISO settings or reorganizing music files according to bitrate. You can even set up simple rules for auto-deleting items that have been in the Trash longer than a certain amount of time.  1Password Keep all your confidential info on lockdown.You’ve heard it before--secure, unique passwords are the way to go. Yet there you are, still using the same password for everything from your maclife.com login to your Gmail and your bank account. Do we even have to tell you again why that’s a colossally bad idea? 1Password ($39.95, Agile Web Solutions, agilewebsolutions.com) can help clean up your online act, creating and managing complex passwords for every online account and then logging you in with a keyboard shortcut. The app can also be used to securely store personal information like credit card numbers and addresses for use in Web forms. And since all of your passwords are unique, you won’t have to worry about your banking info being compromised because of a data breach at that sketchy Russian website you used to download MP3s for a penny.1Password securely stores Web passwords, logins, software licenses, and other important information.  iPhone Explorer Store & browse files on your iPhone.Breaking tradition with the iPods of yore, Apple doesn’t provide the ability to use your iPhone as a USB drive. iPhone Explorer (free, myPod Apps, www.mypodapps.com) is a simple app that will let you drag and drop files onto your phone for easy portability. The app itself is lightweight, and all it takes is a USB cable to view your iPhone’s folder structure. In addition to storing files, iPhone Explorer can be used to restore iTunes tracks from your iPod to a Mac or to rescue photographs from the depths of your iPhone’s memory. No jailbreaking is required, but more adventurous users with jailbroken phones can also recover contacts, messages, email, and other data. It’s a powerful tool, but it’s simple to use for the careful novice.  AppleJack AppleJack (free, The Apotek, applejack.sourceforge.net) is one of those things you’ll install once and never think about again—if everything goes right. But if, god forbid, your Mac starts acting weird one day--or stops acting, period--it’ll be AppleJack to the rescue. It’s a command-line utility for diagnosing and repairing problems with your computer. Use the menu-driven system to repair permissions, validate preferences files, and remove screwy cache files.  SuperDuper With Time Machine built into OS X, there’s really no good reason not to have an automatic backup. But Time Machine has its limits--a big one being the lack of bootable backups. SuperDuper ($27.95, Shirt Pocket, www.shirt-pocket.com) easily handles creating and updating bootable clones of your Mac’s hard drive so you’ll be ready to go when disaster strikes. Just plug in your clone, restart, and you’re up and running again.   CrossOver Games PC fanboys like to slag the Mac for having fewer games, but with CrossOver Games ($39.95, CodeWeavers, www.codeweavers.com), Mac users--and Linux fans too--can easily play games coded for Windows machines. The list of officially supported games is hundreds deep, and since CrossOver is based on Wine, you don’t even need a copy of Windows just to play Team Fortress 2.   Clean My Mac Hard drives are never big enough. Whether you have a MacBook Air or a Mac Pro, there always comes a point when there’s just not enough space on your internal disks. Clean My Mac ($29.95, MacPaw, macpaw.com) can help with that problem, scouring your Mac’s drive and tossing out all sorts of gunk you don’t need. Use it to toss unneeded language files, scrub extraneous code from universal binaries, and thoroughly clean up after deleted applications.   rooSwitch OS X’s Fast User Switching is handy for juggling multiple user accounts and their corresponding settings, but rooSwitch ($19, Rocket, rooswitch.com) allows you to maintain different settings on a per-application basis. Use it to manage Home and Work browser profiles, for example, or to have different profiles in your word processor for writing or editing documents. rooSwitch works with nearly any application, and it supports Automator and AppleScript for the ultimate in customizability.  Next Page: Wild Card Apps & Staff Picks >>  Wild Cards Not all Mac apps fall into your neat little categories. These five break the mold and completely deserve a place on your hard drive. Bricksmith Virtual bricks you can't lose or step on? Sold!Legos are the official plastic brick of Mac|Life--we’ve had many discussions about the empires we built in our childhood bedrooms and how much we miss “playing Legos” as the soulless adults we are today. Bricksmith (free, donations accepted; Allen Smith; bricksmith.sourceforge.net) lets you recapture the magic in a highly geeky way. It’s a 3D Lego-model creator, offering drag-and-drop construction using thousands of parts in every color of Lego’s rainbow. Tutorials and the one finished model that’s included show you the ropes, and once you’re done with your virtual creation, you can export step-by-step instructions to build it for real. There’s even a mini figure generator where you can design and outfit a matching Lego man and insert him into your model. This software couldn’t be cooler.We can't believe an application this sweet is donationware.  CameraBag Desktop Give your photos a new identity or some old-timey charm.We named the iPhone version of CameraBag one of our “101 Essential Apps for 2008,” and now the same fun can be had on your Mac, thanks to CameraBag Desktop ($19, Nevercenter, www.nevercenter.com). You drag in a digital image, and the app re-creates the look of a real film photograph--choose from Helga, Lolo, Mono, 1962, 1974, Instant, Magazine, Cinema, or Colorcross.For more variations, click the Reprocess button, and all the options will change their look and coloring just slightly. Or check the Multi-filter box and experiment with adding multiple filters to a single photo. Of course, you can export your altered images back to your hard drive without affecting the original file. The novelty of taking an everyday digital snapshot and making it look like a Polaroid image or washed-out 1974 photograph never gets old.Your digital photos, plus extra personality.  SousChef Recipe database + shopping list + cooking assistant = one kitchen lifesaver.SousChef ($30, Acacia Tree Software, acaciatreesoftware.com) edges out MacGourmet ($49.95, www.marinersoftware.com) in the cooking-assistant category for its cloud database of recipes. Every time a SousChef user enters a recipe (133,000-plus at press time), it’s synced to the cloud, and you can search those and import them into your own library. You can also opt out of sharing your own recipes so Aunt Erma’s secret matzo ball soup stays in the family.Once a recipe’s in your library, you can edit, print, email, or blog it--or even add its ingredients to your grocery list. Click the Cook button for a full-screen view of the instructions that you can read from across the room, keeping your Mac out of the splatter zone. The Mac’s built-in speech recognition lets you advance the recipe’s steps with your own voice, or you can use the Apple Remote or a Keyspan Front Row Remote.  Temporis Attractive, drag-and-drop timelines make it easy to "show, don't tell."Everyone loves a good infographic, or at least geeky types like us do. (And the geeks shall inherit the earth, don’cha know?) Temporis ($24.99, Bartas Technologies, www.bartastechnologies.com) makes it easy to create neat-looking timelines on your Mac, which you can then print or export as PDF or TIFF files that are ready for importing into your presentation software, word processor, or page-layout app.Adding new events is just a Command-click away, and it’s a snap to drag the start and end dates around on the timeline. The Arrange button will automatically stagger your timeline’s events into the most logical and easy-to-read order, and the Inspector lets you tweak fonts, colors, titles, labels, and your timeline’s span and intervals. You can even export the event data separately as an XML or CSV file.  Manga Studio Debut 4 Create your own comics and manga, and even manga-fy your photos.Manga Studio Debut 4 ($49.99, Smith Micro, my.smithmicro.com) is a must-have for fans of Japanese manga or anyone who wants to make their own comic books. Its ingenious Beginner’s Assistant groups together the tools by processes so you can intuitively wind your way through a typical manga workflow: sketch, panel, draw, tone, and add character dialogue.You can scan or draw your own art (graphics tablets supported, natch), play with the included samples, purchase manga content from www.contentparadise.com, or even import your own digital photos and watch Manga Studio make them all comicky-looking. Draw speed lines, add dialogue bubbles, move your pages around, and then print or export your finished comic book. Manga Studio Debut 4 is the younger brother to professional-level Manga Studio EX 4 ($299.99), but Debut has plenty of advanced features too, including layers, templates, customizable patterns, and more. Mac|Life Staff Picks  Bass Tuner I’m a beginning bass player--like, very beginning. So it’s a huge help that I don’t have to worry about staying in key. This terrific, simple, and streamlined little app ($9, www.rustykat.com) lets me quickly get in tune in front of my MacBook using the built-in mic. With that necessity sorted, I can fire up some tracks and tablature and focus on struggling to play along.   Multiwinia Multiwinia ($19, www.ambrosiasw.com) offers crazy replayability. You devise a strategy for your stick-figure army, then watch them take on up to four other teams in six game types on 40 vector-graphic maps. Online multiplayer against Mac and Windows players works flawlessly and keeps me coming back for more. No Napoleon complex necessary.    MetaX If you need to tag a large amount of MP4 files, you could use iTunes’ painfully slow process. Instead I found MetaX (free, www.kerstetter.net) for all my tagging needs. The app will search the IMDB catalog and plug the information into the appropriate fields, then share that info via tagChimp. You can even scan DVD barcodes via iSight!    Bean For a word dork like me, word processors are a big deal. Bean (free, www.bean-osx.com) is a lightweight, open-source word processor. It’s missing many of the blinky lights and thingamajigs of the big boys, and that’s exactly the point. Fewer distractions equals better writing, faster. And for anyone who needs to hit a certain length, the live word count rocks.    Fluid I often find that Firefox has the tendency to crash when I have too many Web applications running. But Fluid (free, fluidapp.com) lets me create a site-specific browser out of my most essential websites, like Google Docs and Flickr. Simply plug in the URL, and voilĂ ! You have a separate application running that won’t go down if something else does.   Next Page: More Gaming Bang for 50 Bucks >>  More Bang for 50 Bucks Some of the Mac's best games are also its cheapest? Sweet!Fifty bones won’t buy you even one new Xbox 360 or PS3 game, but on the Mac, you can snap up a stack of premier games for less than that. Or at least, that was our theory when we gave Florence, our new associate online editor, 50 whole American dollars and asked her to max out her Mac with the best gaming that short stack of money could buy.  Man, did she score--check out the results of her diligent “research.” Plants Vs. Zombies $16, amazon.comLine up perilous peashooters and sun-soaking sunflowers against an abominable horde of zombies in Plants vs. Zombies.This animated tower-defense favorite pits you against a horde of zombies with one thing on their (decaying) minds--invading your home for brains! Pit your arsenal of zombie-fighting plants, each with their own spectacular organic weaponry, against 26 zombies and 50 levels of adventure. Fair warning: Once you start playing this excellent game, it’s incredibly hard to stop.  World of Goo $10, amazon.comStack up adorable globs of goo to build structures and watch them band together as you help transport them across various levels.World of Goo is another addictive and totally adorable puzzle game. Created around the idea that circular goo balls make adequate building materials (naturally), the game has you solving puzzles by dragging and dropping goo to create all kinds of crazy structures that enable you to transport your goo across the level. The oh-so-cute googly-eyed blobs pack the game with charm, and you can also connect online and play against other Goo architects around the world. Braid $15, playgreenhouse.comBraid's aesthetically appealing backdrop and profound storyline will keep you engrossed until the very end.Some games defy description, and Braid might be easy to pass over because it appears to be just a mix of platforming and time control set against a gorgeous backdrop. But it subverts and transcends those two well-worn clichĂ©s with brilliant design and an absorbing story that packs a twist that you’ll never see coming. Watch the YouTube videos if you need help solving its puzzles, but just make sure you see this masterpiece through to the end. Balcassa $8, openplanetsoftware.comBalcassa has a mountain of exciting brainteasers for the puzzle fiend.Balcassa feeds off those nightmares you still have about attempting to master that archaic, rainbow-colored Rubik’s cube. And while most of you probably never cracked the damn thing (we didn’t!), Balcassa gives you a second chance. The objective of the game is to slide the cubes into a specific sequence, pattern, or orientation. It may sound like a simple task, but much like fiddling with a Rubik’s cube, figuring it all out is the real reward. Freeware Fun If you’re interested in first-person shooters and MMORPGs, Quake Live and Second Life can give you hours of entertainment at our favorite price: $0.00. Both games perform smoothly on Mac OS 10.4 or later. Quake Live doesn’t require beefy hardware because it runs through your Web browser. But that doesn’t stop it from delivering all the fast-paced action of the classic first-person shooter. Second Life, while not as packed with storyline as World of Warcraft, offers a similar massively multiplayer world where you can meet people, customize your character’s look, and participate in a virtual world that’s just like our own. You don’t even have to watch the clock to make sure you’re on time for a player-versus-player raid!You don't need fancy computer hardware to frag your way through this beloved shooter. Vital Statistics on Our 50 Killer Apps Total cost if you bought all 50 apps: $1219.83Number of apps that are free: 13Apps that have an iPhone counterpart: 15Whaddaya waiting for? (apps that have a free demo): 39Number of countries these apps were born in: 7Apps named "iSomething": shockingly... just 3!Apps that require Snow Leopard: 1Apps that require Leopard: 14Apps that promise "iLife integration!": 9 

  • Fast Money Recap: All Eyes on Alcoa (7/7/09)

    Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday January 7All Eyes on Alcoa (AA)All eyes are on Alcoa, since its earnings report will be considered to be a "tell" for the materials sector and perhaps the economy in general. David Lipschitz of CLSA thinks earnings will be weak and expects the company to post a third consecutive quarterly loss. Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Dana Guido's advice is to buy steel on a pullback in Alcoa and aluminum. The group discussed the importance of paying attention to how Alcoa's orders are faring, and if orders are up, the economy may be on the road to recovery.

  • Fast Money - Low VIX Picks (1/6/09)

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  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

    AIG bonus uproar continues. According to a letter New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent to Congress, among the recipients of a so-called retention bonus paid to AIG employees, eleven people no longer work for the insurer and 73 employees received bonuses of $1M or more. As public outcry over the payments continues, Geithner told congressional leaders that the U.S. will recoup executive bonuses paid by AIG (AIG) by deducting the amount from the next $30B aid installment. He also said the government will accelerate the 'wind down' process of restructuring AIG. A bipartisan group of Senators has proposed taxes totalling 70% on bonuses at AIG and other firms receiving emergency federal funds. (Read Geithner's letter to Congress (.pdf))(Read Cuomo's letter to Congress (.pdf)) China cans Coke bid. China has rejected Coca-Cola's (KO) $2.3B bid for China Huiyuan Juice Group (CYUNF.PK), arguing the biggest foreign takeover of a Chinese company would have been 'negative for competition.' The Ministry of Commerce was concerned Coca-Cola might have used its 'dominant position' in the carbonated drinks market to raise prices and limit choices for Chinese consumers while making it more difficult for smaller rivals to survive. The decision will block Coca-Cola, which already controls more than 50% of China's soda market, from expanding its share of China's fast-growing juice market. Sun shines on potential IBM deal. IBM (IBM) is reportedly in talks to buy Sun Microsystems (JAVA) in a deal that would boost IBM's presence in software, on the internet and in finance and telecommunications markets. Both firms make computer systems that aren't reliant on Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows software and their product lines are less dependent than rivals' on Intel's (INTC) microprocessor technologies. If a deal goes through, IBM will likely pay at least $6.5B in cash for the acquisition, a premium of over 100% on Sun's closing price yesterday. Sources say talks could still fall apart, but a deal could go through as early as this week. Premarket: IBM -2.1%, JAVA +62.4% (7:00 ET). NJ sues Lehman execs. New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram has filed a lawsuit against 18 Lehman Brothers executives, saying the firm's misrepresentations resulted in $118M in losses for the state. Among the executives named are CEO Dick Fuld, former CFO Christopher M. O'Meara and former president Joseph M. Gregory. The state is also suing Ernst & Young, Lehman's longtime accountants, for allowing Lehman to improperly account for and disclose its true financial condition. Wagoner wavers on bankruptcy view. General Motors (GM) CEO Rick Wagoner has softened his stance on the possibility of bankruptcy, suggesting the company could possibly emerge from a Chapter 11 filing. While Wagoner maintains that '99%' of GM's problems can be solved without a bankruptcy that would be expensive and difficult, he conceded the possibility that bankruptcy could work. GM is currently in talks with the United Auto Workers union over labor costs and with bondholders about reducing debt; signaling that bankruptcy isn't completely off the table could strengthen GM's bargaining power in both of those negotiations. Patent kindles dispute. Discovery Communications (DISCA) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon (AMZN), claiming the Kindle e-book reader violates a patent Discovery registered in 2007. The company is suing for damages and future royalties, but will not try to halt sales of the popular device. Tax break for Madoff victims. The IRS announced unprecedented tax relief for victims of Ponzi schemes, allowing many of those affected to deduct up to 95% of their losses immediately. The move is a significant relaxation of longstanding limits on how much tax relief can be claimed by victims of investment scams. In broad terms, Ponzi scheme victims who aren't suing to recover their losses can deduct up to 95% of their losses less any recoveries from the SIPC. Individuals pursuing third-party recoveries can deduct 75% of relevant investments. Victims will also be able to make deductions for phantom income accrued over the years in addition to their principal investments. Sony slashes dividend. Sony (SNE) cut its dividend payment by 15% to Ą42.5 ($0.43) per share vs. the Ą50 it had previously projected. The reduced payment will help Sony conserve cash as it tries to cope with "the deterioration of the global business environment." Sony has projected a record Ą260B operating loss for this fiscal year. iPhone software update. Apple (AAPL) updated its iPhone software, providing developers with a range of new tools to make programs for the company's App Store, and giving developers more flexibility in how they can charge users for content. The update also includes several features phone users said were long overdue, including the ability to copy and paste text. The updates underscore how software has become an increasingly important way for Apple to continue profiting from the iPhone and adds to speculation that Apple plans to launch a new iPhone model this year. Nokia knocks down job count. Trying to save money as demand slumps, Nokia (NOK) announced plans to cut 1,700 jobs, or around 3% of its workforce. The company will also stop designing phones for the Japanese market. The moves are part of Nokia's efforts to trim its annual operating expenses by €700M ($907M) by the end of 2010. More layoffs at Caterpillar. Caterpillar (CAT) plans to fire 89 people, lay off 2,365 workers and close a plant in Georgia as demand for its construction equipment tumbles. Most of the layoffs are in addition to the 22,100 cuts Caterpillar announced in January. The company has said it may post a quarterly loss, its first in 16 years, and sales could drop 22% in 2009 to $40B. Retail sales dip. Retail chain store sales decreased 0.1% from a week ago, ICSC reported, and declined 1.4% Y/Y. ICSC chief economist Michael P. Niemira noted "the sales pace weakened over the last week as colder temperatures and wetter conditions around the nation slowed customer traffic." According to Redbook, national chain store sales were flat in the first two weeks of March as "sales picked up modestly in the second week, but remained below plan for the week and month to date." Sales fell 1.1% Y/Y. Housing starts jump. Housing Starts climbed 22.2% in February to 583K from January's 477K (revised) vs. 450K consensus. Building permits +3% to 547K vs. 500K consensus. Completions +2.3% to 767K. It's unclear whether the jump is a sign of healing, or a troublesome indication of the failure to prune inventories. However, considering housing starts hit record low levels (the worst since 1960) just last month, Barry Ritholtz said it's hardly a sign of a turnaround. He noted that gains were mainly in multi-family units; single-family starts were little changed. Mortgage apps rise. Mortgage applications rose 21.2% from a week ago, MBA reported, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.89% from 4.96%. PPI inches up. Producer Price Index +0.1% in February from the month before vs. consensus of +0.4%. Core PPI +0.2% vs. +0.1%. Year-over-year PPI -1.3% vs. +0.1%, and core +4.0% vs. +3.8%. Led by higher energy prices, this marked the second month in a row of inflation at the wholesale level. BoJ holds rates steady. Bank of Japan kept its interest rates unchanged at 0.1% and will purchase more government bonds to ease financing conditions. Earnings: Wednesday Before Open General Mills (GIS): FQ3 EPS of $0.79 misses by $0.09. Revenue of $3.5B (+3.9%) in-line. (PR) Earnings: Tuesday After Close Adobe (ADBE): FQ1 EPS of $0.45 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $786M (-11.7%) vs. $784M. "We believe the major market trends driving our business remain intact, and we will continue to focus on innovation and investing in new growth businesses to increase the strategic value we provide our customers." (PR) Darden Restaurants (DRI): FQ3 EPS of $0.80 beats by $0.12. Revenue of $1.8B (-0.7%) in-line. Sees full-year EPS of $2.66-$2.74 vs. $2.52. (PR) Guess? (GES): Q4 EPS of $0.67 beats by $0.16. Revenue of $561M (+9%) vs. $529M. Sees Q1 EPS of $0.26-0.30 vs. $0.34 and revenue of $425-445M vs. $481M. (PR) Today's Markets Asia markets closed with another day of solid gains, despite correcting after a bullish open. Nikkei +0.29% to 7,972. Hang Seng +1.86% to 13,117. Shanghai +0.24% to 2,224. BSE +1.27% to 8,977. Stocks are higher in Europe, with the exception of the U.K. which was spooked by worse than expected joblessness and talk the IMF will revise its U.K. growth forecast lower. London -0.3%. Paris +0.7%. Frankfurt +1.2%. Stock futures are lower after an unremarkable overnight session. Dow -0.6% to 7309. S&P -0.6% at 771. Nasdaq -0.3%. Crude -1.4% to $8.40. Gold -0.6% to $911. Wednesday's Economic Calendar 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications 8:30 Consumer Price Index 10:00 AIG's Liddy testifies before Congress 10:30 EIA Petroleum Status 2:15 PM FOMC Decision Notable earnings before Wednesday's open: GIS Notable earnings after Wednesday's close: CTAS, NKE, ORCL Seeking Alpha editor Eli Hoffmann contributed to this post.

  • Fast Money Recap - Pfizer and Wyeth ... Why? (1/23/09)

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