The Inquisitive Mind

Earlier this week I had written an article reviewing the proposal to increase the tax Big Oil companies pay on their profits, if they do not invest in alternative and cleaner energy resources. This article dwells further into that issue, especially with regards to the role of Big Oil companies and their ability to balance [...]

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The spike in the price of crude in May is having the anticipated effect of arousing the Congress in this election year. Earlier this week, Congress passed a bill with veto-proof margins to suspend intakes into the Strategic Petroleum Reserves till crude oil prices go under $75/barrel and stay there for ninety days.
Enron Loophole: Position [...]

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The Yahoo!-Microsoft merger saga has taken a new twist with the revelation that the activist investor Carl Icahn has built up a major stake in Yahoo. Mr. Icahn owns about 50 million shares of Yahoo, investing more than a Billion dollars of his own money.
Proxy Fight: Complete Slate of Directors
Mr. Icahn will try to replace [...]

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Crude Oil rallied to a new intra-day high of $126.98 today, before pulling back to close the session close to $126/barrel. The trigger for the rally was a International Energy Agency report that the stockpiles of distillates in Europe were down 6.7% in March over the same time year ago. Last week’s EIA’s report had [...]

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Oil surged above $126 today. Speculators are buying options on oil reaching even $150 in the next two weeks. The speculative fervor was fanned by a Goldman Sachs report that oil might spike to $150 or even $200 in the next six to 24 months. Oil had reached the $120 level and then fallen back [...]

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Oil prices reached an all time high, reaching an intra-day high of $123.79 today. The weekly IEA report showed that crude oil and gasoline inventories had gone up significantly more than predicted. The crude oil inventory was up 5.65 million barrels, or 1.8 percent, to 325.6 million barrel, about four times more than what analysts [...]

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Microsoft surprised no one with their unsolicited offer for Yahoo! in January 2008. What surprised some Wall Street observers was the premium Microsoft was willing to pay for Yahoo’s then share price. At that time the $31/share offer represented a 62% premium over Yahoo’s then share price of $19.18. What surprised the same observers was [...]

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The past two weeks have been full of earning report, and more significantly, earning surprises. While the stock market has been on a roller coaster ride many investors have been on the sidelines, confused by Wall Street’s reaction. Traders are making merry; buy the dips, sell the rips seems to be working really well. In [...]

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Sub-Prime Mortgages have been at the top of the air-waves for about a year now. The collapse of two hedge funds run by Bear Sterns started the procession. Numerous Wall Street executives have lost their jobs and banks have been writing down about $250B in losses attributed to products linked to sub-prime mortgages.
Last week two [...]

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The credit-markets are showing signs of life again. The buy-under of Bear Sterns (BSC) and subsequent actions by the Fed to allow Investment Banks to access the discount window using asset backed paper as collateral seem to be having the right effect. The market cheered when Lehman Brothers (LEH) was able to place an offering [...]

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