Chicken It Out: PMI, FGIC, Pilgrims Pride, Go Capital, Humana, Retail Sales
Don't play chicken... The PMI group announced that
"due to continued delays in obtaining final year end 2007 financial results from FGIC Corporation."
PMI have rescheduled its Q4 financial results for March 17th.
FGIC, the #4 bond insurer, owned by PMI & Blackstone, is finding it harder to write new business following the loss of its AAA credit ratings.
Blackstone took a $120 million writedown in Q4 for its investment in FGIC.
Chicken Ala Ethanol... After a quarterly net loss of $32.3 million due to doubled feed costs,
Pilgrim's Pride, the world's biggest poultry processor will close its Siler City, NC. chicken-processing plant...
six distribution centers and cut 1,100 jobs because of surging feed costs that have put the industry into crisis.
CEO Clint Rivers: "Our company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year...
due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders."
Yesterday corn hit an all time high and soy bean meal a 35 year high.
Although the plant closing won't choke the chicken supply, other processors are likely to follow with temporary shutdowns of their own.
Chickening Out... GO Capital Asset Management BV blocked clients from pulling cash from its $881 Million Global Opportunities Fund.
Go is at least the seventh hedge fund in the past month to halt redemptions.
Hedge funds managing more than $5.4 billion have been forced to liquidate or sell holdings since Feb. 15.
Chicken on earnings... Yesterday Wellpoint lowered earnings expectations,
Today, Humana cut its full year 2008 profit forecast. The Healthcare sector has been pummled 6%.
Chicken on sales... SpendingPulse data are derived from the aggregate sales in the MasterCard U.S. payment network,
SpendingPulse's "core" retail gauge declined 1.0% in February vs January, when sales posted no growth. Core sales exclude autos, gasoline and building materials.
Retail sales without autos fell 1.1% last month, compared with a 0.2% gain in January.
Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research at MasterCard Advisors: "It's definitely the biggest drop in our history."
"due to continued delays in obtaining final year end 2007 financial results from FGIC Corporation."
PMI have rescheduled its Q4 financial results for March 17th.
FGIC, the #4 bond insurer, owned by PMI & Blackstone, is finding it harder to write new business following the loss of its AAA credit ratings.
Blackstone took a $120 million writedown in Q4 for its investment in FGIC.
Chicken Ala Ethanol... After a quarterly net loss of $32.3 million due to doubled feed costs,
Pilgrim's Pride, the world's biggest poultry processor will close its Siler City, NC. chicken-processing plant...
six distribution centers and cut 1,100 jobs because of surging feed costs that have put the industry into crisis.
CEO Clint Rivers: "Our company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year...
due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders."
Yesterday corn hit an all time high and soy bean meal a 35 year high.
Although the plant closing won't choke the chicken supply, other processors are likely to follow with temporary shutdowns of their own.
Chickening Out... GO Capital Asset Management BV blocked clients from pulling cash from its $881 Million Global Opportunities Fund.
Go is at least the seventh hedge fund in the past month to halt redemptions.
Hedge funds managing more than $5.4 billion have been forced to liquidate or sell holdings since Feb. 15.
Chicken on earnings... Yesterday Wellpoint lowered earnings expectations,
Today, Humana cut its full year 2008 profit forecast. The Healthcare sector has been pummled 6%.
Chicken on sales... SpendingPulse data are derived from the aggregate sales in the MasterCard U.S. payment network,
SpendingPulse's "core" retail gauge declined 1.0% in February vs January, when sales posted no growth. Core sales exclude autos, gasoline and building materials.
Retail sales without autos fell 1.1% last month, compared with a 0.2% gain in January.
Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research at MasterCard Advisors: "It's definitely the biggest drop in our history."
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