Archive for June, 2010
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) Expands Health Coverage to Meet Federal Mandate
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) said that it would be expanding health insurance coverage for dependents up to age 26 ahead of a new government mandate. The Charlotte-based bank’s current employee insurance plans cover dependent children up unto age 19, or up to age 24 for full-time students. Under the healthcare-reform legislation which was [...]
SmartyPig Announces Move From WestBank to Compass Bank
SmartyPig, a company which offers a goal-based savings account, has switched its partner bank from West Bank to Compass Bank (“BBVA Compass”) as its U.S. bank services provider. Earlier in the year, it was reported that SmartyPig’s deposit numbers were becoming too large for West Bank to manage and it was expected that SmartyPig would [...]
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) To Close 300 Branches, Cut Jobs
According to recent reports, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has plans to close 300 branch offices and reduce its workforce by up to 1,200 over the next year. The move comes as the bank looks to cut costs and better integrate the resources of its brokerage business with those of Citigroup’s Smith Barney unit; the two [...]
Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) Hires Three Metal Executives
Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) has hired Heath Jansen as its head of European metals and mining research. The New York-based bank has also hired two additional executives for its metals dvision. Jansen returned to Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) in May and will now coordinate research and analysts globally and cover various metals companies including BHP [...]
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) Defends Security Record after Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Drops Windows from Internal Use
Search-giant Google (NSADAQ: GOOG) recently made the decision to move away from using Windows on the company’s computers over security concerns and began moving company employees over to Mac and Linux OSes. Microsoft did not take the news lightly. The company’s Windows-product communication manager Brandon LeBlanc fired back with a blog post on the “Blogging [...]
Mexico to Join Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C)’s World Government Bond Index
Mexico will join Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C)’s World Government Bond Index (WGBI) in October after meeting requirements for inclusion for three consecutive months, the New York-based bank announced on Wednesday. In a release from the company, Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) said that the Mexican Government Bond Index has satisfied size, credit and barriers to entry [...]
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) Cancels Bing Cash Back Program
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) has cancelled Bing’s cash-back feature which provided search engine users a rebate on items that they purchased through Bing’s search engine after the platform was not well adopted. Bing’s product team said that they will come back with an even better program down the line. Although Bing has had difficulty in [...]
FINRA Awards $550,000 in Damages to Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) Investors
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) awarded more than $550,000 in damages to investors that put money into a fixed-income municipal arbitrage instrument which was sold by Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) According to a release from the law firm representing plaintiffs, FINRA said that it believed the bank had misled investors and its own brokers [...]
Ford (NYSE: F) Sees 23% Year-Over-Year Increase in May Sales
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw a 23% increase in sales in its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands for the month of may. The Detroit-based automaker is currently in the process of closing the sale of its Volvo brand to Chinese automaker Geely and has announced that it would be winding down its Mercury brand. [...]
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) CEO Tempers Dividend Expectations
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan said that investors that are hoping for a strong dividend increase this year might want to keep their expectations low, speaking with analysts at a Sanford Bernstein conference in New York. “It will be lower than it’s been in the past,” Moynihan said, after benig asked [...]
S&P Lowers Credit Rating on British Petroleum (NYSE: BP)
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services dropped its long-term corporate credit rating on British Petroleum (NYSE: BP) from ‘AA’ to ‘AA-’. The short-term corporate credit rating remains ‘A-1+’. “The downgrade reflects our opinion on the significant operational challenges that U.K.-headquartered oil major BP continues to face to stem or contain the leak from one of its [...]
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Fires Municipal Bond Strategist (C, MS)
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Smith Barney has fired Muncipal Bond Strategist George Friedlander after working for the company for more than three decades according to a new report from Business Week. Friedlander, 62, worked at Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) and its predecessors for the last 34 years publishing weekly analysts of the U.S. municipal bond [...]
Pfizer Recalls Potentially-Deadly Intravenous Drugs (NYSE: PFE)
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) announced on Thursday that it would be recalling intravenous drugs that has floating matter in them, warning that the drugs could potentially kill patients that have been weakened. The recall comes just days after U.S. regulators have warned about the drugs earlier in the week. The products, produced by Claris Lifesciences and [...]
Hitachi Reviewing Nuclear Power Partnership with General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)
Hitachi (6501.T) said on Tuesday that it would be reviewing the structure of its current nuclear power partnership with General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) as it hopes to win more deals on a global basis. A spokesman for Hitachi did not rule out the possibility of General Electric and Hitachi changing their investments as apt [...]
Apple Launches Showcase of HTML 5 Technologies (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Just days before the World Wide Developer Conference, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has created a number of demonstrations based on the next generation of web standards known as HTML 5. The “HTML5 Showcase” features seven different demonstration, each aimed at showing off a specific capability of what new web browsers will be able to accomplish. The [...]
worst video player ever- after over2:00 there's still no video appearing 