Friday, July 24, 2009

Quick Notes for the Day - July 24

Consumer Sentiment Rises Against Early July - The University of Michigan and Reuters reported Friday morning that US consumer sentiment rose in late July to 66.0 versus an early July reading of 64.6. Most economists had been predicting a reading of 65.5. That is the good news. The bad news is that the figure was still down from 70.8 June reading.

Ingersoll-Rand - 'very, very reliable early indicator of a pending economic recovery' - Ingersoll-Rand reported earnings Friday morning, but the big news from them was a renewed demand for its refridgeration-trailer units. CEO Herbert Henkel said in a conference call that "The North American market could reach a 19,000 [refrigeration-trailer] unit shipment this year. That's about 1,000 units above our previous guidance last April, but still 29% below 2008 full-year shipments. We find this increase in trailer activity very promising since in each of the previous business cycles, this has been a very, very reliable early indicator of a pending economic recovery."

JP Morgan Increasing Banker Salaries - Bloomberg - According to a report from Bloomberg, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will raise salaries for some investment bankers to stay in-line with competing firms - BUT it does not change overall compensation. This change is due to take place in 2010 and only affects those bankers that make more than 50% of their compensation in bonuses. The bonus will drop in-line with the raise in salaries.

Note - For some reason some of the posts have been posting late, so they have missed the cutoff for the e-mail service. The issue has been reported to Google, and we are working on the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience and for having two days of posts come on one e-mail.

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