Posted by Tom C. Here are two of my favorite charts from this week with brief explanations: AMLN - a classic cup and handle pattern with consolidation at the previous high (which was the handle), and a three bar pattern that offers a very high success rate: Note that the target (FE) was ... Read more

There have been 205 bank failures in this cycle (starting in 2007): FDIC Bank Failures by Year 200732008252009140201037Total205 Click on graph for larger image in new window. The first graph shows bank failures by week in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The FDIC started fast in 2010, but slowed ... ... Read more

Russian cold warrior Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev is long dead and with him the battle he fought with John Kennedy when Soviet–US military tensions were at their apex. Those times are remote enough in memory that a Russian aerospace company will actually bid for the Air Force contract to bui ... Read more

State and federal regulators closed seven banks today, including two with more than $1 billion in assets, bringing the total number of bank failures this year to 37. At this point last year, regulators had shut down 20 banks. The seven new closures were the most in a single day since Oc ... Read more

State and federal regulators closed Advanta Bank Corp ., a large Utah-based bank that provided credit cards to small businesses, wiping out an institution that had more than $1.6 billion in assets but had begun its slide more than a year ago. FDIC was unable to find another bank to take over ... Read more

Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave, who is ‘King of the Bears’ enough that he is called a permabear, came on CNBC this afternoon after the closing bell to tout the new bear market or that what we have seen is a still nothing more than a bear market rally.  Prechter said at least since the ... Read more

Scrutiny of the Home Affordable Refinance Program is heating up in Washington, as lawmakers continue to question the mortgage refinancing program and say it is failing to meet expectations. The House Oversight Committee announced today that it will hold a hearing to examine the program Thur ... Read more

Spring is in the air What's this other thing I smell? Fail, from Ohio by Soylent Green is People From the FDIC: The National Bank and Trust Company, Wilmington, Ohio, Assumes All of the Deposits of American National Bank, Parma, Ohio American National Bank, Parma, Ohio, was closed today by ... Read more

House Oversight Committee Chair Edolphus Towns (D-NY) is calling on Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to release documents related to the controversial purchase of 37,000 shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. stock by a Fed insider. At the height of the financial crisis in Decemb ... R ... Read more

Updated throughout the day. Merrill Lynch warned the SEC and Fed that Lehman was booking capital aggressively (FT) Apax Partner may buy Polycom (PLCM) for as much as $3 billion (FT) Palm (PALM), just off poor earnings, may be a buyout target for Dell (DELL), Nokia (NOK), or Microsoft (MSFT ... Read more