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Volatility has returned to Wall Street this week as traders react to every murmuring, rumor and media report coming out of the eurozone. On Monday and in early Tuesday, investors were in a sour mood after German finance minister and frequent party pooper Schaeuble tried to dampen expectations by saying the upcoming Oct. 23 eurozone summit would not reveal a "definitive solution" to the crisis. This was a case of being overly honest and precise at a time when nerves are raw and markets jumpy.

 

That is, until late in Tuesday's trading session when the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper reported that French and German officials are close to expanding Europe's bailout fund from €440 billion to €2 trillion by turning it into an insurance vehicle for private investors.  Shares surged in response.

 

Wages for an auto worker in Mexico? About $10 an hour.

Full wages for a member of the United Automobile Workers? About $28 an hour. Is it any wonder, then, that automakers are increasingly looking to shift work to Mexico and China?

Wages are the central issue of new agreements the union is trying to forge with Detroit's automakers. About 62% of Ford (F) workers voted this week to support a new four-year contract, and balloting is expected to end Tuesday. 

By Olivia Oran, TheStreet

 

Micro-blogging site Twitter is now valued at $8 billion, CEO Dick Costolo said Monday night at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

 

That valuation is based on the company recently raising $800 million in a two-stage funding round, Costolo said, adding that Twitter is not looking towards a near-term IPO.

 

"We don't want to be beholden to an IPO window," he said. "I want the company to go public when the company is ready and prepared to be a public company, and not at the whim of some window."

 

By Tom Aspray, MoneyShow.com 

By Louis Bedigian, Benzinga Staff Writer

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) was falling again Tuesday, unable to recover after a legendary hedge fund manager criticized the coffee maker at an investor event.

David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital has numerous issues with the K-Cup maker, but his biggest complaint surrounds the company's lack of disclosure. According to Bloomberg, he thinks it's time for the company to become more transparent.

 

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

 

Legendary hedge fund manager David Einhorn has gone from bashing Florida real estate to bashing coffee beans.

 

Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) tumbled 10% Monday after Einhorn detailed his bearish thesis for shorting the company behind the Keurig single-cup coffeemaker.

 

There isn't really anything new in Einhorn's argument. He's pointing to the same patent expirations, accounting concerns, and frothy valuations that have burned Green Mountain bears in recent years.

 

Updated: 6 p.m. ET

 

Blame the $8,000 SuperLow for whacking Harley-Davidson (HOG) stock Tuesday.

Even though the company had a good third quarter, with profit more than doubling, a shift to producing cheaper bikes like the SuperLow worried investors. Those bikes aren't as profitable, and gross margin in the quarter narrowed to 33.7% from 34.9% a year earlier.

Gross margin was the main reason the stock ate dirt Tuesday even after solid quarterly earnings. Harley lowered its full-year guidance on gross margin to between 33.5% and 34.5%. That's a mere 0.5% less than before, but it was enough for shares to close at $34.59, down 7%.

 

By Don Dion, TheStreet

The week began with news of a landmark M&A transaction in the natural gas pipeline and storage industry. As the overall impact of this deal gains clarity, ETF investors can position themselves to benefit.

 

Kinder Morgan's (KMI) decision to acquire El Paso (EP) is notable for a number of reasons. First, the deal, valued at $38 billion, marks the largest pipeline takeover in history.

 

In addition, the marriage of these two massive gas transporters represents another notable example of the consolidation that has been taking place in natural gas.

 

It appears that several factors are still not priced into the market. Continued downward pressure on financial stocks could be expected as events unfold, especially the potentially disruptive forces that Europe may unleash, or the conclusion that the foreclosure and mortgage lawsuits are larger and more significant than currently believed.

 

Here are the top seven reasons bank stocks may keep falling.

 

1. Occupy Wall Street. Although it's not a cohesive movement, at least part of its birth can be traced to outsized Wall Street salaries and bonuses, especially since taxpayers saved most of the Too Big to Fail banks.

 

 

Which, frankly, is the problem, because I am not sure what being pro or con actually means in this case.

 

Am I pro justice for the people who got us into this mess -- chiefly the lenders who lent recklessly and should have known better, and the investment bankers who pooled their miserable loans into unfathomable tranches that have done so much to impair the American economy? You bet.

 

From the lenders to the processors to the robo-signers to those who took huge bonuses after being saved by TARP and yet were integral to this corrupt process, to the ratings agencies that checked off on it all, I've seen little or no justice at all.

 

By Jeff Reeves, InvestorPlace.com

This morning we saw a seemingly impressive earnings report from Bank of America (BAC). Revenue was up. Profits beat expectations. Good news, right?

Not so much. A closer look at the numbers shows some  fuzzy math that only a contortionist could feel comfortable with. The real bottom line is that Bank of America earnings are still ugly and that the entire financial sector remains a very risky bet.

 

By Jeff Reeves, Editor, InvestorPlace.com

Crocs, Inc. (CROX), the cult stock behind the cult footwear hit of the same name, is the quintessential fad investment. The stock raced up 400% after its IPO before flaming out spectacularly, going from a peak of around $70 to bottom out at $1 a share.

Investors should have learned their lesson after that ugly performance – and anyone who saw the ugly footwear knew the ride couldn’t last forever. But after a huge restructuring and rebranding effort, some on Wall Street were again duped in 2011 and started thinking Crocs had hit its stride once more. CROX stock regained the $30 mark just a few weeks ago.

But like everything else in the fashion industry, things changed fast for Crocs. An ugly profit report yesterday has prompted panic on Wall Street – and shares of CROX stock are set to open down as much as 35%.

 

 

By John Reeves

 

Excellent companies transform entire industries. Prior to Starbucks, for example, restaurants could get away with selling "bottomless" cups of coffee, because the coffee usually tasted so bad that you didn't want a second cup. And Netflix changed the way we bought our movies -- no longer do you have to go out to the video store and be subject to long lines and late fees.

 

Chipotle (CMG) is another example of an excellent company that is transforming its industry. In advance of its earnings release later this week, I took a look at its most recent conference call transcript. I was extremely impressed with what I discovered.

 

Despite noting that its business was facing some challenges in the current environment, the company's two co-CEOs, Steve Ells and Monty Moran, spent most of the call talking about two things not always associated with the fast-food industry: quality food and outstanding people.

 

The yogurt section in the supermarket keeps getting bigger, and for good reason. Yogurt is a huge seller -- the U.S. market has doubled in the last decade.

And Pepsi (PEP) wants in.

Pepsi? Maker of all things junk? Yep, the soda and snacks company wants to go nutritious in a big way. And its plans include yogurt.