How Do Analyst Recommendations Respond to Major News?

We examine how analysts respond to public information when setting stock recommendations. We model the determinants of analysts’ recommendation changes following large stock price movements. We find evidence of an asymmetry following large positive and negative returns. Following large stock price increases, analysts are equally likely to upgrade or downgrade. Following large stock price declines, analysts are more likely to downgrade. This asymmetry exists after accounting for investment banking relationships and herding behavior. This result suggests recommendation changes are “sticky” in one direction, with analysts reluctant to downgrade. Moreover, this result implies that analysts’ optimistic bias may vary through time

Erratum to: The contribution of bank regulation and fair value accounting to procyclical leverage

Abstract Our analysis of how banks’ responses to asset price changes can result in procyclical leverage reveals that, for banks with a binding regulatory leverage constraint, absent differences in regulatory risk weights across assets, procyclical leverage does not occur. For banks without a binding constraint, fair value and bank regulation both can contribute to procyclical leverage. Empirical findings based on a large sample of U.S. commercial banks reveal that bank regulation explains procyclical leverage for banks relatively close to the regulatory leverage constraint and contributes to procyclical leverage for those that are not. We also show that fair value accounting does not contribute to procyclical leverage

The Rapidly Rotating, Hydrogen Deficient, Hot Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Star ZNG 1 in the Globular Cluster M5

We report observations of the hot post-asymptotic giant branch star ZNG 1 in the globular cluster M5 (NGC 5904) with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). From the resulting spectrum, we derive an effective temperature T_eff = 44300 +/- 300 K, a surface gravity log g = 4.3 +/- 0.1, a rotational velocity v sin i = 170 +/- 20 km/s, and a luminosity log (L/L_sun) = 3.52 +/- 0.04. The atmosphere is helium-rich (Y = 0.93), with enhanced carbon (2.6% by mass), nitrogen (0.51%) and oxygen (0.37%) abundances. The spectrum shows evidence for a wind with terminal velocity near 1000 km/s and an expanding shell of carbon- and nitrogen-rich material around the star. The abundance pattern of ZNG 1 is suggestive of the ``born-again'' scenario, whereby a star on the white-dwarf cooling curve undergoes a very late shell flash and returns to the AGB, but the star's rapid rotation is more easily explained by a previous interaction with a binary companion.Comment: 8 pages, 2 PostScript figures, Latex with emulateapj5. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Age as the Second Parameter in NGC 288 / NGC 362? I. Turnoff Ages: a Purely Differential Comparison

We present deep V,I photometry of the globular clusters NGC 288, NGC 362 and NGC 1851 obtained during a single observational run under strictly homogeneous conditions. We use the bimodal horizontal branch (HB) of NGC 1851 as a ``bridge'' to obtain the optimum relative match between the HBs of NGC 288 and NGC 362. In this way we can effectively remove the uncertainties associated with distance, reddening and inhomogeneities in the absolute calibration, thus obtaining a very robust, purely differential estimate of the age difference between these two clusters. According to the bridge test, NGC 288 is found to be older than NGC 362 by 2 +- 1 Gyr. This result is fully confirmed also by all classical differential age diagnostics, either based on the luminosity or color of the main sequence turnoff point.Comment: Accepted by The Astronomical Journal - 30 pages, 6 tables, 14 figures, LaTeX, the emulateapj5.sty macro is used. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are provided in reduced resolution. Full resolution versions available upon request to the first author ([email protected]). Minor changes due to modifications in the companion paper (Pap II

Ultraviolet Imagery of NGC 6752: A Test of Extreme Horizontal Branch Models

We present a 1620 A image of the nearby globular cluster NGC 6752 obtained with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) during the Astro-2 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1995 March. An ultraviolet-visible color-magnitude diagram (CMD) is derived for 216 stars matched with the visible photometry of Buonanno et al. (1986). This CMD provides a nearly complete census of the hot horizontal branch (HB) population with good temperature and luminosity discrimination for comparison with theoretical tracks. The observed data show good agreement with the theoretical zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) of Sweigart (1996) for an assumed reddening of E(B-V) = 0.05 and a distance modulus of 13.05. The observed HB luminosity width is in excellent agreement with the theoretical models and supports the single star scenario for the origin of extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars. However, only four stars can be identified as post-EHB stars, whereas almost three times this many are expected from the HB number counts. If this effect is not a statistical anomaly, then some non-canonical effect may be decreasing the post-EHB lifetime. The recent non-canonical models of Sweigart (1996), which have helium-enriched envelopes due to mixing along the red giant branch, cannot explain the deficit of post-EHB stars, but might be better able to explain their luminosity distribution.Comment: 14 pages, AASTeX, includes 4 EPS figures ApJ Letters accepte

UIT Detection of Hot Stars in the Globular Cluster NGC362

We used the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope during the March 1995 Astro-2 mission to obtain a deep far-UV image of the globular cluster NGC 362, which was formerly thought to have an almost entirely red horizontal branch (HB). 84 hot (T_eff > 8500 K) stars were detected within a radius of 8'.25 of the cluster center. Of these, 43 have FUV magnitudes consistent with HB stars in NGC 362, and at least 34 are cluster members. The number of cluster members is made uncertain by background contamination from blue stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). There are six candidate supra-HB stars which have probably evolved from the HB. We discuss the implications of these results for the production of hot blue stars in stellar populations.Comment: 10 pages AASLaTeX including one postscript figure and one compressed bitmap, .jpg format. To appear in Ap. J. Letters. Postscript version also available at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~bd4r

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope: Instrument and Data Characteristics

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) was flown as part of the Astro observatory on the Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990 and again on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in March 1995. Ultraviolet (1200-3300 Angstroms) images of a variety of astronomical objects, with a 40 arcmin field of view and a resolution of about 3 arcsec, were recorded on photographic film. The data recorded during the first flight are available to the astronomical community through the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC); the data recorded during the second flight will soon be available as well. This paper discusses in detail the design, operation, data reduction, and calibration of UIT, providing the user of the data with information for understanding and using the data. It also provides guidelines for analyzing other astronomical imagery made with image intensifiers and photographic film.Comment: 44 pages, LaTeX, AAS preprint style and EPSF macros, accepted by PAS

Early Ultraviolet, Optical and X-Ray Observations of the Type IIP SN 2005cs in M51 with Swift

We report early photospheric-phase observations of the Type IIP Supernova (SN) 2005cs obtained by Swift's Ultraviolet-Optical and X-Ray Telescopes. Observations started within two days of discovery and continued regularly for three weeks. During this time the V-band magnitude remained essentially constant, while the UV was initially bright but steadily faded until below the brightness of an underlying UV-bright HII region. This UV decay is similar to SNe II observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer. UV grism spectra show the P-Cygni absorption of MgII 2798A, indicating a photospheric origin of the UV flux. Based on non-LTE model atmosphere calculations with the CMFGEN code, we associate the rapid evolution of the UV flux with the cooling of the ejecta, the peak of the spectral energy distribution (SED) shifting from ~700A on June 30th to ~1200A on July 5th. Furthermore, the corresponding recombination of the ejecta, e.g., the transition from FeIII to FeII, induces considerable strengthening of metal line-blanketing at and above the photosphere, blocking more effectively this fading UV flux. SN2005cs was not detected in X-rays, and the upper limit to the X-ray luminosity yields a limit to the mass loss rate of the progenitor of about 10^-5 solar masses per year. Overall, Swift presents a unique opportunity to capture the early and fast evolution of Type II SNe in the UV, providing additional constraints on the reddening, the SED shortward of 4000A, and the ionization state and temperature of the photon-decoupling regions.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication by Astrophysical Journa