Archive for December, 2005

  • Ukraine to Gazprom: Drop Dead
    , December 31st, 2005 at 6:10 pm

    The fight betweem Gazprom and Ukraine is getting worse. It looks like the state-controlled Russian company is going to shut off all supplies to Ukraine [...]

  • Year-End Summary
    , December 31st, 2005 at 5:07 pm

    Reuters looks at the final numbers: The Dow declined 0.61 percent in 2005, breaking its streak of back-to-back gains for 2003 and 2004. Meanwhile, the [...]

  • The New Buy List
    , December 31st, 2005 at 12:15 am

    For 2006, I going to track the new Buy List based on Friday’s closing prices. All 20 stocks will be equally weighted. I’m going to [...]

  • It’s Over
    , December 30th, 2005 at 11:26 pm

    Well, it’s all over. The year 2005 ended on a bit of a sour note. The Dow finished the year in the negative. Today, the [...]

  • An Hour to Go….
    , December 30th, 2005 at 2:44 pm

    It’s a pretty lousy day on Wall Street so far. Every stock on the Buy List is lower except for Frontier Airlines (FRNT). Unless things [...]

  • Footnote of the Year
    , December 30th, 2005 at 1:01 pm

    Michelle Leder of the indispensable Footnoted.org has this year’s “Footnote of the Year,” courtesy of Kerr-McGee (KMG): An annual stipend provided to facilitate involvement in [...]

  • Motorola
    , December 30th, 2005 at 12:21 pm

    I have to confess that I’ve always felt that Motorola (MOT) was a bit overrated. Maybe I’ve been a bit too harsh. Yeah it’s a [...]

  • The Final Day of 2005
    , December 30th, 2005 at 10:11 am

    We’re coming down the wire, and the Dow is inches away from where it was one year ago. The Dow closed out 2004 at 10783.01. [...]

  • The International Harry Schultz Letter
    , December 29th, 2005 at 2:50 pm

    The investment newsletter industry is known for having some unusual characters. The Libertarian Party has nominated an investment newsletter editor for president not once, but [...]

  • What Do These Have in Common?
    , December 29th, 2005 at 12:45 pm

    1. a radio station in South Dakota 2. a perfume shop in the Virgin Islands 3. a dog boutique in Utah Give up? Answer: They [...]

  • Creeping Pessimism?
    , December 29th, 2005 at 12:21 pm

    On Business Week’s Web site, there’s a poll asking people where the Dow will be a year from now. Obviously, this isn’t a scientific sampling [...]

  • The Market Today
    , December 28th, 2005 at 5:36 pm

    Sheesh…what a snoozefest? I think traders must still be on vacation. There just ain’t much going on right now. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 [...]

  • The Buy List for 2006
    , December 28th, 2005 at 10:49 am

    Just in case you missed it, here’s the new Buy List for 2006: AFLAC (AFL) Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) Biomet (BMET) Brown & Brown [...]

  • Thoughts for 2006
    , December 28th, 2005 at 10:46 am

    I’m not going to make any broad market predictions for 2006. I’m always awful at those. Hey, I thought the Colts were going to go [...]

  • The Story of Wheat
    , December 28th, 2005 at 4:34 am

    The Economist and I don’t have the best relationship. Sometimes it drives me freakin’ nuts. But then, just as I’m ready to bash my keyboard [...]

  • Hedge Funds Are the New Mutual Funds
    , December 27th, 2005 at 9:49 pm

    So says Daniel Gross in Slate: This was the year of hedge funds. The largely unregulated pools of private capital—generally available only to institutions and [...]

  • The Market Today
    , December 27th, 2005 at 9:06 pm

    The yield curve finally inverted today. Unlike most things Wall Street freaks out about, I actually agree that this is a big deal. An inverted [...]

  • Natural Gas Prices are Down 23% in the Last Three Days
    , December 27th, 2005 at 1:43 pm

    From Bloomberg: Natural gas plunged for a third day in New York as warmer-than-normal weather slashed demand for the furnace fuel. “The long-range forecast is [...]

  • The Midday Market
    , December 27th, 2005 at 11:55 am

    The Buy List is having a very good day so far. Right now, we’re up about 0.54% while the S&P 500 is off around 0.36%. [...]

  • Market Report from Vietnam
    , December 27th, 2005 at 4:26 am

    Take a deep breath, here’s the stock market report for the Saigon Times. The Vietnamese exchange opened 2000. Trading is done in the rather unfortunately-named [...]