Archive for May, 2008

  • New Book to Hate
    , May 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am

    Malcolm Gladwell is coming out with a new book. Here’s the blurb at Amazon: In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an [...]

  • Just a Quick Observation
    , May 20th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    When did the NBA playoffs become the sports of equivalent of Stalingrad? With yesterday’s Spurs victory, the playoffs are now officially half over. But the [...]

  • Jay Leno on Cars
    , May 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    First, Portfolio got Tom Wolfe to write in their inaugural issue. Now a bigger coup — Jay Leno writes about cars: The type of vehicles [...]

  • The Market By Days of the Week
    , May 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Since 1950, the S&P 500 is down on the combined days of Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. All of the indexes gains have come on Wednesday [...]

  • Banks Keep $35 Billion Markdown Off Income Statements
    , May 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    From Bloomberg: Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their [...]

  • 10-Year P/E Ratios
    , May 19th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    The other day I wrote that the market’s P/E ratio reached a four-year high. Instead of viewing it as overpriced, I said that this is [...]

  • Turning Point in the Presidential Election Cycle
    , May 19th, 2008 at 10:13 am

    I don’t place a great deal of faith in these indicators, but we’re nearing a traditional low point in the Presidential Election Cycle. On average, [...]

  • S&P 500 at 19-Week High
    , May 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed at 1423.57. That’s the highest close since January 3. It’s also 11.8% above the lowest close of the year, which [...]

  • S&P 500 at 19-Week High
    , May 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed at 1423.57. That’s the highest close since January 3. It’s also 11.8% above the lowest close of the year, which [...]

  • The Buy List Year to Date
    , May 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    Through yesterday, the Crossing Wall Street Buy List is down -5.96% YTD. The S&P 500 is down -4.07%. That doesn’t include dividends. The volatility of [...]

  • Tim Brown — Stock Analyst
    , May 15th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    Former Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Brown, is now (like me), a columnist at TheStreet.com. (Editors note, for clarification, I’ve never won the Heisman.) Here’s a [...]

  • Oil and the Price at the Pump
    , May 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    This chart is courtesy of GasBuddy.com: It’s hard to believe that gas was around $2.15 only 16 months ago.

  • Bernanke was Right
    , May 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Before selling off in the afternoon yesterday, the stock market came close to finishing at its highest point since the very beginning of the year. [...]

  • Whole Foods Bombs Again
    , May 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am

    Whole Foods (WFMI) dropped 14% yesterday on lousy same-store sales results. The stock hit a four-year low. For the quarter ended April 13, Whole Foods [...]

  • How Many Times Do I Have to Say it?
    , May 13th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    The WSJ does it again. Every time someone comments on political markets, they have to say that these markets “fail” because the a contract going [...]

  • The Dow/S&P 500 Ratio
    , May 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Imagine if the Dow was 3,000 points higher than it is today. That’s where it would be if it had merely kept pace with the [...]

  • The Dow/S&P 500 Ratio
    , May 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Imagine if the Dow was 3,000 points higher than it is today. That’s where it would be if it had merely kept pace with the [...]

  • Is Open Source Good for a Companies Stock?
    , May 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am

    Oliver Alexy looks at the impact of open source on a company’s shares: But does giving ideas away help — or hurt — the company’s [...]

  • Guess What Stock Market Is at a New High?
    , May 13th, 2008 at 1:08 am

    I’ll give you a hint. Toronto. Give up? Much of the momentum on the TSX has been caused by strength in resource stocks. The energy [...]

  • Gazprom Meets Deep Purple
    , May 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am

    The New York Times has an article about the influence that Gazprom has on the Russian government. It’s not too much of a leap to [...]