Archive for July, 2008

  • The Eight Lean Years
    , July 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    For the last 32 quarters, real GDP has grown at annualized rate of 2.18%. That’s the slowest eight-year growth rate since…well, my quarterly data only [...]

  • Nicholas Financial's Earnings
    , July 31st, 2008 at 11:35 am

    For the second quarter, Nicholas Financial (NICK) earned 15 cents a share. Since the stock is basically priced for Armageddon, I think this is good [...]

  • Nicholas Financial’s Earnings
    , July 31st, 2008 at 11:35 am

    For the second quarter, Nicholas Financial (NICK) earned 15 cents a share. Since the stock is basically priced for Armageddon, I think this is good [...]

  • Second-Quarter GDP Growth
    , July 31st, 2008 at 9:38 am

    The government reported today that GDP grew by 1.89% for the second quarter. This is the sixth time in the last eight quarters that GDP [...]

  • Least Coherent Sentence of the Day
    , July 30th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    From an unnamed media company whose stock is 75% off its high: Some experts have said that the law was wrong-headed in its effort to [...]

  • S&P 500 and Earnings
    , July 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    Here’s a look at the S&P 500 (black line, left scale) and its earnings (gold line, right scale). The graph is scaled at 16-to-1. I [...]

  • S&P 500 and Earnings
    , July 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    Here’s a look at the S&P 500 (black line, left scale) and its earnings (gold line, right scale). The graph is scaled at 16-to-1. I [...]

  • Fiserv's Earnings
    , July 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Fiserv (FISV) just came out with a solid earnings report. For Q2, the company earned 83 cents a share from continuing ops. That beat the [...]

  • Fiserv’s Earnings
    , July 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Fiserv (FISV) just came out with a solid earnings report. For Q2, the company earned 83 cents a share from continuing ops. That beat the [...]

  • Obama Gives Bernanke Vote of Confidence
    , July 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    Well, the election is over now. Bernanke wins 1-0. “I think that Chairman Bernanke was handed a pretty tough hand and I think some of [...]

  • What Did Experts Have to Say at the Beginning of the Year?
    , July 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me. Generally, I’m [...]

  • The Right Stuff
    , July 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am

    IBD profiles Amphenol (APH): Ah, the joys of a well-executed roll-up strategy in a growing but fragmented market. That has been the winning formula for [...]

  • A Small Baseball Interlude
    , July 28th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    I hate to break this to East Coast sportswriters, but neither the Yankees nor Red Sox are in first place. You’d never know it but [...]

  • Moog’s Earnings
    , July 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Moog (MOG-A) is one of the quieter stocks on our Buy List. They make flight control systems for commercial and military aircraft. Interestingly, employees own [...]

  • Words of Wisdom
    , July 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Amen. Americans should be outraged at the latest sweetheart deal in Washington. Congress will put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for potentially hundreds of billions [...]

  • Ave Maria
    , July 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    From two years ago, here’s Maria Bartiromo bombing on Celebrity Jeopardy: What’s more embarrassing than losing on Jeopardy? Losing to Gloria Vanderbilt’s son. (Via a [...]

  • The Stock Market and Whole Numbers
    , July 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed at 1277.00, and at 1262.00 on the day before. The market hasn’t had back-to-back whole number closing since August 7&10, [...]

  • Harley Adds a Third Wheel
    , July 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Meet the Tri-Glide Ultra from Harley-Davidson’s 2009 collection.

  • The Yahoo Mess
    , July 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    I have to confess that I can’t make any sense of Yahoo (YHOO) and its share price. I’ve said for some time that the stock [...]

  • Bush: "Wall Street Got Drunk"
    , July 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 am

    President Bush was recorded as saying, “There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk, that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn [...]