Archive for August, 2010

  • From 1985: What Will Shopping Be Like in 2010?
    , August 31st, 2010 at 12:05 am

    From 1985, peer into the distant future of 2010.

  • The WSJ Takes on the P/E Ratio
    , August 30th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    The Wall Street Journal has a rather unusual column today claiming that the Price/Earnings Ratio is not only declining, but the metric’s importance is declining [...]

  • Genzyme Says No to Sanofi-Aventis
    , August 30th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    The stock market is bucking the trend of 2010 as we’re currently heading lower on a Monday. The market, however, is still well above the [...]

  • Buffett Turns 80
    , August 30th, 2010 at 8:15 am

    Happy Birthday to Warren Buffett. Here’s to 80 more!

  • Ave Maria!
    , August 28th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Maria Bartiromo singing!. Here’s Part 1: Part 2:

  • Market Notes: August 27, 2010
    , August 27th, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    The Buy List had a very good day to close out August which was an ugly month for us. Here are a few notes on [...]

  • Altria Raises Dividend
    , August 27th, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Altria (MO) announced today that it’s increasing its quarterly dividend by 8.6% to 38 cents per share. Think of it this way: If you had [...]

  • Krugman and Bond 36,000
    , August 27th, 2010 at 9:55 am

    Ten years, I criticized the Dow 36,000 thesis for its bad math. Now I very cautiously criticize Paul Krugman’s defense of the bond bulls. Professor [...]

  • The Lost Decade
    , August 27th, 2010 at 9:03 am

    The government revised the GDP growth number for Q2 today and it wasn’t good. Instead of growing by 2.4% which the original report said, the [...]

  • The Low Point in the Presidential Election Cycle
    , August 27th, 2010 at 6:30 am

    We’re coming up on an important day for investors. One month from now is the market’s historic low point during the Presidential Election Cycle. Historically, [...]

  • Goldman Sachs January 2011 Puts
    , August 26th, 2010 at 2:41 pm

    Just in case anyone is interested, you can pick up some puts on Goldman Sachs (GS) for January 2011 with a strike price of $2.50. [...]

  • This Might be a Sell Signal
    , August 26th, 2010 at 2:18 pm

    If the CEO of one of your stocks is named Time’s Person of the Year, that might be time to sell. Intel‘s (INTC) Andrew Grove [...]

  • No Jobs Means No Sales Means No Recovery
    , August 26th, 2010 at 11:42 am

    Here’s a chart I made that I think may be helpful in explaining the current market to new investors. This chart shows the trailing four-quarter [...]

  • The Larger the Fund, the Fewer the Stocks
    , August 25th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    One of the important lessons of investing is that individual investors often have an advantage over professionals. They don’t have to meet quarterly goals. They [...]

  • The Dow Breaks 10,000
    , August 25th, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    The Dow dipped below 10,000 this morning but thanks to an afternoon rally, we’re above 10,000. It seems like it was only 11-1/2 years ago [...]

  • Is 2010 Like 1982?
    , August 25th, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    On Friday, the government will revise the Q2 GDP numbers and I don’t think it will be very good. With a little over two months [...]

  • P/E Ratios of Financial Stocks
    , August 25th, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    Here’s another look at the P/E Ratios are selected large-cap financial stocks. The P/E Ratios are based on earnings estimates for next year: Company Ticker [...]

  • More on Stocks Vs. Bonds
    , August 24th, 2010 at 3:49 pm

    Here’s another quick-and-dirty view of how badly bonds have been beaten stocks recently. This shows the Vanguard 500 Index Investor Fund (VFINX) divided by the [...]

  • Time for US Treasury Consols?
    , August 24th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    With Treasury yields being so low, here’s an idea to consider—let’s have the U.S. Treasury consider floating some long-term debt, some very long-term debt, like [...]

  • Bond 36,000
    , August 24th, 2010 at 11:21 am

    The bond boom continues. The yield on the 10-year T-bond briefly dropped below 2.5% this morning: Nortfolk Southern just sold $250 million in 100-year bonds. [...]