Archive for 2007

  • FactSet Beats Estimates
    , June 19th, 2007 at 8:58 am

    FactSet Research Systems (FDS) just reported very good earnings. After charges, the company earned 52 cents a share, a penny higher than forecasts. Sales rose 23% to $121.1 million. FDS also said it expects sales this quarter of $126 million to $130 million while analysts were expecting sales $125 million.

  • Town Has Its Own Currency
    , June 19th, 2007 at 8:44 am

    Not only is the dollar losing support overseas, it’s not even doing well in Massachusetts.

    “I just love the feel of using a local currency,” said Trice Atchison, 43, a teacher who used BerkShares to buy a snack at a cafe in Great Barrington, a town of about 7,400 people. “It keeps the profit within the community.”
    There are about 844,000 BerkShares in circulation, worth $759,600 at the fixed exchange rate of 1 BerkShare to 90 U.S. cents, according to program organizers. The paper scrip is available in denominations of one, five, 10, 20 and 50.
    In their 10 months of circulation, they’ve become a regular feature of the local economy. Businesses that accept BerkShares treat them interchangeably with dollars: a $1 cup of coffee sells for 1 BerkShare, a 10 percent discount for people paying in BerkShares.

    Interesting idea. My only problem is the fixed exchange rate. No exchange rate is truly fixed, as the users of BerkShares will one day learn.

  • Breaking: Terry Semel Resigns
    , June 18th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

    Terry Semel is out at Yahoo (YHOO). The stock is up in the after-hours market. Susan Decker has been named president.
    Two months ago, I wrote:

    I say that Decker will replace Terry Semel before the summer is over.

    Even I was too optimistic since summer doesn’t start for a few more days.

  • The Lula Rally
    , June 18th, 2007 at 6:53 am

    Yale’s Robert Shiller looks at the Brazilian stock market. Since Lula took over in 2002, the stock market is up over 300%.

    Stock-market movements are certainly hard to explain, but there are reasons to believe that Brazilians might be rationally exuberant. Corporate earnings in Brazil have gone up roughly as fast as stock prices. With the price/earnings ratio remaining stable and moderate, the stock-market boom does not appear to reflect mere investor psychology.
    On the contrary, the real question is why the increase in stock prices has not outpaced growth in corporate earnings.

    Apparently, leftists are having a love affair with the stock market. Or at least, a good stock market.
    Well, maybe not all leftists. Hillary’s gone 100% cash:

    Given her history — recall her preposterous cattle future windfall — Mrs. Clinton is bound to be sensitive about her financial dealings. But in recent history, few candidates have felt compelled to go to an all-cash asset allocation to avoid potential conflicts. Al Gore, who in 2000 made a point of saying he avoided all stock-market investments, is a notable exception, if not one Mrs. Clinton should be eager to emulate. His populist campaign riff was a bust.

    But in retrospect, wasn’t Gore’s timing pretty good? (Also, going by the numbers, I’m not sure his campaign was a bust.)

  • The Cyclicals Continue to Soar
    , June 15th, 2007 at 11:40 am

    The market is up this morning and again it’s being led by cyclical stocks. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index (^CYC) is up over 22% this year and it’s closing in on 1,100.
    Here’s a look at the CYC divided by the S&P 500. The ratio hit another all-time high today.
    image480.png

  • Core CPI = 0.14978486314%
    , June 15th, 2007 at 9:09 am

    The futures are pointing sharply higher because the core CPI for May came in at 0.1% compared with Wall Street’s forecast of 0.2%.
    The seasonally-adjusted core CPI Index for April was 209.634. For May, it was 209.948.
    So the inflation rate is 0.314 divided by 209.634 or 0.14978486314%.
    All Hail the Gods of Rounding!
    image479.png

  • Signs of a Bubble
    , June 14th, 2007 at 10:41 am

    Mark Gilbert looks at signs of a bubble. Here’s a wee sample:

    If Hirst designed a vegetable display, it would look like the shop window at the just-opened Whole Foods Market Inc. branch in Kensington, one of London’s ritziest shopping areas. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. calculate that Kensington could contribute as much as 1.8 percent of the food retailer’s total sales. Whole Foods said last month that second-quarter revenue was $1.46 billion.
    It’s a food-porn cathedral dedicated to organic this, natural that and locally produced the other. On a Monday afternoon, the place was packed with gym-buffed yummy mummies driving designer pushchairs and doing battle in the produce- crammed aisles with trolley-dragging wealthy retirees.
    The zeitgeist-defining product among the free-range bananas, organic spring water and corn-fed soup is a 60-year-old Vecchia Dispensa balsamic vinegar, costing almost $200 for a triangular 100 milliliter bottle stoppered with red wax seals.
    You know there’s a bubble when an overgrown U.S. chain store can sell antique vinegar to Britons at 32 times the price of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne.

  • Best Day in Nearly a Year
    , June 13th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    Today was the market’s best day since last July. And it really didn’t get going until after 1 p.m.
    image478.png

  • Morgan Stanley Two Years On
    , June 13th, 2007 at 2:52 pm

    Remember Phil Purcell? Me neither.
    Apparently he used to be head of Morgan Stanley (MS) until the firm mutinied and drove him out. It was two years ago today that he announced his resignation.
    Let’s look at the results:
    Morgan Stanley’s stock on June 13, 2005: $49.20
    Morgan Stanley’s stock on June 13, 2007: $88.75

  • The WSJ on Schwarzman
    , June 13th, 2007 at 1:13 pm

    The WSJ has a long article on Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman this morning. It’s a paid link, but Bess Levin has the highlights at DealBreaker.
    The article covers such details as Schwarzman’s height (5’6″) and the size of his house (big), but out of 2,100 words, neither “skull” nor “bones” appears (though “Rod” and “Stewart” do).
    These folks need Murdoch. Now.