• Texas Passes New York on Fortune 500 List
    Posted by on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am

    From the AP:

    Texas is king of the hill when it comes to corporate headquarters.
    The Lone Star State passed New York as home to the most big companies in the latest list compiled by Fortune magazine.
    Texas now boasts 58 headquarters, three more than New York, the previous No. 1, and California, with 52.
    Business experts say it’s a matter of simple economics – Texas attracts companies with its low taxes, affordable land and large labor force.

  • Deutsche Bank Gets Mean
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    This, my friends, is an outrage:

    Germany’s biggest bank today banned staff from visiting brothels on expenses and putting hotel TV porn channels on their company credit card.
    The crackdown came in new rules issued to executives as Deutsche Bank cuts costs after losing at least £2billion so far in the global credit crunch.
    “Deutsche Bank does not approve of any adult entertainments and such expenditures will not be reimbursed”, according to the memo leaked to news magazine Spiegel.
    According to Spiegel, the new edict was aimed at senior staff in the bank’s communications and social responsibility department.
    The memo further warns that the bank’s credit cards must not be used for such purposes.
    Whether the ruling was prompted by a recent upsurge in executives seeking erotic relief from subprime deals that have gone bad was not specified.
    Further belt-tightening at the bank includes prior approval from a boss before a taxi can be taken, a limit of £50 on a business meal and train rides in Germany must all be second class if they are under one hour.
    In the UK, the rule for bank employees is second class unless the journey is over two hours.
    One further stiupulation is that employees stepping off of overnight flights who are expected in work or at a business meeting are now to shower at the airport instead of booking a hotel room to do so.
    The reason for the memo: apparently there have been “minor infringements” of late which the bank wants to stamp out in hard times.

  • More Q1 Earnings Reports
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Just to bring you up to speed, there are a few Buy List earnings reports due this week. Lincare Holdings (LNCR) reports after the bell today. SEI Investments (SEIC) and Unitedhealth (UNH) report tomorrow, and AFLAC (AFL) reports on Wednesday.

  • Decline and Fall
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Two years ago, Crocs (CROX) went public at $10.50. By last October, it got to $75. Now it’s back down to $10.29, slightly below its IPO price.
    But it was a fun ride while it lasted.
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  • Isaac Newton: Master of the Mint
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am

    In Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens writes on Sir Isaac Newton, who not only had some rather bizarre ideas on gravity, but some truly whacked-out thoughts on sex and religion, and of course, gold.

    In contrast with this clarity and purity, however, Newton spent much of his time dwelling in a self-generated fog of superstition and crankery. He believed in the lost art of alchemy, whereby base metals can be transmuted into gold, and the surviving locks of his hair show heavy traces of lead and mercury in his system, suggesting that he experimented upon himself in this fashion, too.

    But his gold obsession didn’t end there. Newton also served as Master of the Mint and he had to deal with one of the great questions that men have pondered for centuries–what’s the correct price ratio of gold to silver.
    Great Britain didn’t formally adopt the gold standard until 1819, but it was in effect set over one hundred years before when Newton overvalued gold. For the previous 500 years, Britain had been on the silver standard.

  • Leucadia Buys 14% of Jefferies
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 10:33 am

    I noticed that Leucadia (LUK) just bought a 14% stake in Jefferies (JEF). I think we’re going to see more of this in the near future. Jefferies is not in good shape and they need the cash. For our purposes, I think we can consider Leucadia to be private equity firm.
    Of course, there’s the question of why so many banks and brokerages are turning to private equity and SWFs instead of the public market. The easy answer is that they’ve been completely shut out of the public markets. The other sources are, to borrow from Willie Sutton, where the money is.
    Felix Salmon has more.

  • Social Networks Just Got Much Less Cool
    Posted by on April 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am

    I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know much about social networking sites. I thought it was where teenagers gathered to discuss Gossip Girl. I understand that it’s that and much, much more. Anyway, I finally broke down and joined Facebook. You can add me as a friend, but please don’t discuss Gossip Girl.

  • More Earnings
    Posted by on April 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    Two more earnings reports to pass along. After the bell, Stryker (SYK) reported earnings of 70 cents a share, one penny better than estimates. This is such a great company; they deliver solid earnings like clockwork. Sales rose 14.7% to $1.63 billion from $1.43 billion. The company also forecast full-year earnings of $2.88 (no range?) which was inline with the Street. I think the stock is slightly overpriced here but not dramatically so.
    Harley-Davidson (HOG) has a rotten earnings report yesterday. The company earned 79 cents a share compared with 74 cents a share last year. Last year’s first quarter was impacted by the strike.
    The worst part was that Harley lowered its forecast. The company now sees an earnings pullback of 15% to 20% instead of the 4% to 7% it predicted before. BusinessWeek has a good article on the challenges facing HOG. This is one I’m not happy with.
    This is probably a case of my Buy List rule of not being able to sell until the end of the year will probably help me. Honestly, I’d be tempted to sell HOG right now.

  • Merrill Loses Fight on Gem Sale
    Posted by on April 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    It’s not been a good day for Merrill Lynch (MER), with the $2 billion quarterly loss, the Moody’s review. Oh, and a few thousand more job cuts. But today just got even worse.

    Merrill Lynch & Co.’s plan to auction what Christie’s International called “one of the greatest jewelry collections” was thwarted by jeweler Ralph O. Esmerian in a 48- hour showdown in three courts.
    The sale, which Christie’s scheduled for April 15 and then delayed to yesterday amid the legal wrangling, “will not take place,” said Helen Chaitman, one of Esmerian’s lawyers, after a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing yesterday in Lower Manhattan.
    Chaitman’s statement followed a private meeting between the lawyers of Esmerian, 68, and Merrill in the chambers of Judge Robert Drain, who didn’t issue a formal ruling.
    Chaitman said Esmerian, a fourth-generation jeweler, got his wish to sell his family heirlooms through Fred Leighton Inc., the retailer he bought in 2006. Merrill had lent Esmerian $178 million, in part to buy Fred Leighton, and in October declared the loan in default. Merrill then sought to sell its collateral, Esmerian’s antique jewelry, through Christie’s.
    Esmerian argued he could get far more for the jewels through private sales — and thus pay the debt by selling fewer pieces. Merrill spokesman Bill Halldin said the bank is grateful Leighton and other Esmerian entities will be under court supervision as a result of Leighton’s bankruptcy petition this week.
    “We look forward to an expedited resolution of these matters and a full repayment of all funds due to us,” he said.
    Christie’s said in a statement that it was “obviously disappointed not to proceed with the auction.”

  • Former CEO Tell Truth, Apologizes
    Posted by on April 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am

    Jack Welch on Jeffrey Immelt yesterday:

    I’d be shocked beyond belief and I’d get a gun out and shoot him if he doesn’t make what he promised now.

    We begin counting now. One, two, thr…

    GE’s Welch Defends Immelt, Says Remark Misinterpreted