Generally when the government gets involved in any business, its bad, but never for Wall Street. This time, as it pertains to healthcare, I honestly have no idea what might make a great investment. We know it won’t be the insurers, they’re going to have to compete with a company that can post a loss. Maybe hospitals, but who knows how much regulation the healthcare bill might entail. Read more…
The US trade deficit has slowed to $30 billion per month. In April, the deficit was even lower to $29.2 billion, helped by a drop in the imports of foreign goods and lower commodity prices. The problem however, is soon to grow larger, due to a variety of market fluctuations. Read more…
Congress is up to no good again. This time however, a million or so people are going to make out like bandits, and so are the car companies. A new cash for clunker program from Congress will give people up to $4500 to trade in an existing car for a higher MPG new car. That’s a deal, especially if you’re driving just plain garbage. Read more…
Making money in the stock market requires you know what’s going on, unless of course you subscribe to the random walk theory. But is it about being right, or is it about being first, or is it being right first? Read more…
The Washington Post broke the story that House democrats may soon suggest a new value added tax that would be added on top of goods and services purchased in the United States. Along with an income tax, you’d also pay as much as 20% on top of any products you buy here in the states, a federal sales tax of sorts… Read more…
And who can blame them? After offering only a minority stake in the company for financing the operation for years, there should certainly be some disgruntled bondholders. But let’s settle some math… Read more…
The small screened and underpowered laptops may not be the perfect gaming PC but they’re surely catching on with business users. New programs from the largest wireless carriers are offering the tiny PCs for as little as $99. Are we seeing the future business-user product, or just another fad? Read more…
Outside of my own retirement accounts and long term investments I like to goof around with 5-6 stocks that I switch up, re-allocate and reinvest every few months. I changed up quite a bit of my portfolio on January 26 after I started to get a little more confidence in the markets, and that I could manage to at least make some money on the reflation trade. Now, nearly 4 months later, I’m up 18% and though I’m reasonably happy, I could have done better. Read more…
Barclay’s must really be feeling the pinch. Even though the company was able to avoid bailout money from the UK, its still not out of the toilet just yet. Bloomberg.com just reported that the company would be soliciting offers for Barclay’s Global Investors, arguably its most successful arm which maintains more than $1.5 trillion of investor capital. Read more…
The cap and trade debate is heating up. Environmentalists want accountable energy users while businessmen want cheap energy. Its not the best time for legislation like this, especially considering the measures put forth by Obama could raise the energy prices for many American’s by as much as 50%. That’s going to have a huge impact not only on energy, but the economy as a whole. Read more…
The treasury bubble has officially began its burst. A recent government auction of treasury bonds was a virtual flop, and the Chinese have slowed, nearly ceased, all additional purchases of Treasury bonds. The bond bubble’s burst is near, very near, and the actions taken to keep it from bursting has only made the bubble that much worse. Read more…
Automatic Data Processing releases its own “employment report” just before the official government numbers are released. This month, ADP shows that only 491,000 jobs were lost in the month of April, that’s a considerable increase over the month prior. Read more…
In a bid to become the world’s largest automaker, Fiat is extending its purchase of Chrysler to include General Motors’ European operations. The merger would create a firm with $100 Billion in annual revenue, thats right, one-tenth of a trillion dollars each and every year. Read more…
Fifty million people, one-sixth of the population, will be receiving checks from the stimulus package in May. The payments go to those who do not qualify for “Making Work Pay,” a tax credit that offers $400 per person or $800 per couple. The lowdown and possible investment opportunities… Read more…
There’s a local bank I’ve been keeping tabs on called Integra Bankcorp. Its a small regional firm that is essentially a savings and loan bank, they take in deposits and give out mortgages. Behind the scenes there is something going on, the Treasury is keeping its stock price, and likely the stock prices of many other regional banks, artificially higher. Read more…
It was announced today that State Street Bank, manager of the pension fund at General Motors, has liquidated 100% of the equity positions in General Motors stock. GM employees no longer have a single dollar invested in the well-being of the company, and they’re the only ones talking the company up. Read more…
If you’ve been looking at the newswires you’d see that apparently in six short months the whole banking sector is turning itself around. Everyone is showing a profit and traders are anticipating an excellent dose of first quarter profits from this nation’s bailed out banks. But there are serious consequences for short term prosperity, we’re setting ourselves up for a nasty double-dip bottom. Read more…
The Federal budget deficit rose to $192 billion in March, a new record and showing a continued stress for a government looking to spare the economy. The congressional budget office reported that after looking at the Federal budget, Americans should expect a $9 Trillion total deficit over the next decade. This figure would again double the national debt and by 2022 the national debt should stand at nearly $20 Trillion. Read more…
I’m tired of hearing that short sales are killing stocks. Naked short selling hurts stocks, but real short selling actually has a net economic benefit. We need to reign in on what used to be illegal, but the practice of short selling does have true economic merit. Read more…
Chief executive officers, they’re the top of the top, and for the last decade they’ve been treated like kings. You can’t fire them, the board won’t toss ‘em and they’re living it up at the expense of the investor. But now it feels like investors are demanding more from the corporate elite. After a year of scandals and bonuses, investors are going to start wanting more out of their CEOs. Read more…
I’ll admit I’ve been less than correct on Ford, I liked it at $6, loved it for pennies but I’ve yet to pull the trigger on the stock. I had though that if any of the Big Three were to survive it would be Ford, it pulled profits recently, had enough cash and credit to weather the storm and now it looks like its two domestic competitors are about to bite the dust. Read more…
Its been awhile since I’ve posted some technicals of the major indices. I’m taking a glance at the Dow futures right now while the Asian market is trading down more than 4%, and it looks like our bull market run is over. There’s some interesting chart patterns forming, though, in both the price action and the RSI. Read more…
Certainly the economic reports coming out are giving investors a greater feeling about the end of the recession. Durable goods orders were solid, as was consumer spending and real estate was icing on the cake. After two days of consolidation on Thursday and Friday it is obvious that investors don’t mind taking quick profits, and they’ll continue to do so unless they have reason to buy. Read more…
I’m looking at the headlines and all I see are more regulations on the horizon. There is not once that regulation does work, it never has, it never will, and for one reason: we never seem to learn when we screw up. Read more…
The G20 Summit is set to happen in the UK on April 20th of this year. The meeting usually goes calmly, the leaders address certain economic and monetary policy issues and then they leave and nothing really happens. Except this year. In the midst of a global financial crisis, there’s going to be a lot of wheeling and dealing and plenty of discussions about world monetary policy. Read more…
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