Barron's Buzz: December 20th, 2008

Out With the Old

Quick thoughts on this week’s Barron’s…

Kopin Tan killed it with massive 2009 outlook-y article…Brady Bunch-style grouping of Chief Market Strategist types from both buy-side and sell-side with their ’09 S&P earnings estimates and targets.  Didn’t see Abby Joseph Cohen in there…that’s refreshing.  Nice to see some non-bulge bracket people, Jason Trennert from Strategas grabs the bottom right box and is looking for 1100 on the S&P in 2009.

Worth mentioning that out of 12 strategists, 10 picked Health Care as one of their top sectors for 2009.

Then, Kopin Tan predicts a “Stockpicker’s Paradise” in 2009 citing research from Merrill saying that once volatility calms down, stocks will start to trade on their own fundamentals and we’ll see “winners and losers” once again.  This is in direct opposition to my recent Manifesto missive “Pick Sectors, Not Stocks” but it could be fun to be wrong next year.

They couldn’t avoid claiming bragging rights for calling BS (ok, politely questioning) Bernie Madoff back in 2001…give ’em credit, they were asking the questions that regulators weren’t waaaaaaay early, Bravo Barron’s!

Retailing sucks, especially at the mall…here’s your update from Jacquelin Doherty.

Lastly, Eric Savitz makes some pretty apocalyptic predictions for the tech sector, check out the title of his column this week:

“What’s Ahead: Plunging Profits and Stock Prices of Zero”

With that, I wish you a good week…and I’ll spare you from Abelson’s musings.