The quintessential book on Bailouts has already been written, it’s called Bailout Nation by Barry Ritholtz and many of my colleagues and clients will be receiving a copy come the holidays. That said, there was one massive bailout in American history that hasn’t gotten much attention, probably because it was more of a social crisis…
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A Look at Health Care Coverage Numbers in the US
In the current battle over health care, you will hear a lot more of a ruckus over WHO is covered as opposed to much about the quality of coverage. As a result, a lot of the debate is based on which politician is supplying the numbers themselves. Here’s a look at the government’s data from the St….
CNBC's Most Annoying Commercials 3
And the never-ending commercial loop continues…same repetition, new set of 30 seconds spots to drive us crazy. CNBC is the soundtrack of my workday, for better or worse, while I’m at my trading turret. I’m OK with the network itself, but their habit of running the same 7 or 8 ads all day long, again…
Texas Instruments: Note To Self
Talk about having your thunder stolen! Reporting earnings at the same time as Apple is like playing the second stage at Lollapalooza as the Chili Peppers take the main stage. Supposedly, crickets could be heard on the Texas Instruments (TXN) conference call along with the quiet yearning of the second string sell-side analysts who wished they were…
Crushing Earnings Estimates? There's an App for That.
I’m utterly in awe of the great American earnings machine that is Apple Inc (AAPL). This evening’s earnings report eruption was utterly remarkable given the environment. From All Things Digital: Apple’s September quarter saw, among other things, the release of Snow Leopard, the latest upgrade to its OS X operating system and the first public…
Follow Up: Ag-Related Stocks Being Harvested
Yesterday I discussed the possibility that portfolio managers may now look to the agriculture-related stocks to play catch up vis a vis the metals and energy stock rally. Guess they were thinking just that: Industry Top Performers Intraday Price Performance % Change Market Cap AGRIUM INC. [AGU] +7.31% $8.4 B POTASH CP SASKATCHEW [POT] +6.17%…
If Galleon Unloads Their Treasures…
For what it’s worth, here’s a quick look at Galleon‘s top ten holdings. I’d imagine that the phones are ringing off the hook with redemption requests as we speak. These are almost all mega-caps, so I wouldn’t expect a great deal of impact should the fund have to unwind these positions quickly. NAME STOCK SYMBOL …
Don't Do It Google!
I’ve yet to see a successful Internet Roll-Up strategy executed and in my opinion, even a company as brutally successful as Google probably couldn’t pull it off. Watching Barry Diller collect assets like Expedia, Hotels.com and AskJeeves only to start spinning them off in frustration was a cautionary tale for old media execs. Having witnessed…
Commodity Plays: The Search For What Hasn't Moved Yet
Crunch time for portfolio managers. I read in Barron’s this weekend that the average US stock mutual fund manager is about 5% ahead of the S&P 500 this year, according to Lipper. OK, but it’s the below-average performing PM that really needs the juice right about now, with 10 weeks or so left to make…
Comparing This Decade's NASDAQ to the 1930's Dow Jones
In a new He Said/ She Said piece from the Wall Street Journal, we get the above chart, which compares the last 9 years of the NASDAQ to the Dow Jones Industrial Average of the Great Depression. Without question, there is an eerie similarity in the squiggles. From the WSJ: Editor’s Note: It was the…
