Browse by Tags

• A crummy 2 months for stocks

  Posted Feb 29 2008, 03:22 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Intel, stocks
  Rating:

  

  How bad have the first two months of 2008 been? Bad. January and February were the worst-ever opening two months for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average wasn't much better.

  The advice investors should take away from the numbers: Be patient for a bottom. Be very patient. The odds that the market will recover completely by year-end aren't great, if only because it will take a long time to solve all the problems facing the banking system and the credit markets.

  (For some perspective, check Barry Ritholtz's blog The Big Picture. Barry also likes to toss in fun cartoons and thoughts about everything from digital cameras to rock music. Also, check Floyd Norris' blog at the New York Times site.)

  The Dow finished the first two months of the year down 7.5%. Since 1928, that's the blue-chip index's 6th-worst opening two months. The worst was 1933, when the index fell 14.3%. The next worst was 2000, when the Dow fell a combined 11.9%.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 26 comments) 48,829 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Will one man decide if Microsoft wins Yahoo?

  Posted Feb 11 2008, 08:30 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, stocks
  Rating:

  

  Chances are you haven't heard of Gordon Crawford, but my guess is that both Microsoft and Yahoo are paying close attention to whatever he thinks of Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money)

  Crawford is a senior vice president at Capital Research and Management, the nation's largest mutual fund company. For years, he has been one of the world's top players in media investing. He helped Ted Turner sell Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner. Turner and Crawford are still pals; they share a passion for fly fishing.

  And Crawford was one of the people who engineered Steve Case's departure from the board of Time Warner, back in those unhappy days when the media giant was AOL-Time Warner.

  More important for our discussion: Capital Research is Yahoo's largest shareholder with 11.6% of the outstanding shares -- nearly twice as many as Yahoo co-founder David Filo. Capital Research boosted its position in Yahoo by 49.4% in the third quarter and, according to The Wall Street Journal, increased its stake in the fourth quarter.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 12 comments) 25,380 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this