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Posted
Oct 22 2009, 04:06 PM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Buying a house is one of the biggest purchases most Americans will ever make. And right now, the housing market is the one of the biggest anchors holding back the U.S. economy. Though a recovery is under way in many sectors, the housing market remains a problem, and it looks likes it's going to get even worse.
7 Housing Stocks to Sell Now
Why do I say that? Here are seven reasons I'm convinced the housing market will continue to crater:
Reason #1 - Low Housing Starts
On October 20, data showed new housing starts were worse than expected, as builders remain cautious. While the total number of starts edged up a bit from 587,000 to 590,000, the increase was well under Wall Street's forecast of 610,000. Single-family starts appear to be leveling off—not increasing as some had hoped—and multi-family units saw a dramatic 15.2% drop on the month.
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Posted
Oct 14 2009, 11:10 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) is set to report earnings on Thursday and I, for one, am expecting an impressive blow-out.
As a behemoth on Wall Street, GS has managed to stay successful in both good times and bad. Shares are up nearly 100% over the past five years, while the Dow Jones Financial Services index fell 11% in the same time period. The future is bright for Goldman as well, with a five-year expected growth rate of 12.5%. Presently, Goldman Sachs is close to a 52-week high and closing in on the $200 per share mark. Over the past 30 days, more than half of covering analysts raised their third-quarter profit forecasts. Last quarter, the company beat expectations by $1.41.
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Posted
Oct 08 2009, 04:52 PM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor started her first term on the bench Monday. And at the top of her docket is a case that will show how much she has changed the court's dynamic -- the case of McDonald v. Chicago, which seeks to overturn the city's handgun ban.
Some fear it could be the death of the Second Amendment as we know it.
Bing: More on McDonald v. Chicago
Me, I'm not worried about that. Sotomayor is replacing retired Justice David Souter who had been a reliable vote for the court's liberal wing. She's just a different vote on the left, not a new one. And since last term the court successfully overturned a similar handgun ban in Washington, D.C., I expect a similar result in the Chicago case.
So why should you care about all this judicial nonsense if you're an investor? Because it presents a perfect window of opportunity for gun stocks right now.
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Posted
Oct 01 2009, 11:42 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Great news this week for shareholders of Bank of America (BAC). Ken Lewis will finally be leaving as chief executive.
Sorry, Kenny. Hate to see you go. Bing: More on Ken Lewis
You want to know how happy BAC shareholders are? When the news hit the wires, the stock traded up in the after-hours market by about 1%. In other words, the bank is already worth $1.5 billion more without him!
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Posted
Sep 25 2009, 02:43 PM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The market just called to say the crash is canceled. You can go back to sleep now.
It's really silly. All this ink being spilled over the market going down in September and the potential for a crash in October. Will it happen this year? Should you take your profits from the last six months and run for cover?
Hardly. If anything, I believe September will be the start of the new bull market. Here are three key reasons why
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Posted
Sep 22 2009, 06:45 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Car dealership chain CarMax (KMX) reported astounding earnings of $103 million, or 46 cents per share, on revenue of $2.08 billion Tuesday. That compares with earnings of $14 million, or 6 cents per share, on revenue of $1.84 billion a year ago. The news is especially good, as analysts were looking for a second-quarter profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $1.77 billion, so the company posted a 667% earnings increase and a 156% earnings surprise! Even better: The gains did not come purely from cost-cutting. All-important same store unit sales increased 8% for the quarter and total unit sales rose 10%. Bing: Auto Stocks
Wall Street will surely be good to CarMax today. But with the economy is still struggling, and consumers continuing to cut back, where is this burst coming from? How exactly did CarMax pull it off?
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 11:33 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's been one year since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, creating the worst credit crisis in history. But we've come a long way in those 12 months. Banks that were teetering on the brink of ruin have seen their stocks surge lately.
So is it the right time to get into financials again?
I'll answer that by taking a look at two very different financial firms: JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C).
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Posted
Sep 10 2009, 09:06 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Quietly, Starbucks (SBUX) has hit a 52-week high of $20.21.
It may not be a coincidence that this happened as McDonald's (MCD) same-store sales posted an increase of just 2.2%, a disappointment. Starbucks may be taking back some of its core coffee drinkers. The coffee shop chain has certainly done everything in its power to restore the value of its brand and reclaim its franchise.
Bing: Starbucks taste test results
Moody's acknowledged this early in the week by upgrading the Starbucks short-term and commercial paper rating from A-3 to A-2.
"The ratings are based on Starbucks' leading market position and excellent brand recognition in the specialty coffee market in the U.S., as well as a history of strong cash flow generation," said Jackie Oberoi, an S&P credit analyst, in a statement.
Starbucks struggled early in its turnaround attempt just after founder Howard Schultz returned to the CEO's job in January 2008. The company's shares traded close to $20 then. Schulz cut costs and fired 12,000 people, but he could not reverse a sharp decline in revenue. By November 2008, the firm's stock was trading just above $7.
The recent success of Starbucks is improbable. McDonald's has many more locations and its premium coffee has gotten very good grades from places like Consumer Reports. Some analysts believed that McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts seized many of Starbucks regular customers. Schulz had no clear way to counter this, so he tried a large number of tactics, probably hoping that some of them would work
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Posted
Sep 09 2009, 09:55 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Apple (APPL) has almost single-handedly redefined the consumer electronics market with innovative products, from changing the way we listen to music to redefining the role of cell phones.
But don't think this company is all fun and games. Apple continues to make inroads into the computer market and erode the market share of fellow tech icon Microsoft (MSFT). The Mac vs. PC rivalry is more than just a cute ad war.
Bing: Apple or Microsoft - who's winning?
Actually, I'm a big fan of those Mac vs. PC ads -- and not just because they're funny. I think they provide a glimpse into the corporate culture of each company. Apple is, at heart, an inventive company looking to grow by creating the next big thing. On the other hand, Microsoft is an established giant that keeps doing what it has always done well … then using the profits to purchase a smaller company's ideas and leverage them to even bigger returns. Apple's strategy is obviously much more glamorous and appeals to image-conscious consumers, however both of these strategies have merit.
Which of these tech powerhouses is a better investment right now? Take a look at some numbers:
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Posted
Sep 08 2009, 04:05 PM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
On Monday, Kraft Foods (KFT) stunned the investing world by offering to merge with Cadbury PLC (CBY) for $16.7 billion. That represented a 42% premium to Cadbury’s stock price. But what was even more stunning is that Cadbury’s board turned the offer down. They called Kraft’s bid “fundamentally inadequate.” Ouch!
If most people were offered a 42% premium on something—anything—they’d take it, so I have to credit Cadbury’s board for showing some moxie. At least they believe in their company.
Apparently, they’re not alone. Shares of Cadbury have surged on the news that someone else will make a bid for them. This is typical Wall Street—if one company is an interested buyer, then they all must be. Bing: Kraft and Cadbury
So what’s going to happen now? I fully expect Kraft will come back to Cadbury with a sweetened offer. If I were Cadbury, I wouldn’t try to be too cute with potential suitors. Some analysts think the company could fetch as much as $21 billion, which is a lot of chocolate eggs. I currently rate both Kraft and Cadbury as sells, so almost any offer is worth taking.
Wall Street is a big playing field, so lots of corporate boards are watching this action and some are certainly interested in Cadbury
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