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Posted
Oct 12 2009, 10:20 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Carol Kopp
There’s a truism among investors that you should invest in what you know, understand, and like. It’s a commonsense strategy: You spot something new. It’s special. It’s useful or innovative. It’s cool and affordable. Let me buy some of that!
The response to that can be summed up in just two words: Krispy Kreme (KKD).
Krispy Kreme had been a popular doughnut chain in the South since 1937, but remained unknown to the rest of us until about 1996. That’s when the first Krispy Kreme popped up in New York City, on West 23rd Street.
Believe it or not, the town went nuts.
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Posted
Sep 29 2008, 06:36 PM
by
admin
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post is by MSN Money columnist Michael Brush:
Unless you’ve been in the markets for over two decades, you’ve never seen anything like the one-day wipeout that took major indices down a gut wrenching 9% Monday. The last time things got this ugly was during the market crash on Oct. 19, 1987.
So like a lot of people, you may be dazed and confused -- and wondering what to do with your stock portfolio or even your money in the bank.
Seasoned money managers and market experts I spoke with after the close Monday expect a financial rescue plan to be approved by the end of the week. Between now and then
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Posted
Nov 20 2008, 04:46 AM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Note: This post has been updated to account for Thursday's close.
I was fairly sure a couple of weeks ago that the market was putting in a bottom. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index told me so.
I was so confident that a bottom was forming that I even commissioned a graphic showing why. Now, I'm worried about how far much farther the market could fall. The S&P 500 tells me so.
Here's why.
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Posted
May 05 2009, 04:43 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Starbucks (SBUX) has been hurting. It built way too many stores. Costs were getting out of control. And sales couldn't keep up because, well, there were too many stores.
Then, consumers, squeezed by the recession, began to look for less-pricey alternatives.
A perfect opportunity for a competitor with financial muscle eager to build new audiences -- say, McDonald's (MCD) -- to slip in under the radar. Whoever said business was about nice people being nice?
Now what has been a relatively modest battle is turning into a real war.
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Posted
Apr 16 2009, 10:20 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Forget stocks and bonds, the real money's in guns.
The Wall Street Journal reports artillery enthusiasts are stocking up on guns and ammo, not necessarily ahead of widespread civil unrest resulting from our ongoing economic swoon, but as an investment. These trigger-happy speculators are betting President Obama will institute a ban on assault rifles, which would crimp supply and send prices, well, shooting up.
For it's part, the Obama administration says it has no plans to enact such legislation and supports the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
During the federal ban on semiautomatic weapons from 1994-2004, prices soared. Recent buying has reached almost a frenzied pitch, creating backlogs for popular models and enabling resellers to list certain guns well above suggested retail prices. AK-47s doubled in price between September 2008 and the end of last year.
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Posted
Mar 13 2009, 08:38 AM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Before CNBC's "Mad Money" Jim Cramer went on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" Thursday night, he pounded on pie dough with a roller during a visit with domestic diva Martha Stewart.
"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart got into fighting trim with pop quizzes on the definitions of various financial terms, like price-earnings ratios and Tier 1 Capital.
But when Cramer actually appeared on the show, he was as gentle as, well, a kitten.
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Posted
Sep 23 2009, 02:08 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Well, that was interesting. After the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday it would leave interest rates unchanged, stocks initially bounded higher before abruptly shifting direction and screaming lower. The bulls gunned the Dow Industrial Average achingly close to the 10,000 level before things fell apart.
At issue wasn't the Fed's target policy rate, which affects short-term interest rates. Instead, traders were apparently concerned that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and his cohorts failed to expand its direct purchases of mortgages and government debt. This will likely result in higher long-term rates.
You see, the Federal Reserve has been engaging in unorthodox monetary policy over the past 9 months via "Permanent Open Market Operations," or POMO. Fed traders were authorized in March to spend some $300 billion to buy U.S. Treasury debt and $1.45 trillion to buy mortgage-backed securities and debt from government-controlled housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With the original budget on the Treasury allocation nearly exhausted, many wondered if the Fed will let the program expire, or renew it. Today we got our answer and Wall Street didn't like it.
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Posted
May 06 2009, 10:36 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Do words have meaning?
In March, American International Group (AIG) said it paid approximately $120 million in bonuses to about 6,000 workers. The company now says it paid close to $454 million. That's 278.3% more than it initially disclosed.
But AIG tells Politico, a Web site covering Washington, that it responded accurately to the questions as asked.
A pettifogger’s delight? Or sloppy reporting?
Nick Ashooh, AIG spokesman, says the $454 million total “reflects all types of variable compensation across all our businesses.” The $120 million figure included only bonuses paid to top executives at corporate headquarters and others in its major businesses around the world. He says the higher total includes the previously disclosed $120 million.
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Posted
Sep 14 2008, 07:03 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Get ready for one of the wildest and most difficult days for the financial markets since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and possibly since the October 1987 market crash.
Stocks were expected to sell off sharply because two of Wall Street's most prominent investment banks look to disappear soon and the world's largest insurance company was struggling to survive.
Efforts to sell investment bank Lehman Bros., one of the oldest and largest investment houses on Wall Street, collapsed after a weekend of talks, and Lehman Bros. said late Sunday it would filed for bankruptcy protection
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Posted
Apr 15 2009, 12:23 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Everyone has been preoccupied with emerging signs of economic recovery -- the so-called "green shoots" of growth. This, along with early signs of stability within the banks, is the justification given for what has been the biggest five-week rally in 70 years as the S&P 500 gained 27% since the March 6 low of 666.
As much as I would like to embrace the warm feelings of optimism, a number of factors have me worried. After a post-holiday boost driven by bargain seekers, retail sales dropped 1.1% in March -- the first month-over-month fall for the year. Banks are starting to clamp down on foreclosures after a brief respite, which will accelerate the drop in home prices. Industrial production is falling at the fastest pace since VE Day in 1945 as factory utilization falls to 69% of capacity -- the lowest reading since at least 1967.
Add to this some worrying technical indicators, and a retest of the March lows looks more and more likely. Sector groups that have led the way over the past month, such as technology, retailers, materials and consumer discretionary stocks, are petering out near resistance. And the dreaded "evening star" reversal pattern, last seen before February's harrowing fall, has just reappeared.
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