Archive for March, 2006

  • The Boom in India
    , March 27th, 2006 at 10:23 am

    The Bombay market is heading to the stratosphere:

    “The way the market has gone up, it shows that there are absolutely no short sellers,” said Ajit Surana, managing director at Dimensional Securities. “As the stock indices breach higher levels, stock valuations are getting out of whack and any reversal could be painful.”

    From Latin America to the Middle East, I think I know how this story will end.

    Buoyed by increased foreign investment in stocks — the Sensex has recorded a remarkable bull run. It topped the 10,000 mark in February this year after surging past the 9,000 level in November and the 8,000 mark in September.

  • Dane Miller Is Retiring from Biomet
    , March 27th, 2006 at 9:37 am

    After 29 years, Dane Miller is stepping down as CEO of Biomet (BMET). Last week, I wrote about this remarkable company.
    Here’s a brief profile of Miller from Forbes.

  • George Mason Wins
    , March 26th, 2006 at 5:12 pm

    Here’s the Tradesports contract for the game. When UConn pushed the game into overtime, the contracts immediately vaulted from 5 cents to 70 cents, only to become worthless a few minutes later.
    con_347654_runninglarge.gif

  • Euro So Beautiful
    , March 26th, 2006 at 9:01 am

    Some in Europe have a dream of expanding the euro to 12 more countries. But Desmond Lachman says that it’s not working where it’s already in use.

    The daunting challenges to the euro experiment are perhaps best exemplified by the response I got from a former Salomon Brothers’ emerging-market trader when I asked him where the next emerging market debt crisis would occur. Without missing a beat, he replied that it would take place in Greece, Italy or Portugal. All three of these countries suffer from government deficit levels and public debt ratios that would make any emerging market debt trader feel distinctly at home. These traders would also get the distinct feeling that they had already been to this movie before about a country unsuccessfully struggling with the rigors of a fixed exchange rate system.

  • Why Poor Countries Are Poor
    , March 25th, 2006 at 3:34 pm

    Tim Harford on the corruption-based economy of Cameroon.
    He finds a new school library that will never house any books because the roof wasn’t built to withstand the country’s rainy season.

    Consider the situation: money that was provided because of social networks rather than need; a project designed for prestige rather than use; a lack of monitoring and accountability; and an architect appointed for show by somebody with little interest in the quality of the work. The outcome is hardly surprising: A project that should never have been built was built, and built badly. The lesson of the story might appear to be that self-interested and ambitious people in power are often the cause of wastefulness in developing countries. But self-interested and ambitious people are in positions of power, great and small, all over the world. In many places, they are restrained by the law, the press, and democratic opposition. Cameroon’s tragedy is that there is nothing to hold self-interest in check.

  • The Market Today
    , March 24th, 2006 at 4:59 pm

    Thanks to a nice gain from Harley-Davidson (HDI), our Buy List beat the market for the fifth straight day.
    FactSet Research Systems (FDS) came within three pennies of a new high. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) broke $39 a share, before slipping back some.
    For the year, we’re up 3.29% versus 4.38% for the S&P 500 (not including dividends).
    Here’s how our Buy List has done (based on a starting value of $1 million). The red line is Crossing Wall Street. The black line is the S&P 500.
    image815.png

  • An Avian Flu Index
    , March 24th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

    You know you’re a professional investor when you look for a profit opportunity from anything.
    Here’s an Avian Flu Index from TrendMacro (via Luskin).

    These companies make vaccines, anti-virals and other products likely to be in big demand if the avian flu turns deadly, investment research firm TrendMacro says.

    Stock…………………………..Weds. Close……….YTD
    Alnylam………………………….$17.23……………29.0%
    Avant Immunotherapy……..$2.31……………..22.9%
    Avi…………………………………$6.98…………….102.3%
    BioCryst………………………..$19.16…………….14.4%
    Carrington Labs……………..$6.85………………44.8%
    Chiron…………………………..$45.70……………..2.8%
    Crucell………………………….$24.96…………….-2.5%
    Embrex…………………………$10.00…………….-27.8%
    Gilead Sciences……………..$62.70……………..19.3%
    Generex…………………………$3.22……………..288.0%
    Hemispherx……………………$3.74………………72.4%
    MedImmune…………………..$36.28………………3.6%
    Nastech………………………..$16.87……………..14.6%
    Novavax……………………….$7.51……………….95.1%
    Quidel…………………………..$11.87……………..10.3%
    Sinovac…………………………$5.11……………….27.4%
    Vical……………………………..$5.30……………….26.2%

  • Oshkosh Hits Another New High
    , March 24th, 2006 at 1:57 pm

    Does this stock ever go down? Man, I wish I had bought shares.
    Check this out. And it’s still going!
    The company makes all sorts of truck and military vehicles. Here’s more from their Web site. Hey, someone has to make all those garbage trucks.

  • Pit Bull Market
    , March 24th, 2006 at 11:05 am

    Yesterday, the Feds nabbed a bunch of mobsters in a stock scam operation. How’d you like to do business with these folks?

    The defendants, including accused Colombo family captain Joseph Baudanza, 61, and his brother Carmine Baudanza, 63, also extorted stock brokers, traders, cold callers and brokerage firm owners through threats and violence, authorities said.
    One stock promoter was kidnapped and chained to a pit bull dog, one broker was beaten with a bat, and another was stabbed when he tried to leave one of the firms, authorities said.

    In other news, a broker was fired after bringing a prostitute back to the office after hours. Now he’s suing the company. He said he felt unappreciated. (I’m not making this up.)

  • Google Added to S&P 500
    , March 24th, 2006 at 10:13 am

    Today is the sixth anniversary of the market’s top. On March 24, 20000 (also a Friday), the S&P 500 closed at 1527.46. Six years on, we’re still down about 15%.
    The folks at S&P are celebrating the bursting of the tech bubble by adding Google (GOOG) to the S&P 500. Burlington Resources (BR) has been voted off the island.
    Since Google is about three times larger than BR, index funds need to sell all 499 stocks to make room for Google.
    Also, Alcatel (ALA) and Lucent (LU) are in merger talks. The two sucky companies hope to form one large sucky company.
    Six years ago, Lucent closed at $48 a share. Today, it’s at $3.
    Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is finally starting to move. This stock is a bargain under $40.