Archive for August, 2008

  • Citigroup Trader “Dooced”
    , August 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Michael J. McCarthy aka “Large” has been fired from his job as a Citigroup trader for running his blog, Take A Report.

    “This employee was terminated for behavior that violated the firm’s code of conduct and policies,” Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos said. McCarthy, a vice president, declined to comment on his departure from the New York-based bank. Financial industry regulatory records show he’s been at Citigroup for seven years, most recently trading shares of utility and power companies.
    “It’s a little over the top,” said Barry Ritholtz, director of equity research for New York-based Fusion IQ, who has looked at the site and has his own financial blog at www.bigpicture.typepad.com. “I can see why a conservative bank is not going to be happy with it. It’s funny as hell.”

  • My Buy List YTD
    , August 7th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    image703.png
    Through today, the Buy List is down -10.39% while the S&P 500 is down -13.78%. Neither figure includes dividends. The daily volatility of the Buy List is 7.17% greater than the S&P 500.

  • Analyst says Bed Bath & Beyond well positioned
    , August 7th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    From the AP:

    An analyst said Thursday that Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. remains one of the “best operators” in its sector and will likely withstand the nation’s economic downturn better than many of its competitors.
    Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Vivian Ma told investors in a research note that the Union, N.J.-based specialty home retailer has no plans to cut back on reinvestments.
    “We believe that (Bed Bath & Beyond) remains one of the best operators in the home goods space and should continue to navigate the challenging consumer environment better than the competition,” Ma wrote.
    The analyst added that the retailer remains “very focused on superior execution to drive share gains.

  • Cramer on Jimmy Carter: “May He Rest in Peace”
    , August 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pm


    Listen around the 4:25 mark.
    For those of you who don’t remember, Jimmy Carter is the guy who defeated Gerald Ford.
    Via: WallBlog.)

  • Feel Good News Story of the Day
    , August 6th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Cancer survivor wins the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Bonus points: He’s a member of two tribute bands, one for Queen and another for Led Zeppelin.

    About 10 weeks ago, a local man using the online name of CLASSICROCKER began e-mailing friends to update them on his participation in the CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.
    CLASSICROCKER, known in real life as Edward Burke, had positioned himself for a possible cash prize.
    On Monday, CNBC made the official announcement — Burke, 54, had won the $500,000 Grand Prize, edging out David Lesser, a mechanic from Kent, Wash., and approximately 254,000 other people.
    “They kept us in the dark until the final announcement,” said Burke, a 1974 graduate of Chambersburg Area Senior High School and current Shippensburg resident. “It was suspenseful, but it was easier to take because we both knew we were going to win a quarter of a million at the very least.
    “My son, Chase, texted me and said he was crying tears of joy.”

  • Let’s Play “Spot the Problem”
    , August 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    November 8, 2008

    Morgan Stanley takes $3.7bn hit

    December 20, 2007

    $9.4 Billion Write-Down at Morgan Stanley

    August 5, 2008

    Treasury hires Morgan Stanley to analyze Fannie, Freddie

  • Whole Foods Hits New Low
    , August 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Whole Foods Market (WFMI) just reported a rotten quarter. The company’s fiscal Q3 net dropped 31% to 24 cents a share. The Street was looking for 31 cents a share. The company also said that Q4 earnings will be 15 cents a share, which was far below the 27 cents Wall Street was expecting. The shares are down about 16% today and are now at a six-year low.
    Nearly three years ago, I called out Whole Foods and its overpriced stock:

    I’m a big fan of Whole Food Market (WFMI), but this stock is way, WAY over-priced. Last quarter, the company missed earnings by a penny a share. In the past few weeks, Wall Street has lowered this fiscal year’s consensus earnings estimate to $2.86 a share, and the stock is still trading at 53 times that. That’s almost as much as Google (GOOG)!
    Look, I like organic kumquats as much as the next guy, but let’s be reasonable. Whole Foods’ earnings will probably grow by about 17%-20%. Not bad at all. The stock, however, is already up over 60% this year.
    A stock can’t go up faster than its earnings indefinitely. At some point, something’s gotta give. That’s not finance, it’s physics. Right now, the stock is going up because it’s going up. The price and fundamentals have politely parted company. On Friday, shares of Whole Foods closed at another all-time high.

    image702.png

  • Oh Dear Lord
    , August 6th, 2008 at 10:00 am

    Icahn Hires Reporter to Write for His Blog

    According to sources, Mr. Elfenbein described this as “wicked lame.”

  • Who Needs Diebold
    , August 6th, 2008 at 9:57 am

    Wonderful:

    Yahoo has updated the results of recent voting by shareholders, revealing that support for the Internet firm’s board is far weaker than it appeared.
    Some 200 million votes were mistakenly cast in favor of the re-election of Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock by an outside company used by a major stockholder.
    A revised tally released on Tuesday shows Bostock got the least support, with 60.4 percent of votes in favor of his re-election instead of the 79.5 percent originally reported after the August 1 shareholders meeting.
    Yang did not fare much better, winning 66.3 percent of the votes cast as opposed to the 85.6 percent figure in the miscount. Two other Yahoo board members were erroneously given the support of 100 million votes each.

  • Inflation and the Markets
    , August 5th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    According to monthly data from Ibbotson Associates, all of the stock market’s inflation-adjusted gains have come when monthly inflation is below 3.5%.
    From 1926 through 2007, there were 984 months. Of those 984 months, 436 months showed an annualized inflation increase of over 3.5%, while the other 548 came in less than 3.5%.
    The combined increase of the 436 months with inflation greater than 3.5% is -1.25%. That’s over 36 years worth of data and it’s given investors an inflation-adjusted loss. However, the combined total of the 548 months with inflation under 3.5% is 27,957%. That’s quite a difference. Annualized, that works out to 13.14%.