• Costco Hits New 52-Week High
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Hats off to Costco (COST). The stock just broke out to a fresh 52-week high this morning.

    I think the stock has its pre-crash high of $75.23 (from May 14, 2008) in its sights, although it’s not easy to decipher what inanimate objects are thinking.

    There’s always a weird period when investing in Costco. They reported Q3 earnings on May 27, but the Q4 report won’t come out until mid-October. That’s 4-1/2 months without knowing how the business is doing.

    The last earnings report was in line with forecasts; the one before that missed by two cents and the one before that was in line. This tells me that the Street is seeing COST as a value play, not an emerging growth story.

  • US Economic and Equity Outlook from Goldman Sachs
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 11:43 am

    GS Sep 10 Econ Update

    (Via: ZeroHedge).

  • 5-Year TIPs Back Near 0%
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 11:24 am

    Here’s an eye-opening chart. This shows the yield on the 5-year Inflation-protected Treasury bond. During the crisis, the yield shot up over 4% as there was a rush to liquidity.

    Now, thanks to a lifeless recovery, the yield is back near 0% again. That means that in real terms, you’re not making a profit by lending money to the government.

  • Hirsch: Dow to 38,820 By 2025
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 10:32 am

    One of the more bizarre predictions to hit Wall Street of late is Jeffrey Hirsch’s call for the Dow to reach 38,820 by 2025. What makes this forecast especially unusual—besides the suspiciously-precise target—is that according to Hirsch, the market won’t start its “Super Boom” until 2017.

    But after looking at some numbers, perhaps his target isn’t so outrageous. (I’m not endorsing it; I’m merely saying it really isn’t that crazy.) The stock market closed 1999 at 11,497.12. Assuming a 5% growth rate for 25 years would bring the index to 38,933. Of course, that assumes a heck of a lot of mean reversion until then.

    Is a 5% trend a reasonable assumption? I think so. That could be 2% fellatio inflation and 3% real GDP growth. Unfortunately, once this awful patch of slow growth finally ends, I have my doubts about how contained inflation will be.

    Ultimately, let me remind individual investors that these types of predictions don’t matter. They’re fun parlor games but they shouldn’t play a role in your investing strategy. One of the best parts of investing is that you don’t need to predict the future. If you stick with high-quality stocks for the long-term, you’ll do well.

  • Morning News: September 28, 2010
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 8:05 am

    Troubling Trades Found Ahead of Flash Crash

    The Value of a Piece of Facebook

    Stock Buybacks Are for Dummies Except Right Now: David Pauly

    Home Prices Probably Cooled, U.S. Consumer Sentiment Off

    Apple May Unveil Next iPad by June 2011, Goldman Says

    JPMorgan May Pursue FDIC Funds for WaMu Claims

    Facebook IPO Likely After Late 2012: Board Member

    Oakland: Southwest-AirTran Deal May Bring East Coast Routes

    Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich and Poor

  • Fact-Checking the Simpsons
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 12:18 am

    I was watching the season premiere of “The Simpsons” at the Fox website. During the episode, Kent Brockman referred to Gandhi as being a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

    For the record, Nobel Peace Prize winners have included Yasser Arafat, Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar Sadat, Lê Ðức Thọ and Wangari “AIDS was created by the West” Maathai.

    But no Gandhi.

  • The World’s Best Stock Market — Mongolia??
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 10:37 pm

    Where’s the world’s best stock market not only this year, but for the past decade? I’ll give you a hint: Mongolia!

    Odd as it may sound, the stock market in Mongolia is up an amazing 1,600% over the past decade. Now don’t get too carried away; this is hardly a developed market. The market cap of the entire stock market is just $500 million.

    The good news is that the emergence of a class of investors is helping economic reforms:

    And the index and volumes are likely to go higher now that the government is making serious noise about finally cleaning up the exchange. In one of his first speeches, Prime Minister Sukhbaataryn Batbold highlighted the need to develop an equity market and the government is keen to encourage domestic listing, according to Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital.

    And change will come sooner, rather than later. The MSE is currently considering bids by the London Stock Exchange, Sweden’s OMX HEX and South Korea’s main exchange to provide management services for the national exchange and supply it with new trading technology. A decision on the winner is expected before the end of the year. “We are offering them technology as well as business development,” says Jon Edwards, who spearheads the LSE’s business in Eastern Europe. “The market is small and the listings needs to be cleaned up, but the potential is phenomenal. Mongolia could do better than Kazakhstan if they can put all the pieces in place.”

    Edwards says the MSE is right at the very beginning of the process, but if it follows the experience of other countries in the region that have attempted equity market reforms, the size of the market should go up by an order of magnitude.

  • Karl Pilkington on Dolphins with Rifles
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

  • Crossing Wall Street Joins StockTwits
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    As you may have gathered from the new look, we did a little redesign here and Crossing Wall Street is now a part of the StockTwits network!

    I owe a big thanks to Howard Lindzon, Phil Pearlman, Dominic Rivera and the whole team at StockTwits who helped in the redesign. Howard is a great guy and his team has done a wonderful job making StockTwits a valuable addition to the world of financial blogs. Time just named it one of the “50 Best Websites of 2010.”

    Please don’t worry that I’ve gone all “Hollywood.” The blog is the exact same as before. I’ll still provide my analysis of stocks and the market in general. Plus, the Buy List is still here (now in its fourth-straight year of beating the market). I’m now just looped in with many great bloggers at StockTwits. Be sure to check out the StockTwits network on the Nav bar. I’ve also hired someone to help keep my typos to an acceptable minimum.

    If you emailed me in the past 48 hours, I apologize because it may have fallen through the cracks. No worry. Feel free to email me at eddy@crossingwallstreet.com. And I welcome any feedback on the new site. Don’t be shy. Tell me what you like and what you don’t like.

  • IBM Hits New 52-Week High, Closes in on All-Time High
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Shares of IBM (IBM) have been as high as $134.95 today. That may not strike you as being eventful but consider that IBM’s previous 52-week high was $134.25 from January 2010. Also, IBM’s highest intra-day price in 2000 was $134.94 reached on September 1, 2000. The all-time high of $137.69 came on September 10, 1999.