ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The Psy-Fi Blog examined how being smart can lead to investing mistakes: “Intelligence Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth.” The first half of the piece discusses the results of an academic study showing how people who rate highest in SAT scores tended to rely on historical price performance to decide how to invest amongst an array … Read more
It has been a very long time since a stock blindsided me, but the sting is no less powerful! Yesterday, SunPower (SPWR) dropped the AA-bomb – audit and accounting, announcing that: “…based upon an internal review of its Philippine manufacturing operations, the company believes there may have been unsubstantiated accounting entries made in the first … Read more
Stocks Overvalued, Recession Will Return: Meredith Whitney – CNBC.com Stocks are overvalued and the US economy is likely to fall back into a recession next year, well-known analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC. (tags: Meredith_Whitney) Incentives, Falling Cost and Rising Demand in China's PV Market – Renewable Energy World …solar PV is starting to increase its … Read more
Probably one of the longest running jokes in the financial markets is the amount of time U.S. officials spend talking about their support for a strong dollar while taking no action to actually support a stronger currency. On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made a rare contribution to the bluster by stating his own … Read more
The WSJ reports in “General Electric Pursues Pot of Government Stimulus Gold” that General Electric (GE) hopes to earn about $192B in sales from government-funded economic stimulus programs in the U.S. and foreign nations. The article goes on to describe GE’s various lobbying efforts, CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s ardent support for the U.S. stimulus bill (the … Read more
FHA cash reserves fall below legal limit – washingtonpost.com The Federal Housing Administration's cash reserves have shrunk to a level far below what is required by law, and the agency could need taxpayer funding if worst-case scenarios play out, according to an independent audit designed to measure the agency's financial soundness. (tags: FHA housing mortgage) … Read more
RIMM officially began its share repurchase period on Monday, November 9. Since then, the intra-day trading seems to provide evidence that RIMM (or some other large buyer!) has gone to work purchasing shares. The chart below shows a 10-day chart of RIMM with trading broken into 30-minute blocks. The first 30-minutes of trading on Monday, … Read more
For the second straight quarter, Toll Brothers (TOL) provided a preliminary quarterly report that ignited the stock as sales volumes once again surpassed expectations. Robert I. Toll, chairman and CEO, explains: “Our fourth-quarter unit deliveries exceeded the high end of our range of guidance due to the delivery of a higher percentage of our backlog, … Read more
Fitch Says U.K. Rating Most at Risk Among Top-Rated Nations – Bloomberg.com he U.K.’s sovereign credit rating is most at risk among top-rated nations, Fitch Ratings said, citing concern over the country’s budget deficit. (tags: United_Kingdom govt_spending debt) Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis – WSJ.com Mr. Joegriner is a member of what might be … Read more
On a strong market day, RIMM opened up over 2% and, at the time of writing, is up over 4% on the day. RIMM’s share repurchase period begins today, and, so far, so good for propping up the stock. Yesterday, I expressed my doubts that RIMM would spend the entire $1.2B that its board authorized, … Read more