ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) After listening to Research In Motion’s conference call explaining the company’s downward guidance Thursday night, I thought I would write a piece just as bullish as management’s insistence that longer-term upside prospects remain unchanged. However, writing … Read more
Excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece: Three months ago, LDK Solar (LDK) wowed the market with a tremendous hike in guidance for both the fourth quarter of FY10 and the entire FY2011. The stock closed up 18% on the day. LDK went on to retest … Read more
I have questioned the finances and balance sheet of Evergreen Solar (ESLR). I have claimed that betting on ESLR is a speculative bet on survival. I used a pullback from the stock’s last big rally as an entry to make that crazy boom or bust bet. Now, I must prepare for the very real possibility … Read more
Higher oil prices are not helping solar stocks. Instead, earnings disappointments and hand-wringing in Italy over solar subsidies and policy have put downward pressure on almost the entire sector. While it seems the second half of 2011 could be rough for solar stocks, the current sell-off seems to be creating some buying opportunities. First Solar … Read more
A few days ago I posted a piece on GT Solar International’s latest quarterly earnings results and erroneously quoted material from a Seeking Alpha transcript for last year’s fiscal 3rd quarter conference call as if it were current. I apologize for the confusion that caused. I have removed that article, and I am posting this … Read more
Coffee prices have soared along with most other commodities over the past year and more. For example, the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index ETN (aka JO) is up 70% since the end of 2009. The last earnings results from Starbucks (SBUX) demonstrated the stress from these higher coffee prices. The company slightly lowered … Read more
AK Steel (AKS) reported earnings January 25. The news was good enough to send the stock up 7.7% and back above its 200-day moving average (DMA). Since then, AKS has essentially recovered all the damage done by a Goldman Sachs downgrade to sell in early January. *Chart created using TeleChart: AKS delivered a mix of … Read more
During the last earnings conference call for Evergreen Solar (ESLR), management claimed that the company had the resources to meet its liquidity needs and had enough cash to sustain current and planned burn rates. A little over two months later, ESLR has announced that it is retrenching and shutting down its manufacturing facility in Devens, … Read more
LDK Solar has started off the new year for solar with a bang. The company significantly raised guidance for both the fourth quarter of FY10 and the entire FY2011 with particularly strong expectations for the module business. Here is a listing of the new sales guidance compared to the old guidance: Revenue 4Q10: $870-910M from … Read more
Research In Motion (RIMM) reported earnings December 16, 2010. The general reaction to the report has been muted with the stock trading down 1.7% since the market close before the report. I have followed RIMM’s stock repurchasing activity for a while now, but I neglected to note earlier that RIMM announced the (aggressive) completion of … Read more