Apr

16

Mad Money Stocks for Thursday

Teresa Lo @ 4:48 PM | | Leave a Comment

The Booyah list is comprised of featured and game plan stocks mentioned by Jim Cramer on Mad Money. The stocks are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the headers to sort by column.
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Apr

15

The Podcast for Wednesday

Pete @ 5:00 PM | | 1 Comment

Pete and I are back in the saddle after a long absence. DOWNLOAD (Right click, “Save Link/Target As…”) today’s podcast at your leisure.

Charts of the Day: INTC, CROX, SIGM, MON, ABX

The following charts were mentioned in today’s podcast. As usual, we applied our analytics to the daily chart along with the widely-watched 50- and 200-day moving averages. The pink/cyan dots provide potential entry/exit signals while the price bars are colored red/yellow/green to identify relative performance.

Articles referring to CROX were:

Articles referring to SIGM were:

Articles referring to the agriculture play were:

Further Reading

Articles mentioned in today’s podcast were:

  • Exclusive century club welcoming new members, doctors say
    There are three kinds of people who hit the century mark, says Bill Dalziel, chief of the Regional Geriatric Program of Eastern Ontario. The first are the “genetically well endowed” who come from long-lived families and reach 100 remarkably healthy because they simply don’t get diseases such as cancer and heart disease. This group defies the notion that people only get sicker as they age and offers living proof that “the older you get, the healthier you’ve been,” according to the New England study. The second group of centenarians eventually develops life-limiting diseases but their internal clocks delay the onset a decade or two later than most people’s, Dr. Dalziel says. “These are people who have great biological clocks, and their clock is set for 110 where yours and mine is set for 80,” he says. The third group is mostly women, he says, and they reach 100 in extremely frail condition but they’re just “too stubborn to die.”
  • Lapham’s Quarterly: The journal that enlists the counsel of the dead
    [Editor: Looks like I mangled the pronunciation of his name, which should be LAP-ham]
    As an heir to the ambiguity in the Puritan body politic, and as a lifelong and card-carrying member of the society alluded to by Emerson, I never know for certain whether money is an enemy or a friend. Its intentions fluctuate, and its appearance shifts in accordance with the angle of the sales pitch, the size of the number, the tone of voice and time of day, the chance of its arrival in the mail. By the age of four in San Francisco, I knew that money was the elephant always in the room, never to be addressed or seen, but whose will was done on earth as it is in heaven. At school and college in Connecticut in the 1950s, I understood that I was being groomed to meet and greet the august personage recognized by Coltrane as the Man. Resident for fifty years in the city regarded by Ambrose Bierce (also by John Adams and Henry James) as sacred to the worship of Mammon, I’ve learned to look upon money as the hero with a thousand faces, to know that nowhere under the light of the American moon or in the heat of a noonday American sun was its hallowed name to be spoken lightly or in vain.
  • Can You Beat the Market? It’s a $100 Billion Question
    Investors collectively spend around $100 billion a year trying to beat the stock market. That’s the finding of a rigorous effort to measure the total costs of Americans’ efforts to surpass the returns they would have received by simply holding a stock index fund. The huge price tag helps explain why beating a buy-and-hold strategy is so difficult.

Media Digest

  • Sharga of RealtyTrac Says Home Prices Haven’t Bottomed
    Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac Inc., talks with Bloomberg’s Lori Rothman from Irvine, California, about data for U.S. home foreclosures in March and the outlook for housing prices. Foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent and bank repossessions more than doubled last month from a year earlier as adjustable mortgages increased and more owners gave up their homes to lenders.
  • Delta/Northwest CEOs
    Shedding light on the merger news, with Douglas Steenland, Northwest Airlines CEO and Richard Anderson, Delta Air Lines CEO
  • Metal Mania
    Thoughts on metal production, with Dennis Gartman, The Gartman Letter
  • Global IPOs Fall in First Quarter
    Initial public offering (IPO) activity slowed sharply in the first quarter of ‘08 due to the global credit crunch, according to Ernst & Young. Mark Jarvis from Ernst & Young discusses the report.
  • China’s Food Prices Rise as Population, Wealth Grow
    A key factor in soaring food prices is growing demand, not just from increasing population but also because people in big developing countries like China are becoming richer and can afford more food.
  • Inflation is creating headaches for Asian policymakers
    Rapidly rising inflation is emerging as one of the biggest economic worries facing Asia. The problem could hardly have come at a worse time for policymakers, amid fears over the extent and impact of the US slowdown on Asia’s export-dependent economies. Inflation will bring with it serious economic and political risks for the region in 2008, although the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that inflation will moderate in 2009.

Apr

15

Stocks and Sentiment for Wednesday

Teresa Lo @ 4:58 PM | | Leave a Comment

The InVivo Objective Sentiment Survey tracks the number of buy and sell signals amongst the constituent stocks of the S&P 100 and NASDAQ 100 indexes.

At the close, the S&P 100 index had 66 on buy and 34 on sell while the NASDAQ 100 index had 61 on buy and 39 on sell.

And The Winners Are…

The stock scan conducted after the close on Tuesday found 55 winners and 43 losers.

The winners are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the column headers to sort the list. Our scan criteria incorporates price movement, range and liquidity (500,000 shares on the day, 20-day average of 1.5 million).
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Apr

15

Mad Money Stocks for Wednesday

Teresa Lo @ 4:33 PM | | Leave a Comment

The Booyah list is comprised of featured and game plan stocks mentioned by Jim Cramer on Mad Money. The stocks are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the headers to sort by column.
Read more

Apr

14

Portfolio Strategy for Individual Investors

Teresa Lo @ 5:12 PM | | Comments Off

We offer three proven portfolio strategies for individual investors managing $20,000 to $100,000. The weekly report containing current allocations for all three model portfolios is delivered by email to subscribers each Sunday.

Long-term investment success requires diversification, disclipine and cost control. Consistent with our mission to help men and women in their peak-earning years to secure their financial future and achieve their goals, our fee is $195 PER YEAR, or less than 1% of $20,000. Subscribers are advised to seek out a reputable discount broker (such as Interactive Brokers) to reduce commission costs.

Individuals managing more than $100,000 may wish to diversify further. We construct investment models on a fee basis for high net worth clients and investment advisors. Be sure to read our FREE eight-part series: Build Your Own Investment Portfolio.

InVivo Strategic Performance Portfolio

This model portfolio is rebalanced weekly, at the open on the first trading day of each week. Performance characteristics since portfolio formation indicate that this model is suitable for both trading accounts and aggressive retirement accounts.

strategictr.gif
Total Return Since Portfolio Formation on October 23, 2006

Returns posted are for trading accounts using 50% margin or 1:1 leverage. Unleveraged retirement accounts experience half the gains and losses. For details, please refer to Chapter 8 of Build Your Own Portfolio: The Satellite Portfolio.

To implement this portfolio strategy, your account must be able to buy and sell the equivalent of the following five exchange traded funds:

  1. VXF: Vanguard Extended Market ETF
  2. EEM: MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund
  3. TLT: Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund
  4. GSG: S&P GSCI(TM) Commodity Indexed Trust
  5. FXF: CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust

InVivo Conservative Retirement Portfolio

This model portfolio is rebalanced monthly, at the open on the first trading day of each month. Performance characteristics since portfolio formation indicate that this model is suitable for retirement accounts where rebalancing frequency and investment choices are limited by the administrator.

conservativetr.gif
Total Return Since Portfolio Formation on April 1, 2004

Returns posted are for cash accounts. For details, please refer to Chapter 8 of Build Your Own Portfolio: The Core Portfolio.

To implement this portfolio strategy, your account must be able to buy and sell the equivalent of the following four exchange traded funds:

  1. SPY: SPDR S&P 500 ETF
  2. EFA: MSCI EAFE Index Fund
  3. IEF: Lehman 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund
  4. TIP: Lehman TIPS Bond Fund

InVivo Ex-U.S. Portfolio

This model portfolio is rebalanced weekly, at the open on the first trading day of each week. This portfolio is provided for those wish to avoid U.S. stocks and Treasury bills/notes/bonds; as such, higher volatility of returns than either the Strategic Performance or Conservative Retirement portfolios can be expected. Performance characteristics since portfolio formation indicate that this model is only suitable for cash accounts; do not use leverage.

exustr.gif
Total Return Since Portfolio Formation on December 31, 2007

Returns posted are for cash accounts.

To implement this portfolio strategy, your account must be able to buy and sell the equivalent of the following six exchange traded funds:

  1. IEV: S&P Europe 350 Index Fund
  2. EEB: Claymore/BNY BRIC ETF
  3. EWC: MSCI Canada Index Fund
  4. EWW: MSCI Mexico Index Fund
  5. GSG: S&P GSCI(TM) Commodity Indexed Trust
  6. FXF: CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust

Subscribe Today

Long-term investment success requires diversification, disclipine and cost control. Consistent with our mission to help men and women in their peak-earning years to secure their financial future and achieve their goals, our fee is $195 PER YEAR, or less than 1% of $20,000. Subscribers are advised to seek out a reputable discount broker (such as Interactive Brokers) to reduce commission costs.

Individuals managing more than $100,000 may wish to diversify further. We construct investment models on a fee basis for high net worth clients and investment advisors. Be sure to read our FREE eight-part series: Build Your Own Investment Portfolio.

Apr

14

Observations and Stocks for Tuesday

Pete @ 5:12 PM | | Leave a Comment

Portfolio strategy for individual investors is finally here. We will be back to blogging actively this week.

And the Winners Are…

The stock scan conducted after the close on Monday found 31 winners and 39 losers.

The winners are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the column headers to sort the list. Our scan criteria incorporates price movement, range and liquidity (500,000 shares on the day, 20-day average of 1.5 million).

Ticker Close Change Sell Buy
AGU 76.59 6.74% 63.44  
BG 109.42 5.45% 88.96  
BTU 62.05 1.60% 53.17  
CAL 21.89 1.34%   22.56
CAM 47.17 3.19% 40.87  
CF 144.42 4.33% 116.06  
CLF 147.91 5.18% 120.21  
CNQ 80.57 4.51% 71.34  
CSIQ 25.64 6.52% 20.61  
DO 131.52 5.03% 115.9  
FTI 63.92 3.41% 53.81  
HAL 44.08 1.29% 40.48  
IMCL 44.81 0.58% 40.6  
KWK 40.1 4.59% 33.11  
MOS 126.4 4.02% 101.18  
NBL 85.41 3.21% 73.55  
NE 55.25 4.70% 48.85  
NSC 56.19 2.18% 52.87  
NTRI 19.52 7.08% 16.75  
OIH 193.44 2.87% 175.98  
PBR 122.18 7.27% 103.59  
PDE 39.32 3.15% 34.82  
PDLI 13.84 0.66% 11.54  
POT 181.9 2.03% 154.15  
RIG 151.89 4.69% 137.57  
SLM 18.01 0.90% 14.83  
TRA 46.28 3.79% 38.19  
TSL 43.95 13.55% 30.33  
TXT 58.24 1.89% 53.71  
WMB 35.04 1.18% 31.61  
XTO 64.74 2.62% 57.78  

Media Digest

  • Almunia Says IMF Shares View That Euro Is ‘Overvalued’ [DOWNLOAD PODCAST]
    European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene in New York about the Group of Seven finance ministers meetings in Washington this weekend, the value of the euro and the impact of food prices on the Doha round of global trade negotiations.
  • Have we begun the countdown to the maxi-revaluation?
    I don’t know if Mr. Zhu’s $80 billion is correct – no one can really say how much hot money there is because most of it is necessarily hidden – but I am intrigued that whatever proxy he uses suggests that hot money inflows have tripled compared to last year. That certainly fits in with my own intuition. The existence and size of hot money inflows is not just a debate about monetary growth. I believe it is the key determinant as to whether or not the PBoC will continue the current appreciation path or be forced into a maxi-revaluation. Rapid but gradual appreciation of the currency will actually worsen the country’s financial imbalances if they cause such an upsurge in monetary inflows that the PBoC becomes totally helpless in controlling monetary growth.
  • Paulson Says G-7 to Cooperate Closely on Banking Crisis
    U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks at a news conference in Washington about talks with finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven countries and the outlook for the U.S. and global economy. The officials met to address a credit crisis sparked by losses on U.S. mortgage securities that have caused financial institutions to write down $245 billion in assets. The International Monetary Fund said two days ago that there is a 25 percent chance of a global contraction.
  • Zhou Favors Interest Rate Tool to Maintain Stable Growth
    People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan talks with Bloomberg’s Klaus Wille in Washington about China’s yuan, risk management strategy and interest rate policy. They speak at the meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund.
  • High End Retail Outlook
    Taking the pulse of the luxury consumer, with Burt Tansky, Neiman marcus Group president/CEO; Gilbert Harrison, Financo chairman/CEO and Joanne Lipman, Conde Nast editor-in-chief
  • Maoists take the lead
    Nepal’s Maoists, who until two years ago were a vicious rebel party to a decade-long civil war, look likely to have won a general election. Of 186 seats declared on Monday April 14th the Maoists had won 103. A complicated electoral system mixing direct elections with proportional representation makes the overall complexion of the impending 601-seat assembly still hard to predict. But the Maoists may have won an outright majority.
  • A mixed outlook
    In its recent semi-annual World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund sees few silver linings in the storm clouds gathering over the world’s richest economies. The world economy as a whole is expected to grow by 3.7% this year, well down on the fund’s last estimate in January of 4.2%. America is expected to enter a mild recession this year–its growth forecast has been cut from 1.5% to just 0.5%. The prospects for Spain, Canada and Italy are also gloomy. But the forecast is sunnier for the developing world, whose economies are predicted to grow by 6.7% in 2008, led by China and India.

Apr

14

Mad Money Stocks for Tuesday

Teresa Lo @ 5:09 PM | | Leave a Comment

The Booyah list is comprised of featured and game plan stocks mentioned by Jim Cramer on Mad Money. The stocks are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the headers to sort by column.
Read more

Apr

13

Observations and Stocks for Monday

Teresa Lo @ 5:58 PM | | Leave a Comment

Check out the Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey with Dr. Spencer Wells of the National Genographic Project. Helps to put our current problems in perspective. Look forward to blogging again this week.

And the Winners Are…

The stock scan conducted after the close on Friday found 9 winners and 43 losers.

The winners are listed in alphabetical order below. Click on the column headers to sort the list. Our scan criteria incorporates price movement, range and liquidity (500,000 shares on the day, 20-day average of 1.5 million).

Ticker Close Change Sell Buy
CAL 21.62 2.39%   22.56
CSIQ 24.08 1.18% 20.61  
FE 74.96 -0.53% 68.71  
ICO 6.86 -1.33% 5.54  
IMCL 44.55 1.04% 40.18  
PDLI 13.69 16.31% 10.56  
SLM 17.85 1.87% 14.83  
TRA 44.8 5.91% 35.59  
TSL 38 9.76% 30.33  

  • Global banks seek to head off further regulation
    “We are resolved to do the utmost to clean our houses first and not to let regulators do it for us,” said Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and chairman of the group, which is based in Washington. Specifically, the organization said that regulators would not add to the expertise in the industry for avoiding crises. “We have technical knowledge enough of risk management in our own organization,” said Rick Waugh, chief executive of Scotiabank in Canada and a board member of the group.
  • World’s biggest banks accept blame for Credit Crisis
    The report says that market changes that have both catalyzed and resulted from the growth of the “originate-to-distribute” business model have created incentives for both firms and individual employees that have, in some cases, conflicted with sound underwriting practices, realization of risk-management goals, or the long-term interests of shareholders, reflecting, in part, the emphasis on short-term profitability in financial reporting and bonus payouts.
  • Masaaki Shirakawa Brings Chicago-School View to BOJ
    “There was a belief that inflation is a monetary phenomenon caused by government policy, basically printing money,” said Gary Becker, a professor of economics at Chicago since 1970 who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1992. What Shirakawa brings to his new job from his school days is a recognition that well-functioning markets are at the heart of a well-functioning economy, Frenkel said: “If you have these foundations in place — financial institutions and strong financial markets — then you can rely on the market to guide the economy.”
  • Chile Thirsts for Rain as Goats Drop, Mines Face Power Cuts
    “There’s more industrial activity, there’s more agriculture, the population has grown and the temperatures are very high,” said Rodrigo Weisner, the administrator for water at the Ministry of Public Works, in the rural town of San Pedro. “We’ve got the worst situation in 100 years.” Much of the mining industry in Chile, the world’s biggest copper exporter, depends on hydroelectric power. In central and southern Chile, where Codelco, Antofagasta Plc, Anglo American Plc and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. all have mines, 45 to 70 percent of the electricity comes from water turbines.
  • Immelt on GE Earnings
    General Electric’s latest quarterly results fell short of Wall Street estimates, with a challenging environment for financial services the key reason. GE CEO Jeff Immelt discusses the results with CNBC’s Joe Kernen.
  • Hedge Funds Under Scrutiny
    A San Diego judge sentenced a hedge fund partner to six years in prison for perpetrating a “massive fraud” on Thursday. Florence Lombard, CEO of Alternative Investment Management, considers whether hedge funds are getting the scrutiny they deserve.
  • The comeback of private equity
    SOVEREIGN-WEALTH funds did not do it. Joe Lewis, the billionaire investor who bet and lost on Bear Stearns, definitely did not do it. Will private-equity firms be any more successful at calling the end of the credit crunch?
  • The great American slowdown
    AMERICANS are unaccustomed to recessions, particularly ones that involve shopping less. During the past quarter-century, the world’s most powerful economy has suffered only two official downturns, in 1990-91 and 2001. Both were short and shallow. In 2001 consumer spending barely skipped a beat; a decade earlier it fell, but only briefly. Buoyed by rising asset prices and financial innovations that allowed ever more people to tap ever more debt, the collective American wallet has not snapped shut in almost two decades.

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