Category Archives: stocks

You might have noticed some large moves in the stock market today: the Dow rose over 400 points. Is this an Important Event, or is it just market noise? Commenter Danw thinks it’s the former, telling me that I am … Continue reading →

On Friday, I got an email from my friend James: If you had some $ to invest now, where would you put them? I’m considering going long some equities, but its a nauseating market out there… in the financials, does … Continue reading →

Parija Kavilanz is excited about retail sales reports: A surprising rebound in February sales gave retailers a much-needed respite after a very difficult winter sales season that had pointed convincingly to a pullback in consumer spending. "It’s very interesting that … Continue reading →

Herb Greenberg poses the conundrum, which I’ve translated into table form. Date Price p/e ratio IPO: August 2004 $100 52.3 July 2006 $386 65.3 March 2008 $444 23.6 By historical standards, the Four Horsemen are trading on very, very low … Continue reading →

Warren Buffett loves to talk about "moats": things which protect his portfolio companies from competition. And his core business – reinsurance – has some of the highest barriers to entry in the world. Chris Dillow takes these ideas to their … Continue reading →

Enjoy.

Tony Jackson has a good overview of the divergence between the stock market and the bond market. In Europe, the iTraxx Europe index of investment-grade credits has hit an all-time high of 138bp, which seems like a screaming buy over … Continue reading →

Justin Fox reckons that the present financial crisis can’t be all that bad if it’s coinciding with the biggest IPO in US history – especially when that IPO (Visa) is a financial one. It’s a good point, but it’s also … Continue reading →

Warren Buffett, in his annual letter to shareholders: There’s been much talk recently of sovereign wealth funds and how they are buying large pieces of American businesses. This is our doing, not some nefarious plot by foreign governments. Our trade … Continue reading →

Brad DeLong thinks that stocks look attractive over the long run, and has written a paper to that effect: As of this writing the annual earnings yield on the value-weighted S&P composite index is 5.53%. This is a wedge of … Continue reading →

When do stock investors feel good? Kevin Maney thinks it’s when their holdings have gone up in value: Google shares are off their highs by so much, the AP writes today that Google’s "once-robust stock is looking haggard." Haggard? Well, … Continue reading →

Are CEOs backdating charitable stock donations? They might well be, according to Zubin Jelveh, who has been talking to NYU professor David Yermack: Yermack estimates that while most of the 90 chief executives and chairmen in his sample are playing … Continue reading →

Roberta Yafie explains today how US bankruptcy judge Robert Drain slashed an $87 million bonus plan for Delphi executives to "just" $16.5 million. But don’t think they haven’t hidden all manner of other egregious overpayments in their 10-K: CEO Rodney … Continue reading →

Crocs, manufacturers of extraordinarily ugly popular shoes, released spectacular fourth-quarter earnings yesterday afternoon, with both revenue and earnings almost doubling their levels from a year previously. Obviously no one’s particularly worried about the escalator problem. The stock, however, is down … Continue reading →