Retailer J Crew (JCG), which has 267 stores all in the US, reduced guidance for 2008 in an otherwise strong 1st quarter earnings report yesterday after the close. They took down full year EPS forecasts from $1.85-$1.87 to $1.70-$1.75 and forecast…
Continue to see GDV [Gross Dollar Volume] growth slowing in the US…… – MasterCard Investor’s Presentation, May 29, 2008, “2008 View” (pg. 61 of 69) Take a look at this chart of US gross dollar volume growth on Mastercard credit and…
One of the hottest stocks the last two years has been credit card issuer MasterCard (MA). Mastercard has risen almost 700% from its IPO price of $39 a share on May 25, 2006 to its current price around $310 (MA…
This looks like a market that’s running out of steam. – Walter Zimmerman (subscription required), Technical Analyst, ICAP/United Energy Some more interesting action in the oil market today. The Energy Information Administration today announced an 8.8 million barrel decline in crude…
How do you explain genius? Ken just sees things other don’t. – Douglass Pratt, a former mutual fund manager who worked with Heebner He saw something the rest of us didn’t. That’s Ken – that’s always been Ken. – John…
“Is $130 oil a bubble?”, CNN, Friday May 23 “The Short View: Commodity Speculation”, John Authers, Financial Times, Tuesday May 20 “Whither The Price of Oil?”, John Mauldin, Frontline Thoughts, Friday May 23 “High Oil Prices Spur Thoughts About Bubbles,…
In the past (Iran) would have put a little bullish impetus in these markets, but it isn’t today. Perhaps it’s telling. – Addison Armstrong (subscription required), Analyst, Tradition Energy The story in financial markets for the last bunch of days has…
I want to recommend to everybody John Mackey’s excellent commencement speech delivered at Bentley College on Saturday May 17, 2008, recently posted to his Whole Foods blog. Mackey, the Founder and CEO of Whole Foods (WFMI), was a college dropout:…
I’ll tell you another area where we’ve been foolin’ ourselves and that’s the belief that inflation is under control. Gross on using owner equivalent rent instead of home prices in calculating the CPI: ….. the first occurring in 1983 with the…
The combination of record high fuel prices and continuing difficulties in the housing sector has further accelerated the shift away from large pickups and SUVs to small and medium-sized cars and crossovers. We saw a real change in the industry…