One of the things about Wall Street is that it is incredibly short term focused. Investors, including (especially?!) professionals, tend to care about the here and now and possibly a year out. If you do this, you might think that…
This is really off the charts in terms of anything we have ever seen. – Martin Fridson, CEO, Fridson Investment Advisor, a non-investment grade debt specialist Junk bonds on average now yield more than 20% for the first time ever…
The S&P 500 hit 776.76 this morning. Guess what the closing low on October 9, 2002, the low of the previous bear market, was? 776.76. All the gains from October 9, 2002 through October 9, 2007, the 5 year bull market,…
Yesterday morning Walmart (WMT) reported another solid quarter (WMT FY 3Q Earnings Release). This morning The Wall Street Journal ran a front page article on them: “Walmart Flourishes As Economy Turns Sour” (subscription required). While other retailers were reporting horrid…
Revenue is being affected by significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments. – Intel Press Release, 11/12/08 After the close yesterday, chip giant Intel (INTC) cut their 4th quarter revenue forecast by about 15% from a…
Since mid-September, rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen. – Brad Anderson, CEO, Best Buy In 42 years of retailing, we’ve never seen such difficult times for the consumer. People are making…
Yesterday, Circuit City, with 721 US stores and 43,000 employees, filed for bankruptcy. Starbucks (SBUX) announced their worst quarter ever with same store sales in the US down -8% from the year ago period (SBUX FY 4Q Earnings Release). Up…
The economic news over the last 24 hours has been just horrible: After the close yesterday, Cisco (CSCO) said orders in October fell off a cliff – down 9% from the year ago period – and forecast a 5-10% drop…
Back in January, I wrote about how the fast Asian restuarant Pick Up Stix had closed its location on the corner of Douglas and Sierra College Boulevard – along with all its other Sacramento locations. This past Saturday I went…
With the Fed slashing the funds rate to 1% today, it’s worth remembering what happened the last time they did this: We got the most massive housing bubble in the history of mankind. Well, today, in the midst of this…