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Different Strokes for Different Folks
This is great it is 7:47 PM and I am starting the Salve Lucrum Blog (even though it is now an e-mail.). This is good because it is the earliest attempt to post this thing in a couple of weeks. Now we have been taking our posts and using the system generated tiny URL and posting it on Facebook and Stocktwits. (Suggest you check out Stocktwits, its free, fun and I guarantee it will generate new investment ideas. I said NEW and NOT GOOD.) Anyway as a result of my postings I have picked up a few new readers. I do not know these people, but welcome. My challenge will be to present a publication that will be of interest to stranger shuffling in from the digital landscape who might be looking for investment, economic, or political fodder and also interesting those who know me, love me, tolerate me etc.
We are up for the challenge. What is a little weird, is that we have people who ask me why they don't get the blog anymore (because I have removed them because they do not open the postings. Yes it is true I know who is opening the notes and how often.), and then I plug them back in the mailing queue and they still don't open them up? Being one of those people who get 100+ e-mails a day I do my best to opt out of stuff I do not read. We do that for our readers so they don't have too. So if you are not reading this right now, don't come crying to me if you get disconnected.
In the realm of Weird, we had a Professor of Economics (Yes I Google anyone who signs up from out my scope of influence.) sign up for the blog and read about 5 of our posts and dropped out. Mmmm?
Today was an interesting day. We had to explain to one of our contractors why the new cabinet in the guest bathroom was too big. If they had put the granite top on the bathroom door would not have closed. That was followed by the arrival of our carpet which was the wrong color. That was only five weeks in the waiting. We had some interesting meetings today at the office. Tried to clean up 171 e-mails, but did not get through all of them. I headed home to have a heart to heart with the carpet people to determine what their options are. It was determined that the color cast actually will work and will be installed on Friday.
When you are tied up with all the minutia at a time like this, it is the little things that drive you crazy. My car, a BMW is having an annoying little problem with the door handle. It is not letting me open the door. Most of the time I have to stand next to car and inconspicuously open the door about 16-17 times until for some strange reason it opens. Now I don't always have nice dress slacks on and dress shirt, so when I am in casual mode, it looks a little suspicious when I and standing next to car attempting to open the door. I was actually worried that I might get picked up by the cops for B&E in my car. Then it hit me. Jail, no contractors, a break from the dogs and cats, a new warden (don't worry the wife quit reading these blogs about 6 months ago) no cell phones, and that is bad because?
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In The Market Today
Everyone seemed to ignore the fact that Greece was rumored to suggest they wanted out of the EU. When we heard that it did not make any sense, but thought it would scurry the market. Where is Greece going to go to get the 110 billion they need. The EU is the only game in town. Anyway the market ignored the noise and celebrated some good economic sound bites out of China and that we mall of have Skype Widgets in our Windows 7 system and Facebook. Yeah, MSFT bought Skye today for more than 8 billion in cash. Not the biggest deal on wall straight, but sizable and ti takes some of the pressure off Balmer MSFT CEO to move some of the 61 billion in cash. We were going to some homework on the deal and suggest you do if you are going to invest. However if you just had Bloomberg or CNBC or MSNBC on today and that's all they are talking about. In a nutshell, MSFT probably paid too much, MSFT is in a better position that Ebay to profit from a Skype relations ship, less than 1% of the 46 million Skype subscriber are monetized (MSFT only has to convert 1% for a double), and this should keep Apple and Google on there toes. If MSFT can integrate Skype into the Facebook environment, it could be huge. The earliest possible impact to MSFT earnings will be Q2 or Q3 2012.
Market stability eased the CBOE VIX down well below 20 hurting our huge position on January VXX calls. The nice article in Barron's beefed up some of the rails sector today with the transportation index hitting 3 year highs. Our January calls on UNP were handsomely rewarded today. Commodities are staging a quick comeback and we got everybody back in that boat this morning at the opening. (We have tight stops in place just in case.) Now this was the third up day but volume was light again so this is still a market in correction. Be carful out there Boys And Girls.
We don't follow the DOW, but many of you are addicted to it so here is some guidance. It closed at 12,760 and the tea leave readers say the nearest support might be it 50 day average at 12,278. Resistance (Upper end) is 13,100ish. So it has legs and is trading almost smack dab in the center of what is know as a Bollinger Band. (If you have insomnia, look it up.) The S&P closed at 1,357 today. We have support at 1,249 and have resistance at 1,440. Again a nice mid range. (Note to new readers, we prefer the 500 instead of the DOW as we feel it is a better representation of the overall market. The Dow has 30 components and the S&P 500 has, you guessed it 500.)
News You Can Use and Abuse
ETFC E-Trade looks sexy at $16.49. If you got VERI Verisign at 35.43 consider taking some profits. BWC Babacock and Wilcox ( nice winner for us last year.) signe an interesting agreement with Toshiba. BWC is back on the watch list. Vectorvest and IBD do not like this one so we will wait. ADBE announced some interesting Apple iPhone Apps. OWW Orbitz announced a private label provider system solution that could be interesting. CVX Chevron signed a lucrative LNG agreement with JX Nippon Oil. ABT Abbott has received European approval for their Free Style Monitoring system for diabetes. This could be one to watch as Europe North America and Asia have growing aging populations who have diabetes? This has been stuck in a 45-55 dollar channel since 2009. This might help move that channel up a bit. One for the watch list RDNT RadNet, Inc. operates a group of regional networks of diagnostic imaging facilities in the United States. The company's imaging centers provide various diagnostic imaging services, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, positron emission tomography, nuclear medicine, mammography, ultrasound, diagnostic radiology, fluoroscopy, and other related procedures, it beat estimates and had some very positive things to say about future quarters. Do your home work and don't bite just because its under 5 dollars a share. DF Dean Foods had a great quarter which would have surprised us with all the rising commodity costs. Where's the beef? Not at Wendy's they missed even though SS (same store) sales were up a tad. For you techie chartists AMZN Amazon peaked or piqued above a multi year high of 203 a share. We like this and it remains on our watch list. The education sector all followed APOL Apollo's lead to new highs today. ESI, COCO, DV,APEI, CPLA, and STRA all did well today. MCP Molycorp missed today which could create an interesting entry point. This is a very volatile stock we have pimped her on many nights. This is a rare earth mining company. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. MDR McDermott, a spin off from BWC beat estimates.
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BAGAKOAA;
I am not a professional investment advisor. Anybody reading my blog and investing accordingly must be out of their minds. I have made more money than I have lost. There are many more qualified people than I to actually tell you how to invest your money.
BAGAKOAA=Boys And Girls And Kids Of All Ages
Salve Lucrum=Latin for Hurrah for Profit. |
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