Monthly Archives: July 2008

In today’s economic update, Oil, Earnings and When to Sell, we provide our current thoughts on the recent pullback in oil, the reaction of stock prices to this quarter’s earnings reports, and the difficult decision on when it may be the right time to sell a common stock.  If you would like to receive our [...]

This video has nothing to do with the economy or the markets.  But you have to admit, it’s alot funnier than most blog entries.  Love the deer that stands up in the middle and the three monkeys in the background.

According to a study done by Conservatree, Arnold & Palmer and Purdue University and as reported in yesterday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, an average lawyer can use up to 100,000 sheets of paper every year.  That’s enough to: Make up 12 forty-foot trees. Line Interstate 90 from Dead Man’s Curve to Lake County Balance the scales of justice with [...]

A stronger durable goods order number this morning and an uptick in consumer confidence suggest that second quarter GDP may be as high as 2-2.5%, a considerable distance from recessionary levels. While the tax rebates have likely helped this quarter, it would still be an excellent showing, particularly considering all the negative news of late.  Keep in mind that Q4/Q1 GDP [...]

Over the past few days, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Connie Schultz has spoken harshly of the restaurant industrys’ apparent practice of deducting a portion of the credit card transaction processing fee for customer bills from a server’s tips.  When I read the first article a few nights ago, it struck me as being a bit heavy handed and [...]

Earnings season is upon us.  It is always one of the more stressful periods of time in the business.  Not because we don’t have a good feel for how our companies are likely to do, but because we don’t know what the stock market’s response to such news will likely be.  There seems to be two [...]

I find it interesting to note that when regulators decided to abolish the naked short selling rules two days ago on financials these stocks started to tear upwards while at the same time the price of oil began to crack.  Oil is falling once again today to below $130 per barrel.  Coincidence?  I really wonder.For all the talk of supply [...]

The markets are enjoying a solid rally today, with the S&P 500 and Russell 1000 Growth indices both up more than 1%.  Of course, given the volatility of late, this could all change in a matter of seconds or by the time I finish this blog entry.Nevertheless, a couple of things, stick out in today’s rally.  [...]

On July 9th,  the S&P 500 declined into official bear market territory, falling by twenty percent from the prior highs achieved in October of 2007.  Make no mistake about it, these have been ugly days, perhaps far uglier than even the indices suggest.  According to work done by JP Morgan, of the 723 U.S. stocks that have a trading history going back [...]