Yearly Archives: 2009

We were on CNBC this morning.  At the end of the interview, Mark Haines wished me a Happy Birthday, commenting that I didn’t look a day over 50.  At just 42, I should hope not!Joking aside, here is a link to this morning’s interview along with the comments I provided to the show’s producers ahead of time.  ***A. [...]

Each year at this time, I like to reflect on the year that was with the hope of gleaning a few nuggets of wisdom.  With the caveat that the last two years have been anything but ordinary, these are our observations on 2009:  1.)  Investment decisions made on the notion that “it’s different this time” [...]

It has been quite a yawner for the markets since we published our last Economic Update, Painting the House, in mid November.  The S&P 500, our proxy for the stock market, has moved in an uncharacteristically narrow channel since then, with 1090 as the low and 1110 as the high, a whopping 1.8% in heart [...]

As gold hit new highs last week, I remembered a gift my father in law had given Lisa and I on our wedding day a little more than 18 years ago.  It took me sometime to find it, but I eventually did, buried under eighteen years of accumulated family video tapes located in one of my [...]

It has been quite sometime since I last published a blog entry.  The good news is that I’ve been quite busy, the bad news is that this trend may continue.  As a result, I will likely publish less frequently, perhaps just sharing my thoughts in the form of our periodic Economic Updates.  If you would [...]

It has been awhile since we published our last Economic Update and now that earnings season is largely over, the time is right for one.    At the end of October, the markets began to weaken with many stocks – outside of Amazon – responding poorly to their earnings releases.   In a blog entry at that [...]

The double dip drum has been beating once again given the recent pullback in the markets.  While any pullback is worth monitoring, it is instructive to consider that corrections are actually quite commonplace.  In fact, we’ve had several 5% plus peak to trough corrections since the recovery began in March!  Did you even notice?  Here’s my chicken scratch math:  During [...]

The markets pulled back aggressively at 11:30am EST and are now down about a percent or so.  According to some, the reason for the pullback was because of a reversal in the dollar and the fact that the markets hit upside resistance and couldn’t break through.  In short, I think this latter comment implies that the markets have pulled back because they [...]

If you own Amazon, you’re one happy camper.  Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.The stock is up a whopping 25% after announcing great earnings, which included news that the Kindle (a product that they own and manufacture) was their biggest selling product in both units and dollars.  This news gives the company a new Apple-like angle to [...]

While the markets are pulling back a tad today, earnings results so far – from the likes of Intel, JP Morgan, and Goldman - have been encouraging.  Of particular note was a quote from Goldman this morning, which characterized the global economy as having continued challenges, but that ”we are seeing signs of improvement and stabilization – even growth [...]