There was a bit of spike in Ford, and then today the bombshell was dropped.
Ford Motor Co. today said it might not achieve its goal of profitability in 2009 for its troubled North American business unit — citing higher commodity costs and the sour U.S. economy, which is causing gas-sensitive customers to move more quickly out of large trucks and SUVs and into more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.
Ford, its too late, you are road kill!
Folks STOP BEING IN DENIAL! Finally SOMEBODY big says it as it is!
“Index speculators’ trading strategies amount to virtual hoarding via the commodities futures markets,” Michael Masters, a former hedge fund trader, told the committee in prepared testimony.
And he goes on…
“Institutional investors are buying up essential items that exist in limited quantities for the sole purpose of reaping speculative profits,” he said.
What have I been saying? I have been saying buying commodities is akin to flipping houses! Michael Masters even goes on to say that the speculator is creating as much demand as China! Think about it folks!
I am trying to get my head around this alternative deal that Microsoft is proposing.
“In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties.
At first I thought WTF? Has Microsoft become that impotent? The scoop is that Microsoft would work with Yahoo in some type of joint venture involving search advertising. It makes you to wonder what they have in mind. Joint venture? Transaction? Is this not a bad way to get into the search advertising field?
Recently in a local financial paper it was said that some local Swiss Traders are stepping out of the soft commodities trade. Some banks have said that they have never even started that trade.
So what was the reason? Ethics…
I have been a naysayer of buying commodities because I equate it to flipping houses. When you buy a commodity where you do not plan on consuming it yourself you are adding no value and making it more difficult for those that do want to run a business. The analysts have been saying the commodity prices are the result of demand, not speculation.
I don’t believe it for a second. When the dollar became stronger did commodities drop? No. When supply surged did commodities drop? No. I don’t believe the market analysts because to me it is like asking accountants if they like the flat tax. Any accountant that would like a flat tax would be out of a job.
Woohoo, it looks like we are buying a house. We negotiated a new deal and one that I think is pretty good. To fund the down payment I had to sell off half of our portfolio. This allowed me to take a look at how good our returns were. Remember this is since beginning of (more…)
Yesterday I said that Yahoo will close at 25. How did Yahoo do? It closed at 24.47 but it did touch 25. Pretty close considering that most people said it would close around 30% lower.
But Yahoo’s share fall was not as steep as the 30 percent plunge anticipated by some analysts, indicating there was still an “acquisition premium” built into the stock.
I have not been blogging as much lately, because I have been completely swamped with work. These days I write oodles and oodles of software implementing financial trading strategies using Excel, and .NET. I will be posting a review of Add-In Express which has been helping me immensely. Another thing happening is that I am (more…)
Of this deal there are two interesting aspects; analysts are pretty much clueless, and Google really stepped into it.
“Microsoft is playing hardball, but I think a deal will still happen,” said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, “It’s like a couple trying to break up — they say they are done, but you know they will get back together.”
How do you know? Gee last Friday Yahoo stock went up because people thought the deal would happen and look where we are. In fact just as the market closed I glanced at 22.50 PUT options and I told my wife, you know I think I will buy some options on Monday.
Sun posted miserable earnings, and everybody is surprised… As a result Sun is dragging down tech which is completely wrong. This a Sun problem, not tech. I had an hunch that Sun would disappoint quite a bit. Why? Because at the beginning of March I heard whispers that Sun was loosing some major sales. It was a major shorting opportunity (Disclosure: I have not shorted JAVA, and have no intention to do so.)
