Articles

Microsoft's current success is due to the fact that they are a multi-faceted company that isn't afraid that take chances.

According to a recent investment made my Microsoft, Facebook, the popular online site has a valuation of $15b on revenue of several hundred million dollars. News Corp. which owns the larger social networking site MySpace, and which has $30 billion in annual revenue has a market value of $70 billion. Either Facebook is way overvalued or New Corp. is way undervalued.

It never ceases to amaze me how volatility plays out in the markets – how easily people forget one day only to rediscover the next. One has to believe that the market movers are all senile – that they can hold an idea in their heads at most for a day, forget it entirely the next, and then embrace it as new two days later. I am convinced that everyone buying and selling stocks these days suffers from some form of Alzheimer’s disease. The symptoms are clinically the same in the market and in the nursing home.

Not surprisingly, China’s wireless telecom carriers are growing by leaps and bounds, far more rapidly than fixed-line operators. Any country developing as rapidly as China cannot wait for the old technology. In fact, wireless telecoms are leading the way for huge economic development throughout Asia, the Middle East, and South America. But, in China’s case, the growth is nothing short of spectacular. Investment in China Mobile, the major wireless carrier in China, is one of the surest bets in the midst of China’s unprecedented growth. And, safer still, is to buy shares of FXI which bundles the best of China and where China Mobile is the ETF’s largest holding.

Amazon reported earnings today that showed the company is finally starting to live up to its potential. But somewhere along the way, Amazon stopped being the poster child for the Internet. The problem is that while Internet companies have PEs of 30+, retailers have PEs of 10-15. What will it be for Amazon?

Jordan's Furniture, a store owned by Warren Buffett, made a bet with its customers last spring that if the Red Sox won the world series, any furniture (sofas, tables, mattresses) purchased between March 7 and April 16 would be free. The company is now looking at the very real prospect of paying back millions of dollars.

Apple today reported blow out earnings on the sale of more Macs, iPods, and Iphones. But is this sustainable? I don't think so.

As I surveyed the carnage from last week’s market drop, I tried to focus on those stocks that actually moved up. Of these, the most interesting to me are CVTX, BSX, and ISRG. I have written about the first two before, so I will be brief here.

It is hard to imagine Google going substantially further and more imaginatively than it has already. It is hard to imagine Google’s shares going much higher. But, Google is on a course that will take it to another level entirely, and its share price – as a consequence – will continue to soar. It is more than likely that we will see Google shares going for $1,000 in the next three to six months.

Municipal bonds used be a clumsy investment for most people, especially when one had to buy them individually, usually at $50K and above, from brokers. Then came mutual funds which offered portfolios and charged, with the exception of Vanguard, fairly large fees and were far from liquid. Now, the EFT phenomenon has come to municipals and it is going to be explosive.

Google could easily lose half of its market value without a real stock market crash - here is why.

Cody Willard is getting his big break with Fox Business Channel but he seems so ill-equipped to be providing any level of financial commentary.

We will never know if Caterpillar's Q3 result caused today's crash, but the stock was among the biggest Dow losers. I can't figure out why everyone is so scared.