Random market thoughts
- Bought more GOOG this week, it is really really cheap here.
- Re-shorted BP today @ $32.50 with a stop @ $36. Still holding some pure gamble 2011/12 LEAP puts at multiple strikes ($2.50 to $29).
- Bought XOM this week, partially as a pair to the BP short, but mostly cause it looks cheap and I needed more energy.
- Trimmed AAPL to near the bone, used proceeds to buy GOOG. Recent developments in China may look bad for Google, but I think they’ll be worse for Apple in the long run (labor costs set to skyrocket).
- Trimmed PGJ (domestic-driven Chinese ETF) a bit. Nothing against this China really, just finding other options more attractive and taking some profits.
- Bought Acergy (ACGY), a Norwegian offshore drilling services firm. Among other things, ACGY are some of the guys who run those ROVs hovering around BP’s Macondo well. Co. just merged with Subsea 7, which should work out well for both parties.
Anyone else got ideas? This market is obnoxious.
7 Comments
Very obnoxious indeed. DFS is on my radar. I like my Discover card, their site shows me how many gallons I pumped for my gas, their card is a thick, matte, suave feeling. Their earnings have bottomed I believe.
My only concern is that a significant part of their income is based on their account holders, and if say Citi or someone else came with a compelling rewards system, that could easily sway their numbers as people switch.
The Con of the Decade
6. When the longside bets go bad, transfer hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal guarantees, bailouts and backstops into the private hands which made the risky bets, either via direct payments or via proxies like AIG. Enable these private Power Elites to borrow hundreds of billions more from the Treasury/Fed at zero interest.
http://tinyurl.com/27qc2sf
Relief wells a “SHAM”; 120,000 bpd of oil gushing; Matt Simmons
http://inpoints.blogspot.com/2010/07/oil-expert-on-cnbc-relief-wells-sham.html
The Con of the Decade Part II (July 9, 2010)
The con of the decade (Part II) involves sheltering the Power Elites’ income while raising taxes on the debt-serfs to pay the interest owed the Power Elites.
The second part of the con is to mask much of the Power Elites’ income streams behind tax shelters and other gaming-of-the-system so the advertised rate appears high to the peasantry but the effective rate paid on total income is much much lower.
The tax shelters are so numerous and so effective that it takes thousands of pages of tax codes and armies of toadies to pursue them all: family trusts, oil depletion allowances, tax-free bonds and of course special one-off tax breaks arranged by “captured” elected officials.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly10/con-of-decade-pt2-07-10.html
Shadowstats’ John Williams Exposes The Media’s Propaganda Spin, Or Why Watching CNBC Can Be Hazardous To Your Wealth
More recently, following an interview on a major cable news network (not CNBC), I was advised off-air by the producer that they were operating under a corporate mandate to give the economic news a positive spin, irrespective of how bad it was.” And now you know that watching stations like CNBC for anything more than just comedic value is hazardous to your health and wealth.
http://tinyurl.com/2bfjft7
Like the GOOG trade, stock has gone straight up since July 6 and the China news will only improve their position. Do you know the date the labor costs will increase in China?
thevoice,
Rising labor costs are kind of an ongoing thing in China. Wages are up 50% since 2005. Good NYT writeup on the situation + Apple-specific issues, here:
http://nyti.ms/aV84Eb