GE (GE) is due to announce its second quarter results in the next few weeks; so what is the outlook for GE? 

In the first quarter, GE had a nightmare set of figures, whereby the only division doing well was Infrastructure. Discounting the Broadcasting Division (as too small to significantly affect the figures), how will the other divisions perform? 

Earlier this week, Lehman Brothers (LEH) announced plans for its restructuring, which includes issuing 143 million shares of common stock at $28.00 to raise $4 billion, along with the raising of $2 billion of preference shares.

Now, the obvious question is: “Who will buy these shares at $28.00, when they are currently trading at $ 26.30?”

The sale of Harry Macklowe’s GM Tower portfolio will set a new benchmark for the valuation of Commercial Office Real Estate for New York, and probably for the US, as a whole. 

The GM Tower, a 50 Floor building, overlooking Central Park, was estimated at a value of around $3.2 Billion, but the expected sales price is in the region of $2.8 Billion. This equates to a discount of around 12%. 

This past week was a difficult period for market optimists. As we approached the Memorial Weekend, the Dow had fallen by around 500 Points and the jobless figures were the only highlight of an otherwise gloomy week.

Here are the reasons to expect the market to continue to drift lower over the coming weeks

I cannot understand the logic behind the current high price of Thornburg Mortgage (TMA). Five days ago I stated this, as comments to other blogs, on this site.

At the time, it was $1.38, and it has now sunk to $1.07 (as of market close today).

I have argued for a while that US stocks are generally overvalued, as per my evaluation of General Electric (GE) (prior to its Quarterly Earnings report). The only part of GE that has apparently performed well is Infrastructure, Financials, Medical, and Industrial have all proved to be a disappointment.

The next two weeks will be crucial for Wall Street (many analysts will be working all weekend on re-evaluating bellwether stocks), but in my view the three most important stocks to watch are Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Caterpillar.

First let me state the obvious: General Electric (GE) is a well run diversified company with a great track record.

It is now 6 years since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was brought in to make the financial details of listed companies transparent, whereby company directors would be held liable for any breaches of this new law.

However, corporate governance may still be an issue when multi-tiered voting rights are allowed. It is possible for poor management that has preferential voting rights to cling on to control of a company when the vast majority of shareholders do not want this outcome. One example is a listed company whereby the founding family has around 1% of the stock, but 32% of the voting rights!

I have been looking at regional centers and malls for sale on the open market to aid in the valuation of retail REITs. I have listed 3 as examples. Occupancy varies from 80% to 95% and net operating income [NOI] from 7% to 11%.

These prices are real - no discounts, no negotiations - just prices listed by the brokers.

Let's go back to basics. Their balance sheet shows that the assets of Taubman Centers (TCO) and its liabilities cancel each other out, i.e. zero value.