Jim Hawthorne

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Re: Automakers report on progress (GM)
In an otherwise doom & Gloom market, I think there are grounds for cautious optimism in the direction GM is taking.
With the European cuts, restructuring, the applications for new hybrid &etc patents and the strides that GM has made in product quality, I think GM will be around for a long, long time!

BHP Is Best of the Miners - Barron's

Thanks, Rachael!

Indeed, BHP is a stand-out, and as 'DistressedVolatility' (above) notes, was indeed on fire on Friday! However, I wonder if BHP has to some extent 'cut off its nose to spite its face' and by circling the wagons into an overly defensive posture has severly limited future growth and expansion? (Uranium excepted, which may well be an error on my part!)

I prefer good old CLF, which is showing increased EPS along with better sales. As you can see, it, too, was on fire on Friday!

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Re: 'New Prez, New banking plan'

While the 'Coronation Crash' was indeed led by the financial sector, I doubt that your statement that 'some investors feared the government might ultimately need to nationalize the hardest hit financial institutions' was the prime factor for yesterday's plunge!

The nationalization process in banks is well underway globally, and we are quite aware that what gets bailed-out/nationalize... will just as surely be re-privatized just about as soon as the good old taxpayer stands to start making a buck off the deal.

In this god-awful debacle, some big banks are going to zero, bailouts notwithstanding. THAT is the fear, I fear!