Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Responds to Whitney Tilson: Cover Your Short Position. Now. [View article]
Regardless to his forthrightness or integrity, its just a bad idea to address a short seller. Unless the CEO also calls out longs that get carried away he is clearly being biased in a matter that he should not have a public opinion. Especially considering Tilson is a credible short and not a pumper.
CEOs should never get in the game of being biased or seen as pumping a stock. Especially one trading at lofty valuations wether deserved or not. His time to write this letter clearly distracted him from working on the business model or addressing the onslaught of competition. Thats never good.
Where was this story 50% ago? Its cover showing a tombstone engraved "R.I.P. PC," Barron's says DELL and H-P (HPQ) will fade from view. Next up for trouble could be Microsoft (MSFT), seemingly cheap at 9X 2013 earnings, but which reported sales at its Windows unit off by a third Y/Y after backing out pre-sales for Windows 8. The world awaits the launch of Surface at midnight on Friday. More winners/losers here. [View news story]
Steadily declining? Who reads them anymore?
PCs are in decline, but it will never end. Ignorant to say RIP to something that is very much needed. The issue is that PCs isn't a growing sector. Big difference from a sector that is going to end.
Market: Spooked Today, But Panic Attack Is Likely Temporary [View article]
Good analysis. The economic news was bullish today especially with the Chicago PMI coming in at 54. For whatever reason, the market got extremely spooked today. Might see some follow thru next week, but it won't last. The FED will keep rates low for a lot longer if needed and the economic numbers will keep rolling in very positive. The bearishness in this market is chart topping. The NYMO may actually post a lower number then last Oct. That is incredible as the economy has turned and isn't falling off a cliff like last year.
President Obama will propose a six year public works program to combat unemployment, with $50 billion of up-front spending on roads, rail and airport runways. The administration says it will work with Congress to fund the plan without adding to the deficit, perhaps by cutting subsidies on oil and gas exploration and production. [View news story]
agree but this country does need to address its infrastructure issue. Don't trust the Dems to do anything other then waste the money like last time though.
Count Bill Miller as an Apple (AAPL +0.8%) bull. "Apple is ... like Nike, a consumer brand with great loyalty," the famous fund manager states in an FT interview. He thinks shares would rally "close to 50%" if Apple simply committed to paying out all future free cash flow through dividends, while keeping its $137B cash/investment hoard on its balance sheet. [View news story]
Throwing away AAPL long before it has even run into any problems. It still has the best technology in the world. Not sure "loyalty" was ever said about Dell or Nokia or Motorola in the same way it has with Apple. At least in my extended family, Apple has been the only technology with that level of loyalty.
China and Obama are the keys to this market. China has to turn the spigot back on soon. Obama will hopefully catch a clue that job growth won't happen unless he abandons his policies. After all the unemployed are mostly Dems ironically. Unlike 2004 the markets will likely rally b/c now we're headed back towards a capitalist Congress. Back in '04, it was the exact opposite with Dems poised to grab more power.
China we can count on, the question is Obama though the more he fiddles the more power the loses. The market will begin pricing in the end of Obamania!
I Love the Smell of Housing Collapse in the Morning [View article]
its only option is to do something pro business, pro capitalism like extending the Bush tax cuts and such. Gotta put more money into business owner pockets and not people wanting a handout to buy a house.
Permabear David Rosenberg offers 17 reasons to be bullish - seriously! But it's short-term, and the market is still a "meat grinder": "The bulls have the upper hand, but only until the next shoe drops in this modern-day depression..." Whew, that's more like it. [View news story]
If the European debt crisis didn't crash the markets beyond a somewhat normal correction, then what would? Absent another shoe as David suggests, this market is some 30-40% undervalued.
Facebook (FB +5.1%) rallied in afternoon trading, and closed at $29.63. Topeka Capital's bullish call echoes a common argument among Facebook bulls: that the company will ultimately justify its lofty valuation by finding ways to leverage its giant user base and volumes of data to open up major untapped revenue streams. Those streams, in Topeka's view, include e-commerce, online payments, search ads, and classifieds, and are collectively worth over $1T. [View news story]
if it could, why hasn't it already? Isn't that the problem with that argument? Not only has FB been unable to tap those revenue streams, but it is now losing out on the transfer of users to mobile. My bet remains that FB isn't the hottest social networking site in 3 years. The under 30 crowd will revolt as soon as a newer option comes along.
Unfortunately social networking sites are like night clubs. They only stay hot for awhile until the next big thing comes along.
The President's statement denying the application for the building of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone XL Pipeline: The rejection is "not a judgement on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of (the Congressional) deadline." (earlier) [View news story]
still its a rejection. The project is not moving forward. Obama clearly doesn't care about jobs or energy security, but hey the problem was the Congressional deadline.
$200 Oil Is Coming While We Waste a Perfectly Good Crisis (Part 3) [View article]
The energy policy of the US is beyond inept. I'm all for free markets, but we shouldn't be so naive to allow our security to be threatened by relying on foreign sources. Oil has bubbled above $50 because the markets know that nobody is prepared for the resumption of oil demand. Just about every oil producing nation has cut back on exploration and production just at the time that long term demand is likely to spike. This recession won't last forever.
Some Apple (AAPL) commentary: 1) Horace Dediu estimates the iPhone and iPad's component costs respectively rose 29% and 65% Y/Y in FQ2, well above rev. growth of 3% and 40%. This, along with a mix shift towards iPads, is mostly responsible for Apple's gross margin drop (rather than price pressure). 2) Tero Kuittinen sees similarities between 2013 Apple and 2007 Nokia. "The strongest parallel is in the weird way both companies started fighting the consumer preference for larger displays … and then dug in as margins began eroding rapidly." Tim Cook may have just hinted a bigger iPhone will eventually arrive. But how long will it take? (yesterday) [View news story]
Great point on how MSFT had an ecosystem that trapped users into the products for the last decade. The difference is that nobody liked MSFT products while everybody loves AAPL products. It will be years before people leave AAPL even if Samsung were to make better products.
NOK is a horrible example. Never heard of anybody that saw NOK as a brand. The phones were always the cheap, affordable option. In fact, I never had one b/c they were never appealing.
Pres. Obama reportedly won't be making a new budget offer to Republicans today, and will instead reiterate last week's proposal. Stocks have tanked on the news. S&P -1%. Dow -1.1%. NASDAQ -0.7%. [View news story]
Did you really expect anything else with this President? He has zero business sense and even common sense. Oddly he thinks this will help his legacy though it will only make him look foolish yet again.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Responds to Whitney Tilson: Cover Your Short Position. Now. [View article]
CEOs should never get in the game of being biased or seen as pumping a stock. Especially one trading at lofty valuations wether deserved or not. His time to write this letter clearly distracted him from working on the business model or addressing the onslaught of competition. Thats never good.
Where was this story 50% ago? Its cover showing a tombstone engraved "R.I.P. PC," Barron's says DELL and H-P (HPQ) will fade from view. Next up for trouble could be Microsoft (MSFT), seemingly cheap at 9X 2013 earnings, but which reported sales at its Windows unit off by a third Y/Y after backing out pre-sales for Windows 8. The world awaits the launch of Surface at midnight on Friday. More winners/losers here. [View news story]
PCs are in decline, but it will never end. Ignorant to say RIP to something that is very much needed. The issue is that PCs isn't a growing sector. Big difference from a sector that is going to end.
Market: Spooked Today, But Panic Attack Is Likely Temporary [View article]
The Small Cap Bubble Is Ready to Burst: Part 1 [View article]
President Obama will propose a six year public works program to combat unemployment, with $50 billion of up-front spending on roads, rail and airport runways. The administration says it will work with Congress to fund the plan without adding to the deficit, perhaps by cutting subsidies on oil and gas exploration and production. [View news story]
Count Bill Miller as an Apple (AAPL +0.8%) bull. "Apple is ... like Nike, a consumer brand with great loyalty," the famous fund manager states in an FT interview. He thinks shares would rally "close to 50%" if Apple simply committed to paying out all future free cash flow through dividends, while keeping its $137B cash/investment hoard on its balance sheet. [View news story]
Stocks May Surprise by Year-End [View article]
China we can count on, the question is Obama though the more he fiddles the more power the loses. The market will begin pricing in the end of Obamania!
I Love the Smell of Housing Collapse in the Morning [View article]
Permabear David Rosenberg offers 17 reasons to be bullish - seriously! But it's short-term, and the market is still a "meat grinder": "The bulls have the upper hand, but only until the next shoe drops in this modern-day depression..." Whew, that's more like it. [View news story]
Facebook (FB +5.1%) rallied in afternoon trading, and closed at $29.63. Topeka Capital's bullish call echoes a common argument among Facebook bulls: that the company will ultimately justify its lofty valuation by finding ways to leverage its giant user base and volumes of data to open up major untapped revenue streams. Those streams, in Topeka's view, include e-commerce, online payments, search ads, and classifieds, and are collectively worth over $1T. [View news story]
Unfortunately social networking sites are like night clubs. They only stay hot for awhile until the next big thing comes along.
The President's statement denying the application for the building of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone XL Pipeline: The rejection is "not a judgement on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of (the Congressional) deadline." (earlier) [View news story]
Why Can't Tablet Makers Just Ship Already? [View article]
$200 Oil Is Coming While We Waste a Perfectly Good Crisis (Part 3) [View article]
Some Apple (AAPL) commentary: 1) Horace Dediu estimates the iPhone and iPad's component costs respectively rose 29% and 65% Y/Y in FQ2, well above rev. growth of 3% and 40%. This, along with a mix shift towards iPads, is mostly responsible for Apple's gross margin drop (rather than price pressure). 2) Tero Kuittinen sees similarities between 2013 Apple and 2007 Nokia. "The strongest parallel is in the weird way both companies started fighting the consumer preference for larger displays … and then dug in as margins began eroding rapidly." Tim Cook may have just hinted a bigger iPhone will eventually arrive. But how long will it take? (yesterday) [View news story]
NOK is a horrible example. Never heard of anybody that saw NOK as a brand. The phones were always the cheap, affordable option. In fact, I never had one b/c they were never appealing.
Pres. Obama reportedly won't be making a new budget offer to Republicans today, and will instead reiterate last week's proposal. Stocks have tanked on the news. S&P -1%. Dow -1.1%. NASDAQ -0.7%. [View news story]