Chirag Amin

Chevron Invests in LS9; To Produce Microbe Diesel by 2011?

By the time our government taxes the crap out of synthetic biodiesel in order to pay for the Obama stimulus packages and the Obama government-mandated universal health plan......it will be more like $3 per gallon

Keeping Our Confidence in Strong Energy Stocks

Isjorgren,

Seriously, you actually stated:

'What lunatic would invest in US oil or gas companies when the federal government has expressed its determination to levy astronomically large new taxes on the industr?'

Have you ever heard of cigarettes and Philip Morris?
Have you ever heard of the concept of 'inelastic demand'?
The taxes that Obama will levy on oil companies will most definitely get passed on to the consumer.....if you don't believe it, then try figuring out why the price of cigarettes will soon be $7 a pack.....
Until you figure out a way to run your car on bullcrap, you, like everyone else will stay a slave to big oil.

Cigarettes: Business Is Still Smoking

PMI's legal exposure is minimized due to two main reasons:

1. Philip Morris has learned much from previous lawsuits.....many warnings appear on their cigarettes. They know how to safeguard themselves.

2. The U.S. has perhaps the most liberal court system in the world....what other nation would allow the types of tobacco lawsuits that we've seen proceed forward....no one is putting a gun to people's heads to smoke

Combine this with the fact that Philip Morris would be able to 1) openly advertise their product in other nations (e.g., TV commercials, etc.) and that 2) they would be able to sell to minors and that alone speaks volumes of their business model.

Bottom Line: If you are stupid enough to smoke, then you should own up to the destruction that it causes to your body....People in other countries can't blame Philip Morris for lung cancer just as they can't blame McDonald's for making them fat and giving them heart disease.....Courts can't shield people from stupidity.

Your Oil Stocks Aren't Coming Back

Let's get this stuff in the correct context....when people talk about the technology stocks of the great Internet "bubble"........many remember names such as Ariba/PurchasePro.com/... (the great B2B sector that would go up 20+ points per day....), JDS Uniphase/SDLI (the great fiberoptic tech craze), Lycos/Excite.com (the great search engine craze), CMGI/ICGE (the great internet incubator craze), as well as more "sane" tech sector picks such as AOL and Yahoo. No one should expect ExxonMobil to split 3:2 every year like Sun Microsystems did back in its heyday. On that same note, no one should expect that Transocean (RIG) could grow to $1000 stock like they wrongly predicted that Qualcomm would back in its heyday....

Then again.....these oil companies can make a profit even when oil is under $50 per barrel. Oil was less than this in the early part of 2000/2001/2002 etc. and oil companies were still making a profit and growing. Recently, due to the big oil price run up, Big Oil got a little bit crazy with regard to their cap ex spending. After all, does it really make sense to pay Transocean (RIG) a dayrate of $600,000 per day to drill a deepwater well when oil is under $40 per barrel?

But look what we're in for......Big Oil cuts cap ex.....future reserves/supply does not get regenerated and thus constricts, OPEC keeps cutting supply, refiners decrease capacity, hurricane season arrives, and the Iranian President feels like threatening the Jews again.....this, combined with recovering demand in China and India as well as in the US, and we're back at $100 per barrel oil...

Bottom Line: List all the factors that push oil prices up (several I have mentioned above) FROM CURRENT LEVELS....and then list all the factors that push oil prices down FROM CURRENT LEVELS.....and then let yourself decide if current oil prices are sustainable.....

When to Sell Dividend Stocks

Good article.....I hold BAC and am in the same predicament....The reason why I chose to invest in BAC was because it was a strong company with a growing dividend. It obviously failed me when BAC decided to slash its dividend. I haven't been putting in more money in the stock, but instead am holding the stock to find a good exit point....

PFE is another company that I decided to invest in for the same reasons.....However, they decided to maintain their dividend instead of cutting it (although it would have been nice if they decided to at least up the divy by a penny or two....). I'm gonna keep with PFE because I maintain bullish on its long-term prospects given its very cheap valuation.

Altria: One of the Best Run Companies

Even though many feel that Altria overpaid for the acquisition of UST, I feel that the UST acquisition by MO will allow the company to maintain a "healthy" revenue stream.... MO should be able to sustain its dividend, as they continue to unlock shareholder value through share buybacks and responsible dividend increases......

Dividend Investing for Monthly Income

Another option to consider for monthly dividend income is Realty Income (O). This REIT stock pays a monthly dividend, and its yield is at 9.40%.

United Technologies: A Good Company Bullied by a Bad Market

Are you kidding me EnglishTeacher? You have nothing better to do in your life than criticize a substantive fact-filled article on UTX? If you spent more time digesting the facts and potentially profitting from the buying opportunity in this stock rather than criticize the miniscule grammatical irregularities of the article, you would probably be able to aspire to something more in life than an EnglishTeacher

Year to Date Performance of Dow 30 Members

Exxon-Mobil (XOM): Can someone explain to me exactly how the most profitable company in the world with decent revenue and earnings growth can be DOWN 16% year to date? Here is the past performance results of XOM,

2008 YTD: -16%
2007: +24.3%
2006: + 39.1%
2005: +11.8%
2004: +28.0%
2003: +20.6%

I would assume that their dividend is the safest that you can find in this economy. So what am I missing here? Is XOM a great value play at these levels or what?