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What Went Wrong at GE?

Donald,

I have the same concerns for Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) and the healthcare economy. My wife is a surgical nurse and she loves their minimally invasive surgical robot, which by the way, cost her hospital $1.8 million dollars. I have already had the unpleasant experience of explaining to her why I sold 200 shares of that stock that I had bought for $89 for $117, when the stock approached $350 per. Hmmmm

With business, financing climate and healthcare costs the way that they are, I worry about owning this very high price stock, however, I just watched it run from about $259 to over $350 (again) in $15 dollar per day chuncks! This stock can leap like a gazelle! Price the options some time. Wow!

My wife's answer to my concern is that the company makes a large profit on parts, upgrades and ongoing training.

I attended a nurses convention (12,000 surgical nurses!)with my wife and I asked nurses from around the country about the surgical robot, thinking that these robots would be rare.......not so! Everyone had one and some large hospitals had multiples. Their concept was if you want your hospital to be taken seriously in the professional world of surgeons, you MUST own an Intuitive Robot. So now I own 100 shares, and I sure would like to see an improvement in our economy and healthcare profits. Yeah, what are the chances?

Hillary or Barrack in the equation? I don't even want to consider the implications!


On Apr 12 06:33 PM Donald E.L. Johnson wrote:

> I don't know whether my post on GE Healthcare, which I put on my
> blog and offered to SA about an hour before CNBC did the same story,
> will make it on to SA this weekend. But back on March 1 I wondered
> whether the muni bond auction market turmoil would cause hospitals
> to cut cap expenditures, and GE executives said it did and will continue
> to be a problem. A quick search of the conference call transcript,
> which was posted last night, shows how concerned Immelt is about
> the closure of a major plant by the FDA for 20 months. As the former
> head of healthcare, he's not happy with its first quarter results.
> How serious the GE Healthcare's problems are remains to be seen.
> A lot depends on how the credit markets shake out.

GE Q1 Estimates Widely Off the Mark

I bought 5, 2010 leaps a few weeks ago on GE with a long term perspective, but then the stock was upgraded by analysts. As a result, the chart showed me an unsustainable short-term upward run in the context of a paranoid, profit taking market. I sold before my profit dissapeared. I was amazed by the downside gap. I was lucky. I didn't see THAT coming!

So what now?

In my opinion, there isn't anything wrong with GE that time won't heal. I won't try to catch a falling knife, but I am waiting for some chart structure to indicate an end to this current short term down market (inside of this bear market) and support to be reestablished for GE stock. Maybe it will bounce so fast that GE will leave me behind. Time will tell. I will be watching closely.

The Fed and the Henhouse

Thank Goddness for the wisdom and integrity of Senator Hillary Clinton who will certainly become the next President of the United States! Senator Clinton, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi will know how to guide this nation back to greatness along with the help of our elder statesman, Senator Ted Kennedy.

As soon as Senator Clinton becomes our president, I am going to write a letter to her and suggest that the government begins to place IOUs into all of our IRA accounts just like the government is already doing with our social security trust fund. That way our government can spend us directly out of this financial mess that we're experiencing. Actaully, my guess would be that I won't actually have to write such a letter to help her out because the Senator is so wise that she's probably already thought of that idea! She's probably eagerly awaiting her first opportunity to put her new plans into action on behalf of us all! Awesome Lady