East Coast

iPhone Price Drop Is A Bad Sign

The advice to sell some shares isn't ludicrous. No investment is ever a "sure thing" and to take some profits off the table, in a large cap stock which is up 60% YTD, in a market trying to get a handle on credit uncertainties is not stupid. The pricing change-up is odd for a company with such stable, on the mark pricing. If this is a strategic move, rather than a mis-step, or sale slowdown, why do it now after a large number of potential customers might have renewed their other cell-contracts, due to the high initial price? Why anger customers who bought the now non-existent 4gig, or spent up for the 8gig? Why do an about face, and potentially cause halo-effect customers to think "maybe they'll cut prices in this product, so I'll wait."

RBC Bullish on Apple: Strong Back-To-School Mac Sales; “Sustained iPhone Momentum”

Of course Apple is the anointed stock. Sure the analysts have been wrong/running to catch up with it, but to say it has been spurned by Wall-Street is ridiculous. A stock does not move 80% over 52 weeks and 50% over 6 months if it doesn't have institutional buyers! The recent dip in price is more evidence of this and it's not because Apple is suddenly out of favor or because Wall-Street "hates" it now. It's because Hedge Funds have illiquid positions in their portfolio whose values have plummeted and they are facing margin calls and investor redemptions. In this situation, what does a manager do? He dumps the most liquid winner in his portfolio - da da! you guessed it - Apple, because he HAS to. Not because it's going to be a dog (too much fan support and market share to gain), but simply because he has to.

Possible Delay in Launch of Faster iPhone

For you that is. I have a 3G Blackjack in the Philadelphia and have solid coverage in the area, as well as an hour north on my commute. As I'm sure you know, the difference between 3G and Edge is significant, so the addition of 3G to the iPhone is win-win...unless it is a black hole for battery life, like it is on the Blackjack

Does Apple's iPhone Live Up to Its Hype?

I guess the one thing I don't understand here is the complete backlash against any negative opinion, keyword being opinion, regarding an Apple product. There's this paranoia that everybody's out to get Apple, like its some conspiracy. C'mon, "merciless" criticism?!?! C'mon, attacking a guy because he doesn't enjoy it/thinks his windows mobile device is just fine? I think the iPhone interface is much better, but that's just my preference.

What Is CNBC.com Thinking?

socialist?!? I take it that you confused this with capitalism?

Google Continues Its Climb

Nice article. Forget about AOL and Yahoo, all one needs to look at is the conversion of the word "Google" from a proper noun to a verb and the image transformation from "a nice option for search" to "the one stop to find out about anything I don't know."

Total S.A. Offers An Integrated Energy Model

Total has had a very nice run since beg of March. My concerns then were on corruption charges and potential public disapproval over the nat gas expansion into Iran, but it seems those have faded in the rearview.

Crystallex's Las Cristinas Permit Virtually Granted

I am noting that and while it may seem trivial to get into semantics, it really has boiled down to that with KRY. Suppose someone loosely follows KRY, types in the symbol here and sees the top article saying "Permit Granted" in the title, they could very easily go and buy shares based off of that. I would hope someone would not buy a stock based off of an article title, but if they bought shares and then the Venezuelan government comes out two weeks from now saying "despite Cystallex's best efforts in fulfilling the steps, we have decided we will continue to withhold the permit" then you have a liability on your hands. Again, I am not speculating on the timing of permit issuance, or whether or not it will happen, just the fact that that is a dangerous title for the article to have.

Crystallex's Las Cristinas Permit Virtually Granted

With all due respect to Mark, the title of the article is false. According to the press release (www.marketwire.com/2.0...), "The CVG confirmed that the approval of the EIS, the posting of the bond and the payment of the taxes represent the final and conclusive step in the procedure for the issuance of the Environmental permit to construct the Las Cristinas Project." Thus, Crystallex has completed their end of the deal, but the permit has not yet been issued. I am not saying this to knock the price down, as I have no long or short position and actually thought about picking up some shares on the news for a quick momentum trade, but upon further review of the press release, they still do not have the permit. I am not posturing on the time that will lapse before they receive it, but based on the wording in the press release, they still do not have the permit. If they did have it, they simply would've said they received the permit, instead of saying they completed the final steps to required for the issuance of the permit.

iPhone: Apple Making All the Wrong Moves

The article's analysis is flawed, but I think it's a mistake to assume no product will have "anywhere NEAR the capabilities" in the next three years. A product like the iPhone wasn't imaginable three years ago, so who knows what will come out between now and 2010. If you are leaning more towards the user-interaction side, rather than pure technological capability, then it's a different story. If, upon hitting the market, it gains the same widespread acceptance and image as the iPod, then I think you can make a call like that. This is very possible, as it seems the image side of that equation is nailed down, but I think its wrong on both ends to say "the iPhone will flop/others will have a killer [which is essentially saying it will be a giant, haha]" or "there will be no challengers."

US Gold May Be the Best on the Board

Does this strike anyone as a bit haughty?

The Secret Behind Apple's Loyal Customer Base

Disclosure? Does he own Apple shares?

Will Imax Make It?

The management team is terrible. I bought in at 3.42 and sold half at 5.28 and the other half at 5.15, a few days before earnings were due - why? Despite a nice chunk of theatre signings since Nov, I had absolutely no faith in them and expected the worst. Sure enough, they're threatened with Nasdaq delistment.

Energy Partners: Another Tough Year in 2006

With due respect to Mr. Wulff, it seems as though all of the stocks he writes about are buy-recommended and have tremendous upside according to his NPV's.

Apple: Mac Sales Tracking Ahead of March Quarter Estimates

Where's Tommo? No forecasts from him on this matter? What has the world come to?