moosebump

Making Canada Our 51st State Could Make It Easier to Buy American

Maybe it should be the other way round? Canada should make a bid for the US. The timing is right. The US stock has never been cheaper. Of course we would be assuming trillions of dollars in consumer, government and financial industry debt.
It would be a win for Americans...
-they would get a nice mature universal health care system instead of waiting to see what the Dems come up with
-crime rates would drop because hand guns would be banned
-since Americans would still need their fix of violence, we could teach them how to really love hockey
-we could teach them fiscal restraint - good cautious Canadians would never buy a 100% debt financed house with a negative am mortgage even if we believed "real estate never falls" in price
-no more Wall Street greed problem - we would move it to Bay Street
-more colourful money
-we could divert billions of dollars from launching wars into peacekeeping (cleaning up the mess of previous wars)
-Americans could now legitimately wear the Maple Leaf when travelling overseas

Conference Call Highlights: Update on Retail and Mall REITs

I think your list of Retail reits is a bit off.
BPO is 95% office. Retail is incidental to them.
BXP is essentially 100% office - with 1 hotel.

Lululemon Makes Other Hot Clothing IPOs Look Cheap

Jim - you might end up being right but the current price is certainly pricing in optimistic projections (like yours).

A few of elements of your projections don't agree with what management is saying themselves:

1. Your 700 Intl plus 300 NA stores = 1000 or 950 more than today. Over 8 years to 2015 thats 119/year. But they are expecting to do 'just' 25 this year and up to 35 next. Their store opening process is fairly time and effort intensive as they put more effort into training staff and becoming active in the local fitness community. How well does that scale? I think its poses some risk now at 25 - 35 stores a year since they have only ever done 14 in a single year before now.

2. They have also said they would go international via JV so not all Int'l expansion would accrue to lulu shareholders.

3. They are targeting a 20% operating margin so after 35% tax that is more like 13% net. So even on 2.5B, your profit is $325.

Research in Motion Insiders Cashing Out On The Back of New Buyers

sedi.ca

Research in Motion: Holding Its Own in the Face of iPhone Competition

Apple's expectations for the iPhone make RIMM look like a relative tortoise. RIMM is just about to ship its 20 millionth device after 10+ years. This would include a couple of upgrade cycles for early users.

Apple thinks it can do 10mm units by the end of 08!

Did Apple Beat iPhone Sales Forecasts or Not?

I think the iPhone is a success already and is likely to be a success over the next year at least. The launch was a huge success in terms of marketing hype and initial sales, and though I haven't had a chance to use the device my guess is that it is a great piece of consumer electronics.

But this is quite different from calling it a success from an investment perspective. That depends entirely on how many iPhones have sold and will sell over the next year or more relative to the expected number implied in the stock price. Investor SHOULD figure out how many devices they think AAPL can sell and then figure out how much the company will earn, discount it back to the present and bid or sell the stock accordingly. (a highly inexact science obviously)

The problem I see with a stock like AAPL is that there are too many people willing to ignore fundamental reasons for the value of the stock and buy it because they love Apple and its products.

Great products - yes. Great investment - ??

Did Apple Beat iPhone Sales Forecasts or Not?

After reading the comments here the question is: why do people LOVE Apple so much? Only true Apple fanatics could find Paul's article so offensive. (and who mentioned the Zune or the 360 anyways? I don't think anyone except MSFT is claiming the Zune to be a success)

Its hard to argue that the iPhone launch was a success based on initial sales. But since 95% of those sales were to rabid Apple fans who could care less what reviewers did or would write, the real success of the iPhone will be its sales trend over the next few months.

Why compare actual sales to 'whisper numbers'? because investors need to figure out what the market is pricing into the stock. It could be the greatest product of all time but expectations can just get ahead of reality.

It is this type of reaction from fanboys who are also investors that make me think there is the potential for a short here.

Introducing The iPhone Buzz Index

Some results for a 'windows' news search might not be indicative of hype surrounding Microsoft's product...

"As a police crew arrived, they saw people jumping out of windows and running from the house. When they looked in the windows they found clear signs of a dog... "

"Here are a few ideas to keep your house cool this summer: Shade the windows"

"This international event focuses on the use of plastics in automotive glazing products such as windows, sunroofs and panoramic roof systems"

SanDisk-Yahoo Announce MP3 Player To Rave Reviews

did you link to the report? Obviously there is more work to be done before all the details are covered.
"Check back soon for the full report"

Re: iPod comparison. Don't you think the iPod is becoming a little uninspiring in the innovation department? Yes its very useable. But aside from video and a wide array of form factors they haven't been doing much to innovate. Personally (always a dangerous bias when combined with investment dollars), I would look at this device over an iPod. Personalized internet radio and instant gratification from downloading anywhere are attractive selling features. I'm surprised Apple isn't offering Wifi yet. Given the iPhone, they are obviously capable. They'll probably just do it BETTER after Sansa/Yahoo warm the market up to the idea.

Microsoft Gets Closer To Owning Your Living Room

First, lets not make the limiting assumption that all gamers are teenagers. Every year the average age of gamers is likely increasing as those who grew up gaming -and never stopped- get older. I believe that one day gaming will be a form of entertainment that isn't limited - or seen to be limited - to a certain demograhic.

However, I agree with Jon T (and disagree with Thomas Hawk) that the 360 will not be the successful Trojan Horse MSFT hopes it is. 90% of it will come down to ease of use. If Apple can make an easy to use convergence device that unites TV and PC technology then they may have a winner. The 360 is NOT easy to use as a convergence device. It is buggy and hard to set up. I am a gamer and a moderately geeky and yet I am often running into issues with the connectivitiy and setup. Could my wife figure out how to record a TV show on our PC and then watch it on the TV through the 360? Forget it. Would she be able to do something like that on the AppleTV? My guess is yes.

If a gaming/convergence device is what would win then Apple should partner with Nintendo to slap an inexpensive game console togther with the AppleTV.

The iWii.