Archive for July, 2009

• Marty Whitman on Graham and Dodd / Risk / Wall St vs Main St
  ToddSullivan, July 31st, 2009 at 11:43 am, Comments: 0

  Classic Whitman, on efficient market theorists: “they certainly don’t know diddly squat about anything” On Graham and Dodd On Risk: Wall St vs Main StDisclosure (“none” means no position): Enter your Email Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

• Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens
  ToddSullivan, July 31st, 2009 at 8:29 am, Comments: 0

  Not good short term… From the FT: Speaker key: HW: Hal Weitzman JO: Jim Owens Part 1: On the US economy HW: Mr Owens, thank you for joining us. JO: My pleasure, Hal. HW: Let’s start by talking about the US economy. Two years ago Caterpillar became one of the first big American companies to [...]

• Friday’s Links
  ToddSullivan, July 31st, 2009 at 12:38 am, Comments: 0

  Gas, Sprint, Exxon, iPod – Natural Gas will not stay this low for very long – Say the new Android from Google is coming next year – Are we going to give Exxon an “winfall profit fall” tax break? – This is great……how much would a “Fair Labor iPod” cost Disclosure (“none” means no position): [...]

• Dow Chemical Reports
  ToddSullivan, July 30th, 2009 at 11:25 am, Comments: 0

  There are two main items here: 1- The businesses Dow is retaining are profitable at these levels2- The possibility of a Dow Ag sale seems to be slipping farther away almost daily The cheat sheet: Second Quarter 2009 Highlights • Dow reported a loss of $0.47 per share. Excluding certain items and discontinued operations in [...]

• Some Bad Pictures for Economic Bears…
  ToddSullivan, July 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am, Comments: 0

  We have talked here before about Dow Chemical (DOW) and its place in the economic food chain. Its basics plastics division is ground zero for the economy. Any economic improvement will be felt here first as the order to make stuff to sell come there before anywhere else. In addition, as a chemical company, the [...]

• Thursday’s Links
  ToddSullivan, July 30th, 2009 at 12:25 am, Comments: 0

  Biden, Texting, Wal-Mart & Blackberry, Google – Can’t they muzzle him? – Texting and driving…..believe it or not drinking and driving is safer – This is huge for both companies folks. RIMM undercuts the iphone and makes its product the entry point for the smart phone market for younger folks and Wal-Mart becomes a place [...]

• Fed Beige Book – Full Report
  ToddSullivan, July 29th, 2009 at 2:43 pm, Comments: 0

  From the report: Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic activity continued to be weak going into the summer, but most Districts indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level. Five Districts used the words “slow”, [...]

• Borders…….One Foot Out the Door
  ToddSullivan, July 29th, 2009 at 2:03 pm, Comments: 0

  Recently sold 1/2 of my position in Borders Group (BGP) after sticking out its near annihilation in Q1 of this year. Why? Trends There are two new trends and Borders is not at the head of either of them…. I own a Blackberry and have started listening to books on it while I do research [...]

• Russ Berrie & Company
  ToddSullivan, July 29th, 2009 at 9:03 am, Comments: 0

  This is an interesting potential play. Russ Berrie and Company, Inc.’s Infant & Juvenile Group is composed of four wholly-owned subsidiaries: Kids Line, LLC; Sassy, Inc.; LaJobi, Inc.; and CoCaLo. The Kids Line division designs and markets infant bedding and related nursery accessories under the KidsLine® brand. The Sassy division offers products and collections such [...]

• Zell Talks Real Estate
  ToddSullivan, July 29th, 2009 at 6:26 am, Comments: 0

  Watch what Zell has to say about interest rates. This is the reason those of us who fear inflation down the road doubt the Fed’s ability to fight it. IF, we see inflation a year or two from now the Fed will be forced to raise interest rates, that action will cause a potential undoing [...]