by Arnold Joe
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Shorting opportunities:
I’ve been looking for more shorting opportunities for a while but still haven’t found a really good candidate. Casinos, retail stores and restaurants is where I have been focusing my attention because as the recession in the US worsens, these sectors should get hammered. The problem with shorting these sectors is that the stocks […]
Stock portfolio change
I sold my Toll Brothers (N-TOL; homebuilder) $30 puts for $10.20 (purchase price was $9.70 for a 5% return) and replaced them with Toll Brother $22.50 puts for $3.00. Selling the more expensive puts allowed me to take $7.20 of cash out of the market so instead of risking $10.20, my risk […]
Oil:
Bloomberg reports that the Kazah Energy Minister believes that the large Kashagan field in Kazakstan has delayed commercial production for another couple years. The field was originally supposed to begin producing in 2005. This is another example of peak oil having been reached as all the big cheap oil fields have been found. The […]
Economics:
Canada’s employment added 19,000 in April but saw its unemployment rate climb to 6.1% from 6.0%. Details were on the weak side as the important manufacturing sector lost another 15,000 jobs and the private sector lost another 8,000 positions. Most of the new jobs were in the self-employed and services industry which tend […]
Housing:
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., the New Jersey home builder is planning on raising $191 million in a stock sale; the stock dropped 12%. This is interesting because the company just forecast on May 5th that its 2008 cash flow would triple to $300 million. Today’s news makes me think that perhaps the cash flows […]
Market Recap:
Lots of bad news out on the US financials today as Fannie Mae posts another big loss of $2 billion, UBS lost $10.9 billion (and is cutting 5,500 jobs), Wachovia increased its first quarter loss by 80% and Countrywide puts a stop to most home equity loan withdrawals in Las Vegas. As you would […]
