MasterCard did us proud. MasterCard Inc. late last night said its board approved a 10-for-1 stock split via a stock dividend and authorized a new stock buyback program of up to $3.5 billion of its Class A common stock.
The board also raised the quarterly dividend by 83% to $1.10 a share which is equivalent to 11 cents a share after the stock split. The 10-for-1 stock split will take effect after the close of business on Jan. 9 with share distribution slated for Jan. 21.
Will Visa follow suit? Both stocks have done incredibly well. They’re both on my favored list.
Berkshire Hathaway has stalled recently:
I can’t find any negative buzz. In fact, what buzz I find is positive. One article on Seeking Alpha claimed it’s 15% undervalued. I’m hanging in. The economy is improving. Berkshire should also. Berkshire is my biggest holding.
My friend studies the MACD. He said it works. I asked for an explanation:
I get email: My God, am I a total idiot. If this guy really can double my money in 2014 “from today’s unstoppable, global trends,” why does he need me?
I love animal videos. This is one of the best. It’s about a fox hunting prey which is buried under four foot of snow. Click here.
Be wary installing software.
+ Don’t install “upgrades” if the old stuff works well.
+ Keep downloaded install versions of stuff that works. When you get a new machine you can install from the old good software.
+ If you’re forced to install new “upgrades,” test them on an old test machine — for at least two weeks.
+ Free, good software often comes with free bad software, which they sneak on you — like toolbars you don’t want. Watch every screen carefully.
Ten best movies of 2013. From Rolling Stone:
1. 12 Years a slave.
The best movie ever made about slavery is also the best movie of the year. No prettified classroom study for director Steve McQueen, a visual artist and visceral provocateur of the first rank. He rubs our noses in the horrific true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man living in New York in 1841 until he becomes enslaved in the Deep South. Ejiofor, his eyes pools of torment, is an acting giant. This is one for the time capsule.
2. Gravity.
3. The Wolf of Wall Street.
This three-hour bolt of polarizing brilliance from Martin Scorsese, with a killer script by The Sopranos‘ Terence Winter, details the true tale of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio flares like a five-alarm fire in full blaze), who lived hoggishly high on securities fraud in the 1990s. Jordan and his co-scumbags (Jonah Hill crushes it as his wingman) numb moral qualms with coke, ‘ludes and hookers. Scorsese’s high-wire act of bravura filmmaking is a lethally hilarious take on white-collar crime. No one dies, but Wall Street victims will scream bloody murder.
4. Before Midnight.
5. Her.
6. American Hustle.
7. Captain Phillips.
8. Nebraska.
9. Blue Jasmine.
10. Inside Llewyn Davis. (Which you can skip, according to my taste.)
For more, go to Rolling Stone here.
Favorite New Yorker cartoons.
Favorite dumb joke.
A blonde man goes to the vet with his goldfish.
“I think it’s got epilepsy,” he tells the vet.
The vet takes a look and says, It seems calm enough to me.”
The blonde man says, “Wait, I haven’t taken it out of the bowl yet.”
Harry Newton photographed by professional photographer Dan Good when they were together in the California desert.
Amazon now has daily specials. Talk about “random.” These will be some of today’s specials.
Chart Updated: I’m using Dreamweaver to do this chart. It keeps adding in carriage return/line feeds. Stupid program. Ignore them for now.
|
Trends |
Stocks
|
|
| Air travel boom | BA, HON | |
| Huge oversupply of all commodities and minerals | Gold (SGOL, GLD) and gold miners | |
| Big year for the barbarians as they sell assets. Big dividends coming in Q1, 2014 | BX, APO and KKR | |
| Energy from solar panels has reached par with coal and is falling | Solar stocks — FSLR, CSIQ | |
| Shopping recovery | MA, V | |
| Energy from solar panels has reached par with coal and is falling |
Electric utilities, especially those in sunny states |
|
| Obamacare |
UNH, XLV, GILD, JNJ |
|
| Interest rates low |
The mortgage REITs — NLY, AGNC, |
|
| The Internet |
GOOG, AMZN, AAPL, PCLN, NFLX, OPEN, QCOM, SFTBF |
|
| 3D printing |
DDD, SYS, VJET |
|
| Desktop design to manufacturing |
ADSK | |
| Housing recovery |
HD, WY |
|
| TV’s re-emergence |
DTV, CCV |
|
| The Cloud |
AMZN, GOOG |
|
| Tech recovery |
MU | |
| Alibaba and Sprint |
SFTBF (Softbank) and YHOO |
|
| High speed cellphone data explosion |
QCOM | |
| Falling knives to watch |
CCV, AGNC, NLY |
|
| Consumer icons |
NKE | |
| Healthy eating |
WFM, WWAV |
