Our friends the Saudis are pumping oil like there’s no tomorrow — a nasty little ploy to destroy the U.S.’s young fracking industry.
They’re succeeding. I believe they’ll seriously hurt themselves also. I’m praying. They’re not my favorite family.
I can’t imagine that the merger of Dow and Dupont (DD) has any chance of succeeding. Since the announcement, both stocks have fallen sharply. My guess is they’ll fall farther. Big mergers that big simply don’t work. They fail because no one is motivated to make them succeed. All the senior executives have received their bonuses. You get the message.
Russia’s central bank interest rate is 11%. That’s a place not to be — unless you enjoy watching your rubles fall inexorably, day by day in value.
Emerging countries are de-emerging, if I can coin a new word.
Overseas is cheap to travel to — for tourism, not for investing.
I get emails. Today’s favorite:
Buy Macys and Wal-mart. But the shoppers are choosing Kohl’s. What am I missing? From MarketWatch:
Macy’s (M) has slumped 43% this year, Wal-Mart’s (WMT) down 31% and even a broad play like the S&P retail ETF (XRT) is off 7.8%.
But the take over at Nomura is basically: buy ‘em.
The bank’s analysts that track retailers have a neutral view on the struggling sector, but they’ve offered up four stocks to buy, even though the consensus on those names is to run from them.
The four retailers Nomura is recommending: Amazon, Costco, Macys and Wal-mart (bot Kohl’s.)
Wall Street’s latest enthusiasm “bottom fishing.” Good idea if we’ve reached bottom. But many classes of stocks simply haven’t, including REITs (like NLY and AGNC) and psuedo -REITs (like LADR) and anything to do with energy, commodities or metals. Which brings us to:
What’s happening in iron ore: From Bloomberg:
Read the full story here.
The joy of disposal.
It may be a wonderful. But if I haven’t used or worn it in the last year, out it goes. Junking stuff is cathartic.
The 50 Most Beautiful Places in the world, including Cappadocia, Turkey:
Burma (now called Myanmar).
And Namibia, Africa
For the 47 more beautiful places courtesy Conde Nast Traveler, click here.
New books
+ A bookseller conducting a market survey asked a woman – “Which book has helped you most in your life?”
The woman replied – “My husband’s check book!!”
+ A prospective husband in a bookstore “Do you have a book called, ‘Husband – the Master of the House?’
Salesgirl: “Sir, Fiction and Comics are on the 1st floor!”
+ Someone asked an old man: “Even after 70 years, you still call your wife Darling, Honey, Luv. What’s the secret ?
I forgot her name and I’m too scared to ask.
Harry Newton who has an idea: Down days, like today, are excellent for day trading. Pick your favorite heavily-traded, but relatively stable stock. Buy 100 on a dip. Sell it in 15 minutes when it rises 10 cents. Do it a few times. You won’t make anything significant. But you’ll get the hang. Maybe learn a new skill?
Have a great weekend. Throw out stuff. We just threw an entire dumpster. Great for the soul.
Overseas travel destinations should be chosen very carefully these days…we have done it a lot to escape our Arizona summer heat. Yesterday we bought a mountain cottage near Payson, Arizona to travel to. Only a hour and a half drive and not one Saguaro or pine tree wearing a burka! Cool summers.
I love Payson and summer there too. Message me for info.
It will be nice to touch base…please have Harry pass me your email address. Lucky
Harry, re day trading: what’s your site recommendation for tracking? For trading?
All of them will work so long as you’re using their dedicated systems, not working through a browser. I’m told Interactive Brokers is cheap and fast. I use Fidelity. You can get lots of free trades out of all of them — if you ask.