The roses smell wonderful. But things are looking very squirrely. Take some profits. Watch those stops. I like high dividend stocks, gold, and SWZ. Straight industrials have had a nice run…I suspect you’ll be able to get back in cheaper — perhaps in the Fall.
Goldman Sachs’ problem and “solution”: First the problem:
Second, the “solution.” A full page ad in yesterday’s New York Times to buy mutual funds from Goldman.
Please don’t. They do a great job managing money for themselves and a lousy job managing it for the likes of you and me.
Please visit New York now. The weather is stupendous. Blue skies. Cool. No humidity. Glorious. Items:
Columbus Circle yesterday shot from Room 908 in the Trump International Hotel — only $900 a night. But who’s counting?
There is mega-money around. It’s in two forms:
1. IPOs (e.g. Yandex, LinkedIn, some Chinese deals and soon Groupon, ) Note Groupon’s strong growth and lousy earnings.
Groupon will be a “sliver” IPO. Only a small number of shares will be offered to the public. Oops, did I say public. I meant institutions. You and I won’t get any. I studied Groupon’s business. I don’t believe it has the long-term fundamentals of a Google or an Amazon. I have yet to bid on one Groupon deal, yet I get daily offers.
2. Venture capital and investment banking. I’m seeing several a week. Some great. All heavy on the optimism. Which is nice. No shortage of investor money. Money is pouring into all sorts of new ventures, especially those with a modicum of interesting technology. I wish they’d notch their language (and their epithets) down. Sample:
Mission:
Develop profitable and sustainable commercial applications for the XXXX Technology through a strategic, market-driven plan and continuous process improvement. The Company will utilize a combination of organic growth and downstream development partnerships to achieve commercial success in XXXX Technology application markets.
Birds. Everyone’s getting into them, including me. Items:
+ Chris Mayne is the best bird photographer. Here’s his barn owl.
He puts out a Birds of the Week Newsletter.
It’s free. Subscribe here.
+ The best bird app for the iPhone is iBird Pro. Click here.
It is unreal. Every bird in North America described in a myriad of ways with photos and drawings. My favorite are the bird sounds. Here’s what the birders do. They see a bird. They find it in iBird Pro on their iPod. They play the bird’s call. It comes closer. Bingo a great photo. Whoever knew you could use an iPhone to talk to birds. Be careful, though. some birds (like owls) are very territorial. When they hear an interloper (i.e. your iPhone), they’ll divebomb you. Professional birders wear hard hats when they play owl sounds. I don’t make this stuff up.
Canada geese (I think) family eating in Central Park yesterday. They were so close a six-year old asked me if she could pet them.
Photo with my iPhone4.
The French Open 2011 ends this weekend with great matches. This schedule is only a guide. Everything changes. If it’s wrong, surf between The tennis Channel, ESPN2 and NBC. I’m watching Nadal playing Murray as I write this column. Nadal is, predictably, winning.
Harry Newton who is looking forward to a great weekend of playing and watching tennis and lots of reading.
Federer in 4 today. Too bad the wind will put a damper in the match today. As I'm sure you know Harry, there is nothing worse than playing in the wind. Should be a great match! and better than watching the market today…
Did I hear “birds?”