May 2013
14 posts
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The Unimportance of Practically Everything
Just think of Warren Buffett’s philosophy, quoted by Mary Buffett and David Clark in The Tao of Warren Buffett, “You only have to do a few things right in your life, so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” The authors continue, “Warren decided early in his career it would be impossible for him to make hundreds of right investment decisions, so he decided that...
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How Apple Is Losing Mobile
Like many others, I rushed out to buy the first iPhone when it was launched in 2007. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen: A phone that could seemingly do anything.
I was living in Kiev, Ukraine at the time and the iPhone craze was especially palpable there. None of the GSM operators were authorized to sell iPhones so every unit in the country was, by necessity, jailbroken. There was a shop on...
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Modern Society means a Petroleum Society
A partial list of products made from Petroleum (144 of 6000 items) One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make things like:
Solvents
Diesel fuel
Motor Oil
Bearing Grease
Ink
Floor Wax
Ballpoint Pens
Football Cleats
Upholstery
Sweaters
Boats
Insecticides
Bicycle Tires
Sports Car Bodies
Nail Polish
Fishing lures
Dresses
Tires...
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Petroleum in Everyday Life
The many faces of petroleum
Most people associate petroleum with fuel to power cars, airplanes and other forms of transportation that use internal combustion engines. But it’s a multifaceted material that is used to make products for use in everything from agriculture to medicine to textiles to electronics.
Plastics: Because plastic is made from petroleum, you’ll find it practically everywhere –...
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Twenty Dividend Stocks I Recently Purchased for my...
*** This is an article from the Dividend Growth Investor blog. Tough to see such high fundamental evaluations due to the low-interest rate environment. Some financial parameters of these growth-and-income stocks exceed that of even growth or momentum stocks. It will be interesting to see when QE from the Fed eases, what will happen to the multiples and thereby stock prices.
As I mentioned in an...
April 2013
8 posts
10 tags
Infographic: If Google Fiber Went Worldwide
Google GOOG -0.96% is bringing its super-fast broadband network Fiber to three big cities in the United States so far: Kansas City, Austin and Provo, Utah. That’s sparked much discussion about where it might go next.
The smart money is on Google picking a few more big cities in the United States and leaving it at that. If it launches somewhere big like Dallas or San Francisco, ISPs like...
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GE continues the strengthening of their oil/gas...
This week, perennial industrial conglomerate General Electric announced that it would acquire Lufkin Industries (LUFK) for $88.50 per share, or roughly $3+ billion. What Lufkin adds to GE is the artificial life technologies used in the oil/gas exploration industry that makes upstreaming more efficient from existing wells. GE already competes in this arena, but will now have further technology to...
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After Years of Growth, Banks Are Pruning Their...
Adam Bird for The Wall Street Journal
Dave Enders bought this building that formerly housed a bank branch.
ATHENS, Mich.—Michael Alverson, who holds the office of president in this southern Michigan village, takes a certain pride in living in what he calls a “full-service” community.
“We have a doctor, a vet, a grocery store, a place where you can get your hair cut and a...
March 2013
10 posts
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Google at $1000 - The Big Lesson For Innovators...
There’s speculation out there that Google’s share price could go to $1,000 by next year. Yes, we can still hear the echo of analysts who said Apple would climb to $1600. Strange thing is, they are both right. Apple should have kept on climbing. Four figures for Google is not being over-optimistic.
The question is how did this ramshackle collection of activities called Google gain the trust of...
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Spring Cleaning My Income Portfolio, Part II
Thursday, March 28, 2013
As part of my dividend strategy, I invest in companies that grow distributions every year. I do like to see companies whose dividend growth at least matches the rate of inflation. For such companies, the yield better be much higher than my minimum requirement of 2.50% however. Otherwise, allocating funds to these securities might not be the most optimal allocation of my...
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How to invest when the market is at all time...
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
With the market at all-time highs, many quality income stocks are getting close to being overvalued. As a result, many investors are tempted to postpone new purchases until there is some sort of a correction. While many household names like Coca-Cola (KO) are fully valued at the moment however, there are many othe companies which are trading at attractive valuations....
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4 stocks to buy for the next three decades...
(Reuters) - Time for a pop quiz: If you had to pick one stock to buy and hold for the next 30 years, what would it be?
Okay, pencils down. Not so easy, is it? After all, when you are thinking about 2043, you are not just evaluating metrics such as current price-earnings ratios or 52-week trading ranges. You have to ponder whether a company is even going to exist in three decades’ time.
And...
8 Infrastructure Stock Picks for the US build-up
UBS Offers Eight Stocks to Buy That Will Lead the Infrastructure Build Out (ACM, FLR, FWLT, JEC, PWR, TPC, URS, WG)
After spending almost a trillion dollars in stimulus money following the market meltdown and Great Recession that started in 2008, the American taxpayer did not get a whole lot for their money. Many people felt at the time that any stimulus money should be directed at fixing and...
8 Companies for the Next Stage of the Bull Market
UBS Stock Picks for the Next Stage of the Bull Market (CBS, TSO, NBL, VLO, APC, PKI, UPS, JDSU)
Typically in the investing world, if everybody expects an event, the opposite happens. In March of 2009 after a brutal sell-off had knocked the S&P 500 down almost 60% from its 2007 high, there was still a vocal group of bears saying it was going lower. Among them was noted PIMCO founder Bill...
UBS picks 8 stocks to buy now...
UBS Picks the Eight Top Stocks to Buy Now
Read more: UBS Picks the Eight Top Stocks to Buy Now (F, HD, SBUX, GILD, MCK, MYL, CMI, LLTC) - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/03/12/ubs-picks-the-eight-top-stocks-to-buy-now-f-hd-sbux-gild-mck-myl-cmi-lltc/#ixzz2Nj2lC8gz
For anybody that has missed the big stock market rally, it can be very disheartening to watch as anchors on every business...
February 2013
10 posts
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Amazing Brand. Amazing Product.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as the best-known brand in the world. On May 8, 2011, Coca-Cola celebrated its 125thanniversary. Created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, by Dr. John S. Pemberton, Coca-Cola was first offered as a fountain beverage at Jacob’s Pharmacy by mixing Coca-Cola syrup with carbonated water. Coca-Cola was...
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Chevron: The World's Biggest Gusher
Forbes 2/13/2013 @ 12:00PM |28,824 views
http://blogs.forbes.com/christopherhelman/
Chevron is unloved by investors and by the residents of its home base. No matter: John Watson has built a cash laden profit machine that’s poised for the greatest growth gusher in the history of Big Oil.
John Watson is an odd fit for an oilman. For one thing, he’s a Californian in an industry dominated by...
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Qualcomm wins no matter which Smartphone you...
February 19, 2013, 10:22 P.M. ET QCOM: Bernstein Sees Upside as China 3G Hits ‘Inflection Point’
By Tiernan Ray
Bernstein Research’s Stacy Rasgon today reiterated an Outperform rating on shares of wireless chip maker Qualcomm (QCOM), and an price target, writing that China may have reached an “inflection point” in its shift of subscribers on older technology, dubbed “2G” to the newer technology...
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Oil/Gas Refiners on fire YTD 2013
Valero is just the latest of oil/gas refinery companies enjoying strong stock performance since the beginning of 2013. With the recent creation of Marathon Petroleum and Phillips 76 from the mother-ship of Marathon Oil and Conoco-Phillips, refiners are enjoying margin increases due to the recent domestic oil surge in our own US backyard of the Shale regions.
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Another Analyst touting Cigarette Juggernaut...
Morningstar DividendInvestor
Philip Morris International PM Analyst Note 02-07-2013 | Thomas Mullarkey, CFA
Philip Morris International’s PM full-year 2012 results show that the company remains a wide-moat juggernaut. The firm, which distributes tobacco products in more than 180 countries, grew its global cigarette shipments by 1.3% despite continued weakness in Europe (where it derives 30% of...
Amazon unpacked - FT.com →
The online giant is creating thousands of UK jobs, so why are some employees less than happy?
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Hammer says to load-up on Onyx
Onyx – A “must own” biotech for 2013
After a great 2012, Onyx (ONXX) is well positioned as one of the few remaining commercial stage biotech companies with a diverse oncology pipeline. The company has 4 assets: Nexavar (co marketing agreement with Bayer), Kyprolis (wholly owned in US +EU), Stivarga (20% royalties from Bayer), PD-0332991 (~7.5% royalties from Pfizer).
Market attention is...
January 2013
55 posts
12 tags
DJIA 14,000 Still Offers More Big Upside for...
January 30, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg
Source: flickr / kkielly
January has been one great month for equity investors. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 6.5% and challenging 14,000 again, and the S&P up more than 5.5% back above 1,500, investors have to be wondering what more they should expect in 2013. Will the DJIA retake a new all-time high, one not seen since 2007? Our take is that...
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Some New York City Restaurants Ban Food...
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — If you’re one of the thousands of people who snap pictures of your food and instantly share them on social media, you might be surprised to learn that some restaurants are now banning photos of their food.
As CBS 2’s Emily Smith reported Monday, you see it all the time – not art or fancy photography, just cell phone pictures of our meals.
“I think, inherently, New...
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