Prohibition On Short selling

"Under the plan, a stock that closes down more than 20 percent would be protected from short sellers for the following three days"


This is a total joke!

U.S. Exchanges Said to Seek Targeted Prohibition on Short Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Total ban on short selling.

The state of the market requires much deeper attention and intervention then previously thought.
If the major indices close lower for the sixth consecutive day, I would expect the SEC and other major market regulators to make a coordinated decision  banning short selling for a fair period of time.
I expect that major market players will be informed prior to this worldwide coordinated decision.

SEC Opens Early Inquiry Into UAL Glitch

WSJ.com

This a good news for Monday, hope it will lead to some clarity;

One thing is for sure this news will lend a much needed helping hand to the  market.

United Airlines bankruptcy rumor, profiteering or not?

Although options activity on UAUA looks extremely legitimate.  Its doubtful that no one profiteered from the release of the 6 year old article on United Airlines, which led to UAUA loosing 75% of it value in a mater of minutes.
However and even if it was a human or computer error, The incident should be investigated thoroughly to prevent any long lasting dents to market confidence.

Back in Bull territory?

It took a run on the banks alert After IndyMac, Who's Next? to trigger the wake-up call;  suddenly, after the feds reassurance, sentiments switched, cash started pouring into the stock market. 

From the surface It looks as if it may be the turning point, however the stock market will not in my opinion go back to Bull territory until we get some good data from the housing market, Thursday July 24 Existing Home Sales, and Friday July 25 New Home Sales may provide an insight, surely fear of  bank liquidity problems will create short term safe haven in the stock market, this is what we witnessed late last week.

A full fledged recovery will happen once the following three conditions are met: 1- Fear that banks will continue to have liquidity problems (already established). 2- Belief that the stock market will stay in bear territory and the bottom is yet to be reached (yet to happen). 3- Belief that the commodity boom is over and that commodity prices have settled into range (yet to happen).  The above conditions once met will create safe haven in properties, then the property and the stock markets would have bottomed and we will be back in Bull territory.

Apple's new iPhone = the enterprise iPhone.

Its clear that Jobs wants a big share of the corporate IT spending, its also clear that he is betting that the "halo effect" of the iphone is going to catch up with the enterprise. 

Most of the new iphone features and supporting application introduced in the wwdc 2008 keynote s are geared towards the enterprise. Surely, with all those features and at that price, the iphone is a great productivity tool that will benefit any business big or small.

Whilst its nice to see aapl focusing on the enterprise and probably scoring in that area, there is growing evidence  that this new focus is driving away attention from consumer products. 

le passé parfait

Did Apple kill the iphone too soon? will soon know if the new phone will be as much a success as the i-phone, it probably will. However, regardless the success of the new phone, it seems that aapl killed the i-phone too early. Surely long before the lucrative maturity stage of the product life-cycle.

Instead of upgrading the existing i-phone with a faster processor and perhaps a better camera or other features, while still releasing the new phone, aapl chose to terminate the old i-phone completely.

The reason for this is still not fully known but it could be because AT&T has an exclusive deal to sell the i-phone in the United States which appl wants to renegotiate. It could also be that the i-phone has a few technical problems with battery-life  or other screen related issue that may surface over time.

What ever the reason for the early elimination of the i-phone, one can only feel regret that the life of such an innovative and successful product ended so abruptly. I advise all current i-phone owners to protect their old phone, treat it nicely, it may become a very valuable piece of "le passé parfait".

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. "BF"

Guarded behind wide thick walls of strong culture, pride, fulfillment, and fear of failure.

Is the only computer company in the US with a bright promising future. 

Unfortunately "secrecy" like it or not,  is Apple's secret of success.

aapl, hpq, dell

A question of computers

Who is winning computer market share Apple Dell or HP. Seems for now that:

aapl is # 1 

hpq is # 2

dell is # 3 

Although dell introduced many new XPS series computers and the all-in-one desktop, yet this has not reflected in increased desktop sales.

For now its seems a pure laptop play for both dell and hpq, while desktop market share goes to the likes of aapl and asustek.

Is oil waiting for the market to crash?

Or is the market waiting for oil to crash? 

Anyway you look at it, the least damaging scenario is that oil will stabilize around current levels. and the market will not crash. 

Until someone somewhere shows the blueprint  of a truly  feasible renewable energy alternative. Solars,  PVs, Solar thermal,  look good but storage and efficiency need billions of improvements. 

Who is pouring enough dollars on improving efficiency of solar power systems, PVs as well as alternative methods in energy or electricity storage? 

Is google the answer? not yet because they are only investing tens of millions on an industry that needs tens of billions.

But google could be the answer, they should test the grounds by saying they may increase their planned  investment in renewables to a billion dollars and are open for discussions with other big investors who want to join forces.

Citi denies Pandit talking crisis management with H-P’s Hurd

Citi denies Pandit talking crisis management with H-P’s Hurd - Financial Week

Citi's crisis management

The way Citi's management is handling things is most disturbing, I doubt if shedding assets "that they call non core" in this environment is the right decision.  UBS for example is resorting to a different strategy, a rights issue at a 31 percent discount below the current share price.  Citi share price will test its 52 week low sooner or later, however the sooner they get out of all this mess the better, selling those assets at or near their book value may take years. This will surely lure big long term investors away. 

A sunless day on the street?

Another gloomy day? 

Probably. 

Let's invest in crude oil, even at this level in my opinion oil is still cheap.

Let's do renewable energy especially solar. Their our only hope for a prosperous future.

Let's invest in a car maker that has the guts to say no more SUV's. "if you find one of them please tell me"

Let's not invest in huge companies who continue to devour smaller more complaisant ones

Let's not invest in businesses who say they are masters in cost savings; As their customers are bound to flee.

Let's not bring back coal. It should have been dead a long time ago.

Let's steer away from banks until they decipher the word corruption.

How well will Dell report.

Dell will be reporting after hours May 29th. Overseas sales percentage will be the crucial criteria in this report. Due to stagnant US sales, investors will be looking at how well it has handled its long overdue expansion in the global economy.

From previous company reports it seems that contrary to hpq which generated more then 70% of its revenue from overseas and aapl  which is gaining market share in the US. Dell has not delivered in terms of overseas revenue growth. Dell's overseas revenue percentage has yet to top the  50% mark. Raising a lot of question marks about how well it has adapted its culture to a business where growth, survival and globalization are now synonyms.

Apple's continued onslaught on the PC

Feeling the crunch on PC sales due partly to Apple's continued success and "Halo" effect from the iPod and the iPhone.

HP is going after IBM's large clients where it will eventually have more space to compete, and possibly recover lost revenue. HP will most probably be reporting below expectation on Thursday and is betting that its new acquisition will reassure investors of better times to come.

Dell the major looser to Apple in terms of market share is still to declare any clear strategy to overcome dwindling PC sales. 

New rules in the Middle East.

Surrendering to Hizballah - TIME

Lebanese government concedes to the demands of Hezbollah.

Iran sends the strongest message to the US. Your Mideast allies are too weak!!

But we are not flipping the table YET!

Hezbollah gunmen start withdrawl from Beirut

Robert Fisk: Hizbollah rules west Beirut in Iran's proxy war with US

Oil set to rise to near $130

Oil is set to rise as high as $130 on news Hezbolah has taken control of Beirut.

After a huge decline yesterday

Indexes will be up before the bell loosing steam fairly quickly. Financials will weigh  the market down after a fairly modest start . Automakers will also weigh after Toyota reporting. And technology will follow. 

Bears will win the day inflation giving them the upper hand.

Personally I am holding on my hedged put 25 on C unless something major happens, which I doubt.

My naked put 19 on Dell will have to wait a few more days.