Stock Market Video
A Different Take on the Marriage Industry
Common Sense Ain’t Common
In Case You Missed It
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In this week’s Stock Market Video, Paul Goodwin, editor of Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report, sees markets in a holding pattern that isn’t likely to break until we get a convincing resolution of the European debt crisis.
Paul talks about the importance of having the market on your side in growth investing. To illustrate the dangers of this market, he shows the big corrections in Chipotle Mexican Grille (CMG), Lululemon (LULU), Under Armour (UA), SourceFire (FIRE) and Monster Beverage (MNST).
On the positive side, Paul says China Mobile (CHL) and Coca-Cola FEMSA (KOF) and several housing stocks--Lennar (LEN), Pulte (PHM) and Toll Brothers (TOL)--are holding up well as the sector rebounds. Click below to watch the video!
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For many of you, this is almost a holiday week, as many Americans are using the opportunity created by the July 4th holiday on Wednesday (worst possible day!) to take some time off. So I’m taking the opportunity to publish a favorite piece of silliness.
In the days before computers, e-mail, printers and Xerox machines, there were still humorous pieces that circulated through the business offices of America. They were typed, and many of them were fuzzy because they were produced at the back of a stack of copies made with carbon paper. They weren’t really much higher in quality than the stuff that makes the rounds of the globe by e-mail, but they were a lot more trouble to produce, which meant that there were fewer of them. Scarcity produces value.
I still have a collection of those old “pass-it-on” pieces, and in honor of June, the month of brides (and bridezillas) I want to share one with you. This is from the early 1960s, when JFK was still president. I collected it when it was published in my hometown newspaper, the Medford (Oregon) Mail Tribune.
I clipped it out and I’m reproducing it here because I’ve always liked it and don’t want it to fade away like the yellowed piece of newsprint that I’ve kept for so long. I think it’s a useful corrective to the towering ego-trips of many young women on “their day.” With any luck, someone will put it on the Web and it will last forever. All the place names are in Oregon.
(If you need an investment rationale, you can remind yourself that June is a traditional month for marriages and that with over two million weddings that cost an average of $27,000 each, this is a major industry. )
Groom Simply Stunning In Peachy-Keen Outfit
GRANTS PASS (AP) Bob Grant, publisher of the Illinois Valley News, published his version of a wedding after the expected information failed to reach him.
He collaborated with Don Rosenberg of Cave Junction, father of the bridegroom and came up with the following version of the Gibbons-Rosenberg wedding in Cave Junction:
“Leland was beautiful in a black suit of wool with matching lapel pressed down sharply against the chest. Peering out of the left breast pocket were four tips of a cleverly folded white linen handkerchief while on the left lapel, quaintly held by placing the stem through an unused buttonhole and securing it with a small silver hat pin, was a white carnation.
“He wore a shirt of white nylon, severely plain, which was held together at the front by little buttons of plastic. Around his neck and under the shirt collar was a tie of black jersey, knotted carefully in decorative style, and held to the shirt front with a clamping device of gold plated brass. The cuffs of the shirt sleeves were closed with links of the same plated metal.
“On his left wrist he wore a mercury battery-powered watch, a Christmas gift from his father, that was held in place with a metal band. His trousers, of simple pleated design, matched the coat and were supported by a belt of black goatskin. His shoes, of black horsehide, covered socks of some dark material and were fastened with a bow.
“He wore no hat and had his hair combed back and then forward from the forehead in a slight wave with no visible means holding it in position.
“The bride wore the customary white.”
[If you’re serious about trying to cash in on the marriage biz, you might take a look at XO Group (XOXO), the company that runs TheKnot.com, which caters to the wants and needs of brides to be. The company also runs a bridal registry and publishes magazines for those getting married and those having babies. From 2002 through 2006, XOXO was a very hot item. It fell off the dock in 2007 and 2008, and has been hacking around since then. Cute company name and symbol, though.]
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Here’s this week’s Contrary Opinion Button. Remember, you can always view all of the buttons by clicking here.
Common Sense Ain’t Common
Popularized by Will Rogers, whose humorous wisdom resonated with the common man. It reminds us that real common sense comes from thinking differently from the common man at times of mass irrationality.
When the common man believed Internet stocks would go to the moon in 2000 … when he believed Bernie Madoff was a genius … and when he believed in late 2008 that America’s financial system might actually fail … at all those times, he lost his common sense because his thoughts melded with those of the irrational crowd … and he paid the price.
[Editor’s Note: And speaking of common sense, with the July 4th holiday coming up on Wednesday, I’d also note that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, which was published in 1776 and sold 500,000 copies in its first year, was also uncommonly eloquent in its plea for American independence.]
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In case you didn’t get a chance to read all the issues of Cabot Wealth Advisory this week and want to catch up on any investing and stock tips you might have missed, there are links below to each issue.
Cabot Wealth Advisory 6/25/12 – Balancing Stock Risk and Return
In this issue, Lou Gagliardi, editor of Cabot Global Energy Investor, discusses the art of balancing risk and return in investing and the importance of finding companies with strong balance sheets. Featured stock: Suncor Energy (SU).
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Cabot Wealth Advisory 6/28/12 – Doubling Down for Gains in Turbulent Markets
Value investing guru Roy Ward, editor of Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter, reminds readers that a decline in the price of a value stock can be a great opportunity to increase the size of your position. Featured stock: Deere & Co. (DE).
Have a great weekend,
Paul Goodwin
Editor, Cabot Wealth Advisory
Editor’s Note: Do you want to turn your portfolio into a non-stop, cash-generating machine that pumps big, fat, juicy dividends straight into your bank account?
You can, but you need to do it NOW, while stocks are cheap, and fear is rampant.
