April 2008

I know, you see the title of this blog and think, oh no, not another China story. Yes, it is! Yes, China is all the rage in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics but there is MUCH more to this China story than the Olympics. It's called oil and China's demand is growing so precipitously that it may threaten our long-term national security and the price we pay at the pump. This morning Mitch ... read more

Did you know that today is Equal Pay Day and that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, women make 77 cents for every $1 a man makes? This morning I interviewed Benita Fitzgerald Mosely, the CEO & President of Women in Cable Telecommunications. WICT conducts a survey annually called the PAR Initiative, which stands for Pay Equity, Advancement Opportunities and Resources for Work/Life Support. ... read more

Will the way we look at financials change in the future? Should they be evaluated in a different light given the current environment? Reading Citigroup’s press release at 6:30 a.m. and being able to analyze it a half hour later is VERY HARD. Especially if you have to analyze the numbers before the conference call with the CEO and CFO begins! The press release is about 13 pages long and the ... read more

Where should you invest your money in this environment? Stocks or Bonds? This morning we took two guests, Neil Hennessy, President of Hennessy Funds who prefers stocks and Joe Balestrino, senior vice president of Federated who prefers bonds. It was a great debate! One guest called for a 800 to 1,000 point gain in the Dow in one day!!!! Guess who? Take a look. read more

Citi announced a total of $15.2 billion in writedowns and credit losses. It breaks down in the following way. A loss of $6 billion in pre-tax dollars for write downs and credit costs on subprime exposure. Their total exposure in October of last year was $53 billion and is now down to $29.1 billion. Roughly $16.8 billion of that is in asset backed paper with a very good remittance performance. They ... read more

Remember that book that I told you I was reading over vacation -- The Appeal by John Grisham? The story about a cancer cluster caused by a plant that was dumping toxic waste in the ground and throughout the water system? The class action suit filed against a publicly-traded company? This morning, I interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio, both very well known lawyers. Kennedy, a ... read more

Another insane day in the markets with big names like Merrill, Pfizer, Marriott, Southwest, IBM and Comerica reporting earnings. Just to name a few. Stocks, not sectors, are starting to become polarizing. Some companies are easily exceeding expectations and some are truly disappointing. If you want to win in the long run, you need to invest in what you know and study the company. This ... read more

If you had an opportunity to watch the show this morning, you may have heard me mention that I came down to Washington, D.C. last night for Radio and Television Correspondents Association. It occurs once a year at the Washington Hilton where a 1,000 people, predominantly journalists, convene to give out awards to colleagues and watch the president, vice president or senior cabinet members roast ... read more

If you get a chance to watch my show The Opening Bell at 9AM on Fox Business, you'll see that I have a new guest host each week in a position we call "In Our Corner". This week, Kathy Lien from DailyFX.com is in our corner. And she is one smart cookie. On Monday, she pointed out what percentage of Johnson & Johnson earnings were due to currency conversions (i.e. the weak dollar). I asked her ... read more

Every once in a while, I'll hear a story that gets my blood boiling. Did I say every once in a while? :) If you know me, you know I'm passionate about a lot of things... but this story in particular makes me crazy! Have you heard about this new product -- Blow Energy Drink Mix? It comes as a white powder in resealable vials meant to look like cocaine. The packaging contains a mirror and credit ... read more