Close Attention To Detail

11/19/05 Close Attention To Detail

Speaking to our troops at Osan Air Base in Korea, Bush stated "We don't know the course our own struggle will take, or the sacrifices that might lie ahead. We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice." Staying the course for freedom is the battle cry. Had you been in Congress, would you have voted to invade Iraq to fight for Iraqi freedom? Just an aside, remember the Korean war? We have 30,000 active duty personnel in Korea.

Medicaid provides health care for one-in-six Americans.

Yesterday, both the S&P and the Nasdaq closed at 4-year highs. A 6.3% gain for GM helped to power the market.

China will purchase 150 Boeing 737s and Kingfisher, the Indian airline, will buy 30 Airbus A320s.

Crude closed down 2% on the week to $56.14 a barrel and natural gas declined almost 30 cents on the week to $11.414 per million BTUs.

An estimated 17 million adults ages 18 and older (8.0 percent) reported having experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported today. Around two thirds of them reported receiving treatment for that depression in the past year, according to the new report, "Depression among Adults."

Ford will cut 4,000 salaried jobs next quarter. Shortly, GM will announce the closing of several plants as well as the cutting of about 25,000 workers. The company has too many plants and too many models. GM cannot regain profitability in its North American operations while providing offerings with little demand.

The ECB indicated that, on Dec. 1, it would raise interest rates for the first time in five years.

Doug Noland: "The Federal Reserve’s responsibility “for maintaining financial stability” must begin long before there is an $800 billion Current Account Deficit, $3.6 Trillion of “repos,” $270 Trillion of derivative contracts, a too powerful Mortgage Finance Bubble, all-encompassing leveraged speculation and a terribly distorted Bubble Economy. Financial stability is a daily and ongoing discipline – an uncompromising commitment to broad-based financial and economic soundness, stability and sustainability, not some theoretical post-Bubble “mop-up” strategy."

The use of privately-traded derivatives reached a record in the first half of this year with the notional amount of outstanding trades worth $270,000bn, the Bank for International Settlements said on Thursday.

TheDeal.com noted that "the investment banks running the auction for Albertson's are trying to push a Dec. 7 deadline for final bids."

This is still a stockpicker's market. Most homebuilding stocks have declined at least 10-20% from their all-time highs. Beazer Homes made a new all-time high on Friday. It was my favorite homebuilder in 1998. I was patient and held the stock for five years. I was rewarded with a gain of five times my original investment. I left a great deal of money on the table. Since I sold my shares, the stock doubled again. My decision to sell was simply to lock in my profits. The fact is the company's stock has been a good value from 1998 to the present.

Francis Bacon: "It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment."

No Worries-- Be Happy

11/18/05 No Worries-- Be Happy


The price of homes sold in the Bay Area dropped in October for the second month in a row as a result of higher interest rates and reduced demand, a report said Thursday. The median price for the region was $614,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems, down about 8 percent from August's median of $619,000. October's price is up 17.2 percent, however, from the year before. A total of 10,508 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the region in October. That is 6 percent lower than last October, continuing a seven-month string of declines in year-to-year comparisons, and down about 19 percent from July. In the first 10 months of this year, there have been 5.1 percent fewer homes sold than in 2004.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $2,815 in October. That was up from $2,722 in September. A year ago it was $2,419.

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told employees Thursday that the company has no intention of filing for bankruptcy protection and that outside speculation surrounding the matter is "just plain wrong.""I'd like to just set the record straight here and now: There is absolutely no plan, strategy or intention for GM to file for bankruptcy," Wagoner wrote in a column posted on an internal employee website.
After selling down to $20.60, GM stock closed up $2 from that multi-decade low. In my view, GM offers unusual risk/reward potential. GM should soon announce a restructuring of its North American operations.

Gold hit a 18-year high at $486.90. If inflation does not pose a concern and our financial stability is not in question, then why is gold knocking on the door of $500 an ounce? It was only a few years ago we discussed the wisdom of purchasing gold at $253 an ounce. Could the recent price rise be tied to the Fed's decision to cease publication of M3 monetary statistics in March 2006?

The Philly Fed Index feel unexpectedly to 11.5 in November from 17.3 in October. This news led to a rally in the treasury bond market. For bonds, bad news is good news. Stocks rallied with Google leading the way as it passed the $400 mark. Even though the Nasdaq is at a 4 1/2 year high, that index is till 55%+ below its highest level reached in 2000. Meanwhile, the Nikkei is nearing a 5-year high, and of course, it too is way below its highest mark reached years ago.

If you have idle cash lying around and don't pay large commissions, Georgia Pacific offers a nice return on your money. Ex- commissions, you make 74 cents a share between today and Dec. 15, the period when the tender is completed and you get paid $48 a share.

Not surprisingly, building permits declined 6.7% in October and housing starts dropped by 5.6%, the fewest number since March.

A total of 545,000 jobless claims have been filed for Katrina and Rita and 16,400 for Wilma. In the latest weekly reporting period, the number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits rose 3,000 to 2.79 million.

The WSJ reported that Cisco is close to buying Scientific Atlanta for $6.9 billion, $5.3 billion net of cash, or $43 a share.

Hughes Supply had a record quarterly operating cash flow of approximately $112 million, and an internal return on invested capital in the quarter exceeding 30%. Those are impressive results.

"Yesterday, oil more or less hit a bottom," said analyst Victor Shum of Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "The expectation now is that sustained cold weather in the U.S. Northeast is just a matter of time, and that's keeping crude from falling too low."

Yesterday, Bon-Ton Stores reported a disappointing quarter. Immediately, folks jumped to the conclusion that their purchase of the Saks Northern division stores was in trouble. That created a sharp drop in Saks shares but a much smaller decline for Bon-Ton. I think the sale is a win-win for both companies. I should mention that Kurt Barnard believes Bon-Ton can get on the right track. In addition, on Tuesday, Saks had mentioned that they had decided not to sell the Club Libby Lu operation. Shareholders need to keep it real. Club Libby Lu does $30 million in total sales. In other words, for Saks it's like a pimple on an elephant's ass. It is not sending a message as to the potential sale of Saks Fifth Ave.

Nationally, retailers expect to hire 520,000 people this year, comparable to last year, said National Retail Federation spokeswoman Ellen Tolley Davis.

Sol Palha: "Unfortunately real estate is no longer the stuff dreams are made off; instead it is the main ingredient of nightmares. Prices have shot to such levels that most people who go out and buy a house right now with all these creative financing options should seriously consider checking themselves into ward 12."

Chrysler is offering two years of free gasoline and scheduled maintenance.

Microsoft is morphing into an Internet advertising company coupled with Xbox360. We will see what Google, Yahoo, and Sony say about that.

Bush, in his final debate with Al Gore, stated "you need someone in office who will tell the truth." No worries--be happy. I want to puke. We have almost 2,100 killed and over 15,000 injured as a result of our invasion of Iraq. Bill Clinton initiated Desert Fox but he never started a war.

Chuck Hagel, a senior senator and Vietnam veteran: “The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonised for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticiZe policy is undermining our troops is not democracy, nor what this country has stood for over 200 years.”

A Cheney ally told Time magazine this week that “Cheney’s war is swallowing Bush’s presidency." Actually, Bush is quite effective in swallowing his own presidency. Our fighting men and women and the folks on Main Street are paying the price for his election and re-election.

Adrienne Rich : "Lying is done with words and also with silence."

Increases

11/17/05 Increases

Energy prices have climbed 29.5 percent over the past 12 months. Housing costs, which account for more than 40 percent of the consumer price index, rose 0.9 percent last month -- the largest gain since January 2001. Housing costs have jumped 3.9 percent over the past 12 months. It's easy to see why wages have not kept pace with the rising rate of inflation. The core rate of inflation is for the tooth fairy and not for us humans.

In September, net foreign purchases of long-term domestic securities were $118.1 billion, $4.3 billion of which were net purchases by foreign official institutions and $113.8 billion of which were net purchases by private investors. U.S. residents, meanwhile, bought a net $16.2 billion in foreign-issued securities.

The housing market index declined by 8 points from 68 to 60 in November, indicating a weaker but still healthy market. The index peaked at 72 in June.
It was the biggest one-month drop since October 2001.
All three components of the index fell in November: current sales of single family homes fell from 74 to 66, expected sales fell from 73 to 64 and buyers' traffic fell from 51 to 46.

Philadelphia-area consumers plan to increase their gift spending significantly this holiday season, according to the twentieth annual holiday survey of retail spending and trends commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. The survey -- which includes the Pennsylvania cities of Philadelphia, Allentown and Harrisburg, as well as Southern New Jersey and parts of Delaware and Maryland -- found that area shoppers plan to spend an average of $638 on gifts this holiday season -- up from $522 a year ago and above the national average of $604. Area consumers expect to spend one-quarter of their total budget via the Internet.

Gold jumped $10 an ounce and silver topped $8. Platinum and copper made another record high. Natural gas rose sharply by 6.6% and crude touched $58 a barrel. At the same time, the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds dropped to 4.48%.

Crude inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said. Gasoline inventories fell by 900,000 barrels, while distillate inventories, which include home heating oil, rose by 2.6 million barrels.

If you had a choice to buy all of GM or all of Avon, which company would you choose? The market cap for each is about $11.5 billion. Do you believe GM will file for bankruptcy? A three- month strike by UAW workers at Delphi could bankrupt GM, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a report. I don't believe that will occur. If I had $11.5 billion, I'd be more than happy to buy all the outstanding GM stock for that amount. As for Avon, I'm not into make-up.

Carl Jung: "The healthy man does not torture others--generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers."

Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff have been declaring themselves exempt from the travel disclosure laws followed by the rest of the White House, a Center for Public Integrity investigation released today found. The vice president's office appears to have stuck taxpayers with millions of dollars in travel costs and has avoided disclosing its expenses and destinations. The private sector routinely covers the travel expenses associated with government officials' appearances -- of which Cheney himself has made more than 275 since 2001 -- at think tanks, trade organizations and universities around the world. When the private sector picks up the tab, however, federal law requires that officials report where they went, how much it cost, and who paid. Yet since 2001, Cheney's office -- unlike Vice President Al Gore before him -- has claimed that it is not bound by the travel disclosure rules the rest of the White House complies with, the Center found. Letters from the vice president's counsel assert that the office is not "an agency" of the executive branch, but adds as "a matter of comity" that none of the staff has accepted travel payments from a non-federal source. Since the vice president's office engages in trips like any other government agency, its refusal of payment from the private sector defers the costs to taxpayers -- all while keeping the travel specifics concealed from public view.
If the vice president's position is not part of the executive branch, then maybe we can dispense with it.

Mahatma Gandhi: "You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind."

Did the U.S. use white phosphorus in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians at Fallujah? Who gave the order to use white phosphorus in the first place?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which surveyed 60,000 households nationwide, suggests that, for all Katrina evacuees who haven't returned home, 33.4 percent who are seeking jobs have yet to find them.

N.Y. Daily News: "At the moment, no one can have confidence in the Bush administration. Almost three years into the war, the world is not safer, the Middle East is less stable and Americans and others die for a mission that is not what it once was called: a fight for democracy. It would be nice, as well as important, to know how we got into this mess - nice for us, important for the President. It wasn't that he had the wrong facts. It was that the right ones didn't matter."


Average weekly earnings rose by 2.9 percent, seasonally adjusted, from October 2004 to October 2005. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.6 percent.

Marc Faber: "Since the formation of the US Federal Reserve Board in 1913, the US dollar has lost 92% of its purchasing power. This after the US dollar maintained its purchasing power between 1792, when the Mint Act was passed, and 1913, when the Fed was formed. Since 1980, US household wealth, driven by easy money and credit has risen from US dollar 7 trillion to US dollar 49.8 trillion while total credit market debt has exploded from 120% of GDP, in 1980, to now over 320% of GDP. The US has no other option but to print money. Otherwise their illusionary wealth collapses and drags down the economy in a deflationary apocalypse. So, Mr. Bernanke will print money."

Indications

11/16/05 Indications

About 25% of the total estimated December holiday (Christmas and Hanukah) gift market will be produced by the wealthiest 10% of U.S. households, despite a reduction of 1.6% in their spending to about $57 billion. Signaling the challenge retailers face in achieving the 5% increase in 2005 holiday gift sales projected by The National Retail Foundation and The International Council of Shopping Centers, these results were obtained from the recently completed "Affluent Market Tracking Study #8" by The American Affluence Research Center.

Charles Barkley: "I got pulled over when I was behind the wheel of a Porsche in Philly once for what we call DWB - Driving While Black."

The number of new online job ads fell to
2,002,600 in October, 36,000 less jobs being offered than in September,
according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM).
The September number was also down, declining 4.4 percent from August. In
October there were 1.34 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor
force, compared with 1.36 in September and 1.43 per 100 persons in the labor
force in August.
The number of new job ads declined from September in New England (down
5.6%) and the Middle Atlantic (down 5.8%) regions. The number of new online
job ads rose sharply in the West South Central region (up 19%), which includes
the states of Texas and Louisiana which were hard hit by the hurricanes and
are in the throes of rebuilding.
Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board, said: "The storms
and flooding, and now the rebuilding and dislocations in the Gulf Coast area
are taking place in a weakening national labor market. The September and
October job growth numbers outside this region are down from their recent
trend levels. Consumer confidence was also down in both months. Nonfarm
payroll employment barely moved in October (+56,000), substantially below the average of 200,000 jobs added monthly during the prior year, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the weak employment growth in October was not attributable to the areas directly affected by the hurricanes. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence survey shows that consumers are continuing to feel less optimistic about the job market, with more consumers saying jobs are 'hard to get' and more expressing worries that more jobs won't be available in the months ahead. A weakening national situation is not good news for the Gulf Coast area,"
said Goldstein. Some workers seem reluctant to move to an area where the
labor market was already weak. There are also fears that because a sizable
part of the Gulf Coast economy lacks economic diversity and is overly
dependent on tourism, overall business may not be robust even after rebuilding
efforts are complete."

Mike Shedlock: In bubble areas such as California, 28% of new mortgages in the first half of 2005 were subprime vs. 5% in 2000. 42% of first time buyers made no down payment on their home, and over a third devoted at least 33% of the incomes to mortgage payment."

Why does the housing market have to go through an orderly transition culminating in stability? Since when are cycles stable? If Moskow were to widen his field of vision, he might see alternatives that are not so pleasant.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Michael Moskow stated in talking about housing prices that nationwide "it's hard to imagine a significant
drop in overall prices."

Centex Corp. expects to report net earnings from continuing operations for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007 of $10.75 to
$11.25 a share. The homebuilder also reffirmed its 2006 forecast for net earnings from continuing operations of $9.65 to $9.85.

Groucho Marx: "A man's only as old as the woman he feels."

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. disclosed in its annual financial
report that as of Sept. 30, it had $56.5 billion in assets to cover
$79.2 billion in pension liabilities. Its probable exposure to under-funded
pension plans gre to $108 billion from $96 billion.

The purchase of an average- priced, new vehicle during the third quarter of 2005 took 26.2 weeks of median family income, according to the Auto Affordability Index compiled by Detroit- based Comerica Bank. The latest reading is up 1.5 weeks from the prior quarter, resulting in the worst reading for affordability in four years. Including finance charges, the total cost of buying an average-priced light vehicle was $27,958 in the second quarter, up 6 percent from a year ago.

On Tuesday crude closed under $57 a barrel, a 5-month low.

Hedge funds were down an average of 1.16% in October, according to the HedgeFund.net-PerTrac Universes. The top 25% of hedge funds gained an average of 0.50%, while the bottom 25% of hedge funds was down an average of 2.62% for the month. Short Bias sector funds, the month's top performing strategy, were up an average of 2.35% in October. By comparison, the S&P 500 was down 1.78% during the month. Through September, the year-to-date average gain for hedge funds was 4.81%. The top 25% of hedge funds gained 8.60% for the year-to-date, while the bottom 25% was up 0.55% over the same period. The S&P 500 is down 0.41% since the beginning of 2005.

Jay Leno: "President Bush said that he is worried that Iraq could be overrun by religious fundamentalists. Hey, if it's good enough for the Republican Party, it's good enough for Iraq."

Paul Kasriel: "Households spent a record annualized $531 billion more than they earned after taxes in the third quarter of 2005, continuing the trend of net household deficits that began in the late 1990s...Household spending accounts for 76% of GDP."

OPEC raised its forecast slightly for 2006 oil demand, seeing demand rising 1.8%, or 1.5 million barrels a day, to 84.8 million barrels of oil a day.

Kaiser Hospital purchased the 63 acre Albertsons distribution site in San Leandro, CA. In 2012, Kaiser will move its Hayward hospital to San Leandro.

China sold 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) of copper from its state reserves Wednesday in the country's first auction of copper reserves, a move aimed at meeting surging demand and countering record prices for the metal. China will sell off another 20,000 metric tons on Nov. 23.

Lyndon B. Johnson: " I may not know much, but I know the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad."

Guidance

111/15/05 Guidance

Wal-Mart: "We expect earnings per share for the fourth quarter to come in between $0.82 to $0.86, and for the year, our forecast is $ 2.64 to $2.68."

Consider this statement. Greenspan doesn't think the dollar will lose its status as a reserve currency. What would the purpose be for even raising this point? Maybe Greenspan realizes there is a ticking time bomb for the dollar.

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin announced Monday that he will leave his post by Dec. 30 to take a position with the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank. Can you blame him? The budget is a moving red ink target.

Platinum traded at a 26-year high.

H. Lee Scott Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, stated "even with the lingering impact of the hurricanes and the impact of higher energy prices, I believe we will have a good holiday season."

J&J and Guidant agreed to revised merger terms that drop the deal price to $63.08 from $76. Payment will be made in the first quarter of 2006 in cash and stock.

The average price for gas at the pump was $2.34 a gallon last week.

Over the past year I have written many times about Palatin Technologies. I have been asked why I would take the time to write about a $2+ stock. Recently, many inquired as to why I would not have sold after a 35-40% run up. Once again, I have stated repeatedly that this is a 3-5 year investment. I am not an investor because of Neutro Spec but rather PT-141 and its potential to combat male and female sexual dysfunction and, more importantly, its ability to regulate the control of weight. I strongly urge you to read the link from the
November 21 NY Magazine at http://www.newyorkmagazine.com/lifestyle/sex/annual/2005/15061/index.html

Henry K. To: " The total amount of short interest on the NYSE is still only at 2.5% of all outstanding shares on the NYSE - hardly a precursor to a general short squeeze."

Ma Liqiang, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's economic operating bureau, stated in comments published on Monday that China's industrial output rose 16.3 percent to 5.69 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of the year.

After the closing bell on Monday, Target stated its November sales at stores open at least one year would be below its forecast of a 4 percent to 6 percent increase. The warning comes after a third-quarter earnings report last week that gave a disappointing forecast for the current quarter. An investor might consider a switch from Target to Wal-Mart.

U.S. wholesale prices increased a greater-than-expected 0.7% in October as energy prices continued to rise; however, the core rate of the producer price index fell 0.3% in October, and that was mainly due to falling prices for autos, trucks, clothing and food. It was the largest decline in core prices in 30 months.
Since I didn't purchase an auto, a truck, or clothing, my core rate didn't decline. How was your core rate?

Surprise

11/14/05 Surprise

Would you be surprised to learn that last week the new 52-week lows amounted to 298 while new 52-week highs came in at 249?

For all the talk about the revaluation of the yuan, would you be surprised to learn the yuan's value has risen only 0.3%?

If the trade deficit with China is $162 billion this year and $200 billion next year, why no talk about the balance of the deficit that totals $500 to $600 billion?

With the dollar at a 2-year high, foreign purchases of our exports become more expensive, and that includes our U.S. debt. As our nation's debt explodes even further, the foreign appetite for our Treasury notes is declining. For example, according to Treasury dep't data, foreigners purchased 21% of $218 billion of 2-year notes, down from 31% in 2004 and 21% of $154 billion of 5-year notes, down from 30% in 2004. As for 10-year notes, foreigners purchased 14% of $79 billion worth, down from 21% in 2004. I wonder whether this picture has anything to do with the Federal Reserve announcing that, on 3/23/06, they will cease to publish the M-3 monetary aggregate numbers. Are they so over-worked that this release has become too taxing? Or do they wish to place a dark window on repurchase agreements and the like? Don't be surprised to find that the Fed is running scared. The printing presses will be running at a double-digit rate to make up for the declining demand on the part of foreigners for our government debt. It is only a matter of time until our dollar can be used for wallpaper.

Crude is holding slightly above $58 a barrel.

Wal-Mart met its third quarter estimates. Lowe's is estimating $3.37-$3.40 for 2005 with comp sales rising 5-6%.

The UK will pull out of Iraq in 2006.

Knight Ridder's board will consider the sale of the company.

I was surprised to read that Koch Industries, the nation's second largest private company, will tender for Georgia Pacific at $48 a share. The stock closed on Friday at $34+. The total purchase price is $13.2 billion plus the assumption of $7.8 billion in debt. The Street will be hunting for the next undervalued lumber company. They don't always grow on trees.

State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it is in talks with Sinopec, BP and Shell about building a joint-venture refinery with a daily crude processing capacity of 300,000 barrels in South China's Guangdong Province. "The talks are expected to be finalized in the first half of next year," Hamzah Bakhash, a KPC spokesman, told China Daily.

Polls

11/13/05 Polls

A majority of Americans polled disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president -- an all time low in the Newsweek Poll-- 58 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of his job -- a five-point decrease in approval since the September 29-30 Newsweek Poll. In addition, 60 percent of those polled disapprove of the way he is handling the economy, 32 percent approve. Seventy-three percent disapprove of Bush's handling of oil prices, 20 percent approve. Sixty-eight percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time, a seven-point drop in satisfaction since the last Newsweek Poll. Only 26 percent are satisfied. Forty-two percent of those polled say that they disapprove of Bush's appointments to the Supreme Court; 42 percent approve. be confirmed, 34 percent don't know. When asked if they think Bush can be an effective president during his last three years in office, a 56 percent-majority say the President 'won't be able to get much done.' The president and his administration are also suffering an emerging credibility gap: 42 percent of those polled think the phrase 'is honest and ethical' describes Bush, 50 percent disagree. When asked if the same phrase describes Dick Cheney, 55 percent said no, it does not, and 29 percent said it did. Fifty-two percent of Americans believe that Cheney was part of a cover up to try to prevent the special prosecutor from getting the truth about who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the news media, 27 percent do not believe he was involved. When asked if anyone in the Bush administration acted unethically in the CIA leak case, 54 percent said yes, they did. Forty-five percent of those polled say that they believe that someone in the Bush administration broke the law and acted criminally in the case handling, 30 percent say no laws were broken. When asked if the vice president deliberately misused or manipulated pre-war intelligence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in order to build support for war with Iraq -- 52 percent say he misused intelligence, 33 percent say he did not. Overall, 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, only 32 percent approve according to the latest Newsweek Poll.

When it comes to the stock and bond markets, do polls matter? How many of those polled have a stake in managing money and making investment decisions? At the same time, if the majority believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, should that be ignored by the markets over the long term? Much of market direction is determined by psychology. As a rule, investors are happier around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. That is most often refelcted in higher stock prices. Will the good feeling last? Unfortunately, the holiday spirit does wear off and reality takes over. The bills need to get paid. The bills eventually come home to roost-- except of course for the U.S. government. That is our government. The one that spends and builds twin tower deficits rising from the ashes of wars, hurricanes, and pork.



Nissan President/CEO Carlos Ghosn announced Thursday morning the automaker will move its North American headquarters and 1,300 jobs from a Los Angeles suburb to Franklin(outside of Nashville), beginning in the summer of 2006. Nissan will build a $70 million corporate center in Cool Springs on Liberty Pike, south of the Embassy Suites hotel. Details for the construction project aren't final but completion is slated for 2008. Until then, Nissan North America will locate in 240,000 square feet of space in downtown Nashville's BellSouth building. Based on benchmark studies of similar corporate relocations, Ghosn estimates upwards of half the current employees will move, with the others to be hired locally. The average salary for headquarters positions, including those in marketing, finance, and administration, is $80,000. Economists at the University of Tennessee's Center for Business and Economic Research estimate the economic impact of the move at more than $500 million annually. The Nissan board's decision to move came after "extensive, deep studies," says Ghosn. The median price of a home in the LA area is roughly $500,000 and in the area around Nashville about $160,000. How many other companies will be making moves like Nissan's? The housing differential is even greater in San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

Judge Laurance Silberman, chairman of Bush's commission on WMD: "Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policy-makers, and all of us were agreed that was not part of our inquiry."

The price of copper touched an all-time high.

The average Costco store does more than $120 million in gross sales a year.

Peter Drucker: "My best book would have been 'Managing Ignorance,' and I'm very sorry I didn't write it."

According to auctionblockdatabase.com,"Sources said the deal may take longer than expected because the due diligence process is taking longer than expected. One source said the Thanksgiving holiday and the Christmas break may, in fact, push a deal announcement into the new year." This is hardly surprising considering that Albertsons has 2,500 locations and each buying group will be responsible for due diligence on various parts of the business. It's not as if one buyer will purchase and retain the entire complex of stores, pharmacies, distribution sites, real estate and locations-- especially since the FTC may require some to be divested. Do not confuse longer due diligence with a lower than anticipated price. I believe that would be a conclusion reached in error.