14 Sep 2001

Posted at 09:40h in The Friday Brief by
While our flags fly at half-mast and our dollar tumbles to six-month lows at the hands of foreign investors loosing confidence in this country, a new resolve is galvanizing Americans.  New Yorkers’ tough persona has been betrayed by an extreme outpouring of emotion and volunteerism.   Americans are coming from all over the country to the aid of their countrymen in Manhattan and Washington. 

07 Sep 2001

Posted at 09:44h in The Friday Brief by
Bear markets remind us just how devastating market forces can be to individual companies’ stock prices, regardless of their individual merits.  The degree to which pessimism and doubt gripped this economy and market surprised most market followers.  But with all this attention on the markets and the economic numbers one might miss the trees for the forest – COMPELLING VALUES have been created in the wake of the market’s (NASDAQ) crash.  While it is generally agreed that the values of information and communications companies in March of 2000 were unrealistically high, an equally strong case can be made that they are now unrealistically low. 

31 Aug 2001

Posted at 11:17h in The Friday Brief by
Ignore the pessimism on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, or me the last few months.  Ignore the analysts and strategists on Wall Street.  Did they advise us to get out when things were so ‘great’ in 2000?  A few did, but they were the ones who were perennially negative.  Listening to them would have kept one out of the greatest and longest bull market in history. 

24 Aug 2001

Posted at 11:24h in The Friday Brief by
For years investors took comfort in the statement above.  Contemporary investors, including this one, took comfort on Tuesday when the automotive giant affirmed its third-quarter profit outlook and production for the year, four days after rival Ford Motor Co. lowered its earnings forecast.  That prediction shocked investors who had been reassured by stronger-than-expected first-half U.S. auto sales as the economy slowed.  GM’s confidence on Tuesday gave investors a glimmer of hope that the economy‘s trend might be improving.