General Motors (GM) on June 2, 2009 suspended trade on the New York Stock Exchange. One of the big three automakers and an icon in American business since 1908, the collapse and subsequent filing for bankruptcy has illustrated General Motors’ inability to keep the company profitable and viable. In requesting from the US government financial assistance, General Motors has transitioned to Government Union Motors.
Obama & Investing in Security
Many Cyber Security Companies are benefiting in the cyber security market segment. Among them Honeywell (HON), SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) (SAI), Boeing (BA), and Lockheed Martin (LMT). Some smaller companies also benefiting from security include: McAffee (MFE), Symantec (SYMC), and EMC (EMC), to name a few.
Stock & Option Investing in Manufacturing Sector
The manufacturing sector is an important component of a diversified investment portfolio. However, with the cyclical nature of the wide range of companies that fall under the manufacturing umbrella, it can be difficult to choose the appropriate stocks to own.
Stock Investing & Option Investing in Mining Sector
Mining investments are looking attractive. For the last 6 months, this sector has been on the upswing. Iron, used extensively in steel production, isn’t as glamorous as gold, but its importance is critical. Gold is, of course, the standard, and will always be a good recession investment, but the bottom of that market may have passed. This may be a good time to consider the broad Mining Sector.
Who’s Stepping into Circuit City’s Shoes?
What the market may be learning from the demise of Circuit City, once the nation’s number two electronics retailer, is that today’s consumers have little patience with young, lower-paid hourly workers who display scant knowledge of the latest products. When it comes to home electronics, some consumers are comfortable enough with the technology to buy online, while others look to brick-and-mortar stores with knowledgeable sales staff, adept at demystifying increasingly complex appliances. And this may be why small regional electronics retailers are thriving in this economic downturn: Their back-to-the-future business model includes commissioned sales staff, trained to explain new technology.
Is it Time to Invest in Oil?
As expected with the coming of the summer months, oil prices have surged over the last couple of weeks from $40 to $60. Fueled by a slew of recent economic data which points to an easing of the recession, investors have been snapping up oil stocks as well as increasing their trade positions in the commodities market. Upward pressure from economic data, which suggest future supply, will be cut at an even more rapid pace than demand is dropping and political turmoil in the Nigeria’s oil rich south will help to lengthen black gold’s recent success.
Companies Benefiting from Regulation of the Derivatives Market
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is proposing requirements that will improve the transparency of over the counter derivatives trading on instruments such as interest rate and credit default swaps. Geithner calls for electronic execution of trades to replace the current system, which mostly involves telephone orders. The goal is to make price information on these derivatives continuously available to investors via electronic means, much like stock and options price data. The increased transparency will level the proverbial playing field by preventing price manipulation and will reduce risk to “less sophisticated investors”.
Fool’s Gold – Stock Trading – Options Trading
Gillian Tett’s new book, “Fool’s Gold”, is a refreshing and innovative approach to the failings of financial institutions, in that she convincingly ties such failings to the personalities and tribal behavioral patterns of the bankers and economists who putatively cause them. As a trained anthropologist, Tett is well qualified to examine tribal behavior, and her research demonstrates quite clearly that it is alive and well at the corporate level. In her view, the current global credit crisis was unleashed by a relatively small tribe of bankers at J.P.Morgan, a wholesaler of financial services and a significant part of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) which is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.1 trillion.
Companies Benefiting from FAA Air Traffic Control Upgrade
According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Civilian air-traffic computer networks have been penetrated multiple times in recent years”. The article goes on the describe a disturbing incident in which hackers stole a network administrator’s password and used it to install malicious code on air traffic control computers. Security experts have identified vulnerabilities in current air traffic control software, 763 of which are classified as “high risk”. The potential for hacker to gain access to air traffic control has both the airline industry and the FAA worried about security. The question looming large in the minds of our legislators is, “What could happen if terrorists were to gain access to air traffic control systems?” Of course the question investors are asking is, “Which companies will benefit from the new air-traffic control upgrade?”
Rolling in the Dough – Neutral Market Profits – Iron Condors
Wouldn’t it be nice to make money, even if the stock market didn’t go up or down? Well, there’s a way to do it and it’s called the Iron Condor. An iron condor is a stock options strategy and a lot of investors eyes start to glaze over when they hear stock options, because they think stock options are either really really dangerous, or really really complicated.