5/29/08

Economics

Chart porn on yesterday’s durable goods orders report:

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/05/durable-goods-a.html

First quarter GDP numbers were released this morning and were better than expected:

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/05/9-real-gdp-growth-in-qi-no-recession.html

Chart on inflation:

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/05/chart-of-day-it-could-be-worse-lot.html

Politics

Domestic

George Will on McCain’s offer to appear before Congress to answer questions:

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will052908.php3

Obama on the South Korean free trade agreement:

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/change_youll_have_to_pay_for.php

International War Against Radical Islam

Obama and the Kennedy/Khrushchev summit:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/149gqohu.asp

The Market

Technical

With the bounce in stock prices over the last two days, both the DJIA and the S&P held their August 2007 low. I don’t believe that this means that a bottom to a new trading range has been established; but that is all we have to work with, technically speaking, at the moment. The April 2008 low (DJIA-12263; S&P-1323) looks to me like a more probable level for stock prices to meet investors support. The Market will tell us soon enough.

http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2008/05/breadth-sits-in.html

And:

http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2008/05/investors-intel.html

Fundamental

Pharmaceutical facts:

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/05/pharmaceutical-facts.html

Subscriber Alert

The stock price of Buckeye Pipeline Ptrs (BPL-$47) has fallen below the lower end of its Buy Value Range. Accordingly, it is being Removed from the High Yield Buy List. The High Yield Portfolio will continue to Hold BPL.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BPL

The stock price of Donaldson (DCI-$50) has risen into its Sell Half Range. Therefore, this morning at the Market open sufficient shares will be Sold to reduce the position in DCI to 3% of the Aggressive Growth Portfolio.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DCI

CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

(Note: the numerical notation to the right of each Portfolio is the percentile rank of the performance of that particular Portfolio in this contest, i.e. Portfolio 1 is now ranked at the 85.8 percentile which means that it is outperforming 85.8% of all portfolios [about 700,000] entered in the contest.)

Portfolio 1 (85.8%): Sold: none

Bought: none

Positions: Automatic Data Products, Colgate Palmolive, CR Bard, T Rowe Price

Portfolio 2 (87.9%) : Sold: Mastercard

Bought: XTO Energy

Positions: Blackrock, XTO Energy, Nokia, Luxottica

Portfolio 3 (91.6%): Sold: McGraw Hill

Bought: XTO Energy

Positions: Best Buy, Genuine Parts, XTO Energy, Landstar

Portfolio 4 (78.1%): Sold: ExxonMobil. McGraw Hill

Bought: Genuine Parts, Landstar

Positions: Home Depot, Genuine Parts, Landstar, Nokia

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