Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pending Pain for the Economy and Stock Market?

Boy, this kind of reporting gets old (negative news AGAIN) but I do NOT find it being reported enough by the general business media (CNBC, Fox Business News). The people they bring on, in general, have views/opinions are TOO optimistic and keep luring people into leaving their $$$ in the stock market right now.

1) Apparently there is a TON more pain that is going to hit European banks here soon as Eastern Europe pains negatively impacts their banks. Most North American/Japanese banks aren't big players in these countries.


2) John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors, thinks the markets will hit a new low this summer, and then potentially flip/flop a bunch for years to follow. I agree with his thoughts re: "another leg down" as I think the markets should be trading around 665-680 based on multiples to forecasted S&P500 EPS and historical pricing behavior during bear markets. If this happens, can you imagine the impact to 401k plans, pension funds (that will be SUBSTANTIALLY underfunded), etc.

Hope everyone finds this info. valuable.

Dan Ross
http://www.DanRoss.info

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Retail to the Rescue?

Retail to the rescue?

I wouldn't believe this opinion for a split second. Markets don't go straight down. They go down down further than they rebound. They go down more than up due to information being slow to come out. Markets don't go straight down because people see signs of a positive rebound and get greedy.

Well, I am playing the trend and this trend is down.

The economy has weakened, consumers and businesses aren't spending (remember, they are trying to PAY BACK their debts from previous years) and besides, the free credit of yesteryears is no longer available. I think 4-5% in some guaranteed investment works for me. Heck, I think the best investment is people investing in themselves to develop some new skills that enable them to add value in their organization or on their own. That way, if anything happens, people have something to fall back on or perhaps a new career path.



Dan Ross

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tony Robbins @ TED conference

Classic from Tony Robbins. More cool clips like this at http://www.TED.com

Enjoy!



Dan Ross

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Coming Retail Iceburg (More Commercial Real Estate Problems)

I've been mentioning this for quite awhile folks......Everyone reading the blog and looking at my "commercial real estate" tags can view prior comments.

Basically retail consultant Howard Davidowitz,of Davidowitz & Associates, is saying that as Americans save and spend less, due to the financial crisis, it's clear there's too much retail space. Just visit Web site deadmalls.com and track retail's growing body count. Most concerning to Davidowitz are Luxury Retailers and "private equity retailers" (formerly publicly traded and then taken private via use of debt by private equity companies).

Among the brandname stores Davidowitz says are in trouble:

Nordstrom
Neiman Marcus
Tiffany
Jeweler Zale Corp.
Saks
J.C. Penney
Sears


Until I can get some revised blogs up I thought I would keep people abreast of my thoughts so I'll keep the content coming here! I see it taking about a month for things to get done.

I hope everyone enjoys the video below. Boy, this guy is PESSIMISTIC!



Dan Ross

Jim Cramer on Nationalizing Companies - His Take

I like his take. I think he puts things into proper perspective...



Dan Ross