stlplaceLast Updated on May 31, 2007 by stlplace
First heard this “equity shortage” term from Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC “Mad Money”. I watched his show mostly for entertainment purpose, but I think this term desribes the “supply and demand” of global stock market well. Yesterday the S&P index in the US hit a new high at 1530. Last record was set in dot com era on March 24, 2000. To put it in perspective, on March 20 same year, I got my job offer from my current employer.
Last Updated on May 30, 2007 by stlplace
HMIN looked cheap these days, should we jump in and buy it? I have both MR and HMIN, and as a matter of fact, I bought some more HMIN after its disappointing earning report. My mistake. You may think because HMIN has been to $49, and now it’s trading $29.50, isn’t a big discount? Yes or No. I hope HMIN won’t go much lower because it is my largest holding now (I’m looking for opportunities to exit).
Last Updated on May 30, 2007 by stlplace
The policy makers in China found the silver bullet finanlly, the Shanghai composite index dropped 280 points or 6.5% today May 30, as seen from this news from Bloomberg. This is the biggest drop in a day since Feb 27 (9% drop). The policy makers have warned the investors (or more accurately speculators) for a while, the head of central bank said some words during an international meeting (remember the vice chairman of people’s congress, Mr. Chen’s similar words late last year?); two interest rate hikes; three bank reserve rate hikes. But the new investors seemed ignoring all those warnings, as we have seen from the record account openings since March. We have 100 million accounts in China now. Let me quote some words regarding the “bubble” (I was told this was said by Buffet, but have not verified the source):
Last Updated on May 29, 2007 by stlplace
That’s the stock trading 印花税 in Chinese. It was only a week ago somebody from department of finance denied the “rumor”, now they ate their own words. They raised rate from 0.1% to 0.3% for stock trade.
I don’t know how the market will react to this. Will it blush off like it did on May 21 amid the raise of interest rate? We shall see.
Seriously, I think the goverment could put those money (I mean increased stamp tax revenue) into education, and health care, that will be a wonderful thing. We all want a harmonious society, don’t we?
Last Updated on May 29, 2007 by stlplace
You know I am kidding, do you? We all know the bubble is there, but how much bubble do we got? Is bubble going to burst very soon? These are the questions the investors (more accurately speculators) in China should ask.
In my mind, there are fundamental reasons for this rising of Chinese equity values: over liquidity (too much money, too little stocks); improvement of company fundamentals including rapid growth; Gu Gai (the stock reform which remove cloud from the floating shares), etc.
Last Updated on May 29, 2007 by stlplace
I put it in my Yahoo calendar a while ago. But I have not added my positions because it did not fall to the range I wanted to pull my trigger. Although there are heavy insider sellings lately.
“Shareholders of record May 31 will get an additional share for each they hold on June 14”, see this announcement for more details.
Last Updated on May 28, 2007 by stlplace
I stopped by the Ted Drewes today, the best Ice Cream place in St. Louis. Surprisingly, it only has two stores in St. Louis, and the owners intentionly kept it that way. In other words, they don’t want to grow into Hagen Dazs, or something like that. By keeping it small and community-involved, they provided ice creams for St. Louisans and visitors since 1931. Today I saw the sign, where the Mayor of St. Louis declared Feb 17 as “Ted Drewes’ Day”. WOW.
Last Updated on May 28, 2007 by stlplace
I used to love new cars and gadgets. Some evidences: I can call out the make and model of most cars on the street; I bought the Dell 1st generation Pocket PC Axim, later returned it because it’s too bulky, bought the Palm Tungsten E instead.
These days I was looking for a LCD photo frame. I noticed this thing for a while, but it was until now I found this is a very lucrative business at this time. The reason? It’s still kind expensive. For a decent 7″ philips, it’s about $199 at sharper image. For comparison purpose, I found LCD monitor is very cheap these days, e.g., this Acer 22″ LCD display only costs $190 at Bestbuy.
Last Updated on May 27, 2007 by stlplace
I went to mall again during this weekend. There are many malls in St. Louis, the closest (to my home) also the most expensive one, is the Plaza Frontenac. When I first visited there years ago, I was amazed to see the price tags of stuff there, things such as Boss, Gucci, stores like Saks Fifth Ave., and Nieman Marcus. It made me think St. Louis is not a small town. The shopping experience is in deep contrast to other malls such as Galleria, which is meant for average people.
Anyway I only buy stuff at one store at Frontenac, that’s J. Crew., and I only buy when things are on sale and I found they fit me well. For instance, today I bought a broken-in zip fly chino for 14.99 (plus 1.14 sales tax), the listed price was 64.50.
