stlplaceFollow this link to get 20% off at shoebuy.com, I believe it does not have restrictions on the type of shoes (hint: Crocs) you can buy. This is not an affiliate link (a.k.a., I am not receiving any referral fee from this).
Got some new T-shirts lately. My current T-shirts are mostly a few years old, some can even date back to my college years at Rolla, that’s almost 8 or 9 years old! I decided to retire some of those that no longer fit.
I got my first new shirt shortly after I came back (in May), at Banana Republic. It was $9.99. It felt very comfortable. While I stop by BR after that, I intentionally hold it because I saw plenty of same shirts there and they will further discount. Today (a month later) I went there the same thing cost $5.99, so I bought two more. It’s made in Singapore, by the way.
Last few weeks I also bought some shirts at Aeropostale (ARO), for $5.99 a piece. This evening at Galleria I stepped into Jimmy’Z the first time, they have some nice shirts on sale, so I bought 2 again, at $9.99 per piece. Note Jimmy’Z is subsidiay of Aero, while Aero core customers are 11 to 18, Jimmy’Z focus on 18 to 25 years old (as you can read the Summary of Aero at Google Finance).
I wrote about Nike (NKE) a while ago during NBA finals. I joked about Nike is the loser in this NBA finals because their super star James’ team lost. Obviously in the real world Nike is doing very well, especially internationally (Europe and Asia, specificialy China). Here is their quarterly report. This is not surpising consider my mom, who is not into fashions or sports, asked me “buy a pair of Nike shoes” for my 12 years old niece. Note when she talked about the Nike shoes, she was referring to the shoes in sneakers category. Just like when people talked about “google something”, they are referring to “search something on the web”.
People who bought the Blackstone (BX) at its IPO debut (around 35), will regret “chasing hot stocks” now. I don’t know how the Chinese State Investment Co. (who took 8% stake at around $3 b) felt about this. Oh well, they are in this for long haul.
Crocs stock (CROX) got a hit today. Barrons ran an article on weekend reminding people taking some profit now, I did it on Monday. But I’m still bullish on the company’s business, especially interntional front: hope people don’t just buy knockoffs?
The Hangzhou bay bridge, the bridge connects Ningbo (my hometown) and Shanghai, got completed (the structure). This will cut the travel distance (and time) from Ningbo to Shanghai dramatically. Here is a picture taken at Ci’xi, the bridge starting point at Ningbo side. This is the longest sea crossing bridge on the world as of now (36km, or 22.5 miles). The new bridge will not open until next year (according to BBC).
Picture curtesy of AP.
From Associated Press: “Raise your glass and celebrate. A glass of tap water, that is.
The US Conference of Mayors says St. Louis has the best tasting city water in America. More than 90 American cities submitted tap water to be judged on taste, clarity and aroma.
The conference reduced the field to 15. Celebrity judges performed a blind taste test. And then hundreds of mayors chose from among five finalists.
St. Louis came out on top today, besting Toledo; Colorado Springs (in Colorado); Long Beach and Anaheim in California.”
Today marks another milestone for the search giant Google, its market capital (outstanding shares times the stock price) exceeded Warren Buffett’s good old Berkshire Hathaway’s market cap $165.71 B at one point (when Google stock hit today’s high at $534.99), GOOG closed at $527.42 (with a market cap of $164.32 B).
BRK.A is a holding companies of some well known companies, such as Geico and Diary Queen. Just think Wall Street values Google as valuable as all these (50?) very well managed traditional companies putting together, are we seeing another bubble here?
It appears they cut the secondary offering almost by half, amid the dropping of the stock price lately. (presumably there is a lack of interest by institutional buyers). Here is the amended SEC filing. They are going to sell 4.5 million shares instead of original 8 m shares. Now if they could find enough buyers for this.
Separately, I took some profits by selling half of my CROX.
Went to Chipotle Mexican Grill in my neighbourhood yesterday. I heard about it because of its stock (CMG) has done very well since IPO early last year (up 88%). I was curious about the food and the atmosphere so I went. It seems there are lots of young people, I mean people in 20s (Generation Y), which are generally younger than Panera crowd. At Panera, there are many older people in the morning. Also there are people working and gathering at Panera because of its free Wifi access and community feeling.
Brown Shoes goes to China (STLtoday): Brown Shoe Co. late Tuesday announced that it has entered a joint venture with a Chinese company to open more than 500 shoe stores in China by 2012.
MSFT modifies source for Vista (Reuters): Microsoft Corp. has agreed to modify its new Vista operating system in response to complaints that its desktop search function puts Google Inc. and other potential competitors at a disadvantage, a source familiar with the case told Reuters on Tuesday.
Retail woes: Both Circuit City and Best Buy reported disappointed earnings amid price wars on LCD TV etc.
Yang takes driver seat @Yahoo: Jerry Young, became the CEO of the company he co-founded 12 years ago.