stlplaceThe pictures are hosted at Yupoo (China), please be patient if you are in the US as I am supporting our domestic brand.
Babi bun, the breakfast place just raise the price because of rising pork cost.
Residential Inn, it looks like the Marriot residential inns in the US, I have not stayed there so I will leave others to comment.
Some pictures taken on the airplane. The AA289 (from ORD to PVG) flies through Canada, Arctic ocean, Siberia, Mogolia and China.
Queen island in Canada
Wing
I went to the China Merchants Bank today, to exchange some USD into CNY. The rate is 7.5544. From what I read, the US senate has passed a bill to push China to appreciate the CNY more faster. That certainlly did not help me (get more Chairman Mao for my green backs).
On a positive note, the waiting line at the bank is much shorter, partly because the calm down of the China stock market.
On the other hand, housing market here is going crazy. My co-worker told in one case, people bought up all the units (but 2) of a new building during its opening day. I just could not understand, on the other side of the ocean, the US housing market is ice cold.
Got back to Shanghai in the weekend; my limit observations in past 2 days suggest those two are hot besides the weather. Don’t run and buy stocks solely based on this.
Crocs: I saw people wearing Crocs near Zhongshan Park, at Hongqiao Parkson Shopping Mall and Jinjiang Chef (restaurant). Today my co-worker told me this thing was selling very well in the mall. I saw a guy wearing red crocs while riding motor cycle; and girl wearing Jibbitz too.
Apple iPod: by now probablly everyone in the US (who can get iPod) already got one (hint: yours truely also got one). But in China this iPod trend is in the early innings. Mac is also sold here. Maybe the iPhone will follow after everyone in the US got one?
The local temperature is 29 to 38 Celsius, or 84.2 to 100.4 Farenheit.
Stock market: Shanghai composites is edging up to new high (at 4398.79 as of 10:25 AM July 30 local time).
I will talk about the craziness of “Crocs” in Shanghai later, and Sheng Jian Bao place.
I think I will miss a few things on the other side of the ocean (definitely not work):
Today Bill Miller must be very happy, as his fund (Legg Mason Value Trust) core holdings Amazon (5% of $20 b, roughly $1 b) went up more than 20%, this is the second time AMZN came out with a blockbuster quarter this year, and the stock has been up more than 100% in the past 6 months. I think his AMZN made more than $1 b for his clients in a year or so. Last year, largely due to the underperformance of AMZN, Bill Miller’s fund did not beat the market. Many people laughed at him, but he believed in himself.
Would like to talk a little more about AMZN. I believe most people know they are the largest online retailer, they sell things from books to mobile phones.
But in recent years they have used their experience in building online store, and information technology to expand in related areas. They build stores for other retailers, as we can see the “other” options when look for things, in some cases Amazon’s price may not be lowest. This is OK because they still collect money from their partners when customers buy from the partners. Arguably their profit margin on the “3rd party store” is higher than their own store.
They have this “Amazon Marketplace”, which is similar to eBay, and is gaining popularity lately. Their developer program and other web services also bring values to small retailers. Just like I talked about “what exactly is Google, Apple or MasterCard”, we are still trying to figure out what exactly is Amazon.
But when we all figure out what it IS (and its potentials), maybe it’s time to sell the stocks. I’m glad I don’t need to worry about that, it’s bill’s problem 🙂
made history today. I am talking about the YouTube CNN Democrats Presidential Canidates debates.
While people are talking about who won the debates, I think both Google (GOOG) which owns YouTube, and CNN (owned by Time Warner, TWX) won this thing.
Finally YouTube starts to get serious? And CNN is fun to watch (especially for Gen Y)?
Today I saw in the news that Opsware (OPSW) is bought out by HP. Interestingly, OPSW is one of the first stocks I bought in my Scottrade account. The reason I bought it is simple: it’s being mentioned in the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine, and its founder and CEO Marc Andreessen is the developer and the co-founder of Netscape. Opsware is software/solution provider for data centers, it did not turn out to be a blockbuster, but I did get moderate return on this one (in a few months).
Another stock I traded is GE, the well known US conglomerate which makes things from aircraft engines to trains. I bought it at around 29, and sold it at 32 a few months later (same for OPSW). Today it’s at about 40. The GE stock did not do too much in past four years, the great bull market. But it started to move up lately. Some people argue that when large cap stocks (like GE) move up, we are at the last stage of bull market. Let’s see.
Back to Opsware, it’s Mr. Andreessen’s second baby. It’s not as spectacular as the Netscape IPO, but notheless did bring some values to share holders if they are patient to hold it for 4 years (from $5 to $14). It’s interesting to see the “serial entreprenurs” such as Neil Shen, Ji Qi co-founded Ctrip, Home Inns, and working on the next big idea now. But typically if someone hits something really big, it’s hard to create the “second baby” exceeding the first one. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezo both has one baby: Microsoft and Amazon. Steve Jobs is an exception: he co-founded both Apple and Pixar, the animation company created Toy Stories, and Finding Nemo.
1) Walmart and Sam’s club: my friend thinks wal-mart has the lowest price for most things. He is looking for a mattress, and he asked why “Wal-mart does not carry the mattress”? I think the implied meaning is: he can be sure getting a deal if it’s sold in Walmart.
I know many people have similar perceptions about Walmart and Sam’s club: they think the price at Walmart is always lowest. A while ago, I read from a report this is not always the case. But Walmart obviously created a good impression (price advantage) on many consumers.
2) Isn’t Hyundai made in Korea? While at a parking lot, a few guys looked at my Nissan Altima, and their Hyundai Sotana (both are black), they mistook my car also as Hyundai’s. So we started the conversation: oh, your car is Nissan, it’s Japanese. Our car is Hyundai, it’s made in Korea. My reply: well, actually my Nissan Altima is made in the USA, and I believe Hyundai made cars in the USA too. So we got a little discussion about the cost, the union, etc.
From CNNMoney, the full article is here:
I was nine years old, and I walked in to see my father reading the financial pages of the newspaper. And they didn’t look like the sports pages or the comics or whatever.
So I asked him what they were. And he said they were financial pages.
And I said, “What does that mean?” And he said, “Well, these are stocks.”
I said, “What’s a stock?” And he said, “Well, look at this thing. See this thing? This represents a company.” And he said, “And see this ‘+ .25’?”
And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Well, that means that if you own this company, one share of it, which cost you like ten dollars, then if you owned it yesterday, then today you have 25 cents more than you had yesterday.”