stlplaceSome interesting numbers in 1997 and 2007:
Unlead Gas per gallon: 1997: $0.80 (Rolla, MO), 2007: $2.76 (St. Louis, as of today June 21), about 250% increase.
International call to China per minute: 1997: $0.76(LCI), 2007: $0.08 (AT&T Advantage, quote from ipevo), $0.02 (Skype or phone cards). Or you can use VoIP from iTalkBB $24.99 plan which offers unlimited calls to China and a few other countries. Anyway it’s about 90% drop of price.
Mittal is the largest steel maker in the world. I happened to watch the CNBC interview of its CEO this morning. I checked the chart (Google Finance) of Arcelor Mittal (MT), it went up 2129% in 5 years. I also happened to see the Nokia (NOK), a stock I traded in 2004, it went up 132% in 5 years.
So when I paid attention to all these latest fashion, trends, gadgets and cell phones, the old boring steel stock brought great return for its investors. I need to rethink my investing strategy now 🙂
I guess they changed name to differentiate from “UPS Ground”?
I got my refurbished iPod today, from Fedex Ground (a.k.a. Home Delivery) office instead of receiving it at home. They attempted to deliver twice last week, but I was not at home in both occasions. The strange thing is they did not leave a notice. Yesterday (Monday) I received an email from Apple telling me the situation. So I went to the Fedex office because it’s close to where I work. But the Home Delivery office opens from Tuesday to Saturday. So I went there again today, and finanlly I got it.
This sounds a little strange: a smaller fish swallowed up a bigger one. Here is some details (Houston Chronicle):
“Finish Line operates 694 Finish Line stores in 47 states, 93 Man Alive stores in 19 states and 15 Paiva stores in 10 states.
Nashville-based Genesco sells shoes, hats and accessories in more than 2,000 retail stores in the United States and Canada under several store names, including Journeys, Johnston & Murphy, Underground Station, Hatworld and Lids.”
Last summer I wrote about this. This year’s show starts tonight, June 18 at Forest Park. Hope I can catch more shows this year.
Nice things about the MUNY:
Mop is less cool (pacific epoch): Mop, the Chinese teen social networking web sites, became less cool because it did not turn on the Air Condition to save utility cost. Separately, Mop’s parent Co., Oak Pacific, is not going IPO very soon.
Starbucks to offer salad (Starbucks Gossip): so that they can offer a one stop shop for lunch customer? In doing so they are dumping Jones Soda from fridge. Sorry, go to Panera (St. Louis) Bread Co. if you still want Jones Soda.
I created my aStore and added some books there. You can go there by clicking the “aStore” link at my home page. Those are the books I have read over last few years, and I will recommend to others who have interest in business, management and finance. A little comments on those books (listed in the order of easiness of reading, from easier to more difficult):
One up on wall street(*): Peter Lynch was a legendary fund manager, and his book was both full of humor and wisdom, it’s both fun and easy to read. The book got Chinese version but I don’t know the transaltion quality. As matter of fact, I felt many things just can not be translated. So I strongly recommend reading his English version.
Finding the next Starbucks: Michael Moe is the founder of Think Equity, and he was the analyst who found Starbucks in its hyper growth days (1990s). Michael is good trend reader. But we should learn his thinking instead of just taking his results, e.g., he said Crocs is a fad.
Tomorrow is Father’s day. My parents are wonderful parents, they did all they can to support me and my brothers’ education, under difficult circumstances. But everyone has his/her limit, my dad is no exception. I think from “personal finance” point of view, my dad is a good saver, but he does not know much about investing (that’s understandable because when he was young there were no stocks, bonds). He does not like debt (even borrow from relatives); and he does not like risk either. Thus I don’t need to worry him buying Chinese stocks these days. Good.
All right, the all mighty San Antonio Spurs swept Cleveland Cavalier 4 games in a row, and gave the Cleveland little chance during all 4 games. So the winner is obviously the Spurs, its team and fans. Among those players in the Spurs, Michael Finley is the happiest because it’s the first championship during his 12 years NBA career. Robert Horry, on the other hand, seemed pretty cool with it because it’s his 7th. Tony Parker is happy too because not only did he get the MVP, he is going to marry with his financee soon.
Today is probablly the least volatility day since I invested in the US stocks 3.5 years ago, my portifolio only changed -0.1%. Previously the biggest volatility day was Feb 27 this year, my portifolio dropped almost 10%. For reference, Dow went up 0.53%, S&P went up 0.66%, and Nasdaq went up 0.48% today.
I don’t know the exact reason. I joined my former boss’ retirement party today. Maybe all the traders were also having parties or going on vacations 🙂
For us average investors (not day traders), we don’t want big swings (up and downs). So less volatility is a good thing.