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Investing

US Bancorp share looks cheap

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(Update) According to Dow Jones News, USB sold 139 million shares at $18 per share. See the news at WSJ.

(Original) When I say cheap, I meant in relative terms.

US Bank logo

My benchmark: Buffett endorsed 2 banks in Berkshire annual shareholder meeting: US Bank (NYSE: USB) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Many people did not know current Wells Fargo is not the good old Wells Fargo in the west coast, a little more than 10 years ago Norwest and Wells Fargo merged, and adopted the Wells name. Ok, back to the topic. Both USB and WFC stocks had a fun ride in the last 12 months. But more interestingly, as of today, WFC is down 5% YoY, while USB is down 42%. In the past 12 months a lot things have happened to Wells, the biggest one being the Wachovia acqusition. Both took TARP money. Both issued common stocks: twice for Wells (last Fall and last week), once fot USB (today). But the purpose of issing stocks is slightly different: Wells needed the money for captial, USB needs the money to pay back TARP.

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gadgets

T-mobile Nokia 1661 phone

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(Update) The phone sold by T-mobile USA appears only works in the US. See the spec at Nokia USA web site here. Quote the spec “Operating frequency Dual-band GSM 850/1900 MHz”.

(Original) Saw the deal from dealsea. Here is the link to T-mobile. Nokia European site has more details spec for the phone. It looks can be used in the US and China besides Europe. Quote the spec “Operating frequency Dual-band EGSM 900/1800, GSM 850/1900”.

Nokia 1661 pic

I hope I can use my current T-mobile SIM card with the phone. I always like Nokia phone, for this phone one cool feature I like is its FM radio. Now I can not wait for the arrival of the phone. Got a little tired of my SamSung A437 phone (used a little more than 1 year).

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video

Federal Reserve Stress Test Method Revealed

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First saw it from flyblog. Kind interesting. Today WSJ revealed more haggling between banks and Fed.

Categories
Master Series

Berkshire sold some ConocoPhillips shares in Q1 and April

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(Update) RationalWalk has a much more comprehensive piece on Berkshire Q1 results.

(Original) News from San Jose Mercury News. Quote:

Berkshire says it sold 13.7 million of its 79.9 million shares of ConocoPhillips during the first quarter to generate a loss that can offset past capital gains taxes.

More details from its Q1 earning report (PDF). Again quote:

…Investment losses from other-than-temporary impairments for the first quarter of 2009 predominantly relate to Berkshire’s investment in ConocoPhillips common stock. The market price of ConocoPhillips shares declined sharply over the last half of 2008. In the first quarter of 2009, Berkshire sold approximately 13.7 million shares of ConocoPhillips and sold additional shares in April. Although Berkshire expects the market price for ConocoPhillips shares to increase over time to levels that exceed original cost, Berkshire may sell some additional shares before the price recovers. Sales in 2009 were or may be in anticipation of other investment opportunities, to increase overall liquidity and to carry back realized capital losses to prior years for income tax purposes…

My thoughts

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Categories
Technology

nVidia

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nVidia got no love from the street these days. After yesterday’s earning (earning call here), the stock dropped more than 10% today amid weak (margin) forecast. This exemplifies that the market tends to be short sighted.

nVidia GeForce pic

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video

It’s all about expectation: B of A needs $34 b but stock is up

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Yahoo Tech-ticker

Disclosure: I don’t have BAC shares. I think, long term (I mean really long like 5 years) BAC is a good call option for US economy recovery. I don’t agree with Henry Bloget on this aspect: I think Ken Lewis is the right man for the job.

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video

McDonald started the war on premium coffee

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Saw the McCafe (aka better coffee at McDonald) ad on TV (not on YouTube yet). But here is a Cantonese version of ad (via. YouTube).

According to ChicagoBusiness, big Mac maker poured $100 million for the ad campaign. A really chilly Summer for Starbucks is coming 😀

Discloure: no longer have MCD position.

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video

Arch Coal CEO Steve Leer interview

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Steve took interview from local West Virginia TV station (link here

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Closing

My thoughts

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Categories
Master Series

Random thoughts on Berkshire annual meeting weekend

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(Update 04May09) Buffett CNBC interview. (Monday Becky Quick)

I did not go to the Berkshire annual shareholder meeting, partly because of the recession (cost cutting), partly because I sold the stock recently (note: one does not have to buy stock to get the admission ticket, they sell it at $5 on eBay). There are live blog and twitter on the meeting (6 hours Q&A), such as MarketBeat (WSJ), CNBC BuffettWatch and NY Times Andrew Sokin. But there are no webcast, because Warren and Charlie are old fashioned.

Succession plan

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Categories
Business

Will Newspapers go away one day?

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I remember a few years ago Warren expressed his dismal view on Newspapers future (in his annual shareholder letter). A few days ago Redstone (the controlling shareholder of CBS and Viacom) said something similar in an interview.

“The reason we have not gone to newspapers is because its a slow growth industry and I think they are dying. I’m not sure there will be newspapers in 10 years. I read newspapers every day. I even read Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.”

I am a newspaper reader. I subcribed to Barrons and WSJ (paper format). Both my wife and I preferred the paper format, because we can mark on it, and it seems to me I think more when read something on paper (vs. computer). Lately I am seeing some interesting phenomena: the WSJ gets thinner and thinner; sometimes I did not receive the paper.

Business problem of newspapers

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