The Mixed Bag                                                                                                           

 

 

 

Quotes

 

Nathan Rothschild  “Buy when blood is running in the streets”

 

Allied Signal’s Lawrence Bossidy “We never took advantage of the Mexican crisis to grab bargains south of the border.  We missed that boat there…we won’t have that problem with Asia.”

 

“Companies that are growing the fastest are ones that are the most fanatical about costs” XRX – CEO G. Richard Thomas

 

The trend is your friend”

 

“Cash is a fact, earnings an option”

 

“Not only a dog, a dog with fleas”

 

“Don’t want to catch a falling knife”

 

“Just like the tides, as it rises, all boats will rise”

 

“Demographics – you’re not wrong unless there is a plague”

 

“There is a big difference between a hedge fund that hedges and a hedge fund that is leveraged”

 

“Hedge Fund managers can bet on the Super Bowl with their client’s money if they wanted to”

 

“Everybody’s a genius in a bull market”

 

“It’s hard to get profits if you aren’t selling anything”

 

“An understanding of insurance is vital for the CEO…there is nothing more important than understanding risk management” - Warren Buffet

 

“They threw the baby out with the bath water”

 

“Tree’s don’t grow to the sky”

 

“Nobody ever went broke taking a profit”

 

“The market climbs a wall of worries”

 

“It’s a dead cat bounce”

 

“Booms and Bust cycles have always been a part of the American business culture”

 

“No one starts a business of his own who is happy with their current job”

 

“20th Century business decisions makers had been hampered by pervasive uncertainty” – Alan Greenspan

 

“The key is translating productivity into profits” – Paul David on the Internet model

 

“People underestimate the length of time it takes to discover a new business model”

 

“My view is how can you have a business without making money” – George Lucas on the Internet craze

 

“Anytime you can improve gross margin and reduce inventory in a difficult market, it’s a good thing”  Michael Capellas – CPQ

 

“A crisis is the moment you improvise”

 

“It’s always better to admit that you may not be up for the job rather that fumble it”

 

“Technological advances almost seem to require periodic investment mania”

 

“In a credit crunch, he who has the least debt wins” – Steve Zamasky, Morgan Stanley

 

“It was true ten years ago, and its true now.  When the economy is down, companies change hands”

 

“I don’t believe in the V-shaped recovery scenario for the US economy or for corporate profits, and without a US “V”, the rest of the world remains sick”  Barton Briggs – December 2001

 

“You don’t do a merger just to fill in one or two years” – Merck’s CEO Raymond Gilmartin

 

“Debt isn’t like wine, it won’t get better with age”

 

“A direct sales force is the most expensive thing in the world”

 

“If (stock) options aren’t a form of compensation, what are they?  If compensation isn’t an expense, what is it?  And if expenses shouldn’t go into calculations of earnings, where in the world should they go” – Warren Buffet on Stock Options

 

“When you have a CFO become CEO, companies never grow”

 

“If something doesn’t sell, I never say, ‘well people didn’t understand it’, If people don’t understand it, it doesn’t belong in the store” – Reed Krakoff, CEO of Coach

 

“When you do a lot of deals, you can promise great things – and without ever having to prove it…it all works fine until the deals stop” – serial acquirers

 

Japan has a relentless cycle of boom and boredom”

 

“We have witnessed time and again that after an asset inflation has developed into a major bubble, it is impossible to soft-land that market” – Yutaka Yamaguchi – Bank of Japan’s Deputy Governor

 

“Anything but results is Philosophy”

 

“If I want sustainable profits, I’m going to invest in the longer term, even if it has a negative impact on the short term” – Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck

 

“You don’t christen a ship with the name of a ship you sank”

 

“Investors ignore risk if they look at earnings alone”

 

“It’s all about the war now.  B.S. moves us 30 cents, confirmed stories move us a dollar” – regarding rumors of terrorism and captures/attacks

 

“This market will whiplash you like a scolded women” – Tokyo Joe (Yun Soo Oh Park)

 

Asia taught us that it’s during the tough times that the long-term strategy is the most important” – BASF CEO Jurgen Hambrecht

 

“We argue today that Japan is of no general importance except as a laboratory experiment concerning deflation” Alexander Kinmont – Nikko Salomon Smith Barney – April 2003

 

“It’s in bad times when good deals are struck”

 

“If you don’t have your costs in line with your competitors, you will forever struggle, if not perish” – Stephen Wolf – Longtime airline industry titan – CEO of Republic, United, and US Air

 

“Enjoy the rally, but be ready to sell into it when the chorus girls are kicking high and the bubbly is popping” – David Roche – President of Independent Strategy

 

“All business keep or lose their competitive advantage based on how well they execute thousands of little tasks”

 

“It’s not how big the competition is, it’s how fast the competition is moving” – Jack Welch

 

“Companies were bought on buzz without having any traction in the market” – thought on the Internet craze of the late 1990’s

 

“In a liquidity-driven rally, fundamentals matter less and less” – Jesse Eisinger – WSJ

 

“Tech investors are more faddish than teeny-boppers”  – Jesse Eisinger – WSJ

 

“The stock market isn’t the economy” - Jesse Eisinger – WSJ

 

“The hardest part of emerging-market investing is properly pricing political risk” – George Hognet – State Street Global Advisors

 

“We’re not going to beat the competition by being the competition” – Jeff Weiner S.V.P. of Search at Yahoo

 

“We cannot protect the American people from reality…There are many, many quality engineers around the world who want to participate.” – Carly Fiorina on work place globalization

 

America’s economy, the engine of its global pre-eminence, depends on some of the world’s most anti-American nations” – WSJ’s Andrew Higgens and our dependence on foreign oil

 

“A lot of transforming mergers are done by people who are very smart and correctly predict a shift in their business model or very desperate because their existing business model is evaporating in their face and the only solution is to buy someone else’s business model” – Charles Nathan – NY merger lawyer

 

“It’s hard to run your calculator when your holding your pom pom’s” – John Gavin – SEC Insight Inc. – on inherently bullish analysts

 

“One rate hike alone isn’t enough to derail a bull market.  Usually it takes two or three or even four” – Sam Burns – Ned Davis Research

 

“A Management team distracted by a series of short term targets is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour” – Google founders, Larry Page and Sergy Brin on a company’s ability to predict their business guidance on a narrow range for each quarter

 

“I try to make it very clear that change is no criticism of the past” – Niall Fitzgerald – Co-chairman of Unilever

 

“There are no tired brands… only tired brand managers” - Niall Fitzgerald – Co-chairman of Unilever

 

“If you’re not a risk taker, you can’t make any money” – Sumner Redstone

 

“The Fed’s action was as surprising as getting a tie for father’s day” – Art Cashin – UBS

 

“Never short a dull market”

 

“Japan is to the US financial markets what Saudi Arabia is to the world oil markets – the primary provider of capital” – Joe Quinlan – Chief Market Strategist, B of A Capital Management

 

“Never let a small loss turn into a big loss!”

 

“Consolidation always is more attractive when and industry is getting hammered, not when it is making record profits” – WSJ Article – Oct 21, 2004

 

“The best time to fix something is when you’re still making great money but your P/E ratio is going down” – Larry Selden, Colombia University

 

“You should view yourself as a portfolio of customers not product lines” - Larry Selden, Colombia University

 

“Sell is not a bad word” – James Kramer

 

“If your Bearish and right, people hate you.  If your Bearish and wrong, people laugh at you. You can’t win” – Michael Metz – Oppernheimer

 

“There is so much money in China…any revaluation of the Chinese Currency against the dollar would make US targets [companies] even less costly for Chinese acquisitions” – Fred Hu – Goldman Sachs Honk Kong – June 2005

 

“You never pull the trigger until you know you can win – Robert Ailes – CEO of Fox News – June 2005

 

“The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent” – Vince Kaminski

 

“A rolling loan gathers no loss” – attributed to the subprime meltdown when subprime loans, etc. were bundled, securitized, and traded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bag                                                                                                            

 

 

AT&T in 1951 - First company with one million shareholders

 

CEO’s are often seen as having superior general management and leadership skills, not specialized industry knowledge

 

Dominos CEO and founder Thomas Monagham – office in Ann Arbor – 2 story, 3,500 sqft., fireplace, 2 bathrooms, ceiling is silk, leather tiles, window looks out to companies 80 buffaloes – Sold Domino’s for $1B, now on an all out catholic crusade to make the church in his own vision – Owned and sold Detroit Tigers

 

Al Dunlap (Chainsaw Al) made famous by his aggressive downsizing of Scott Paper in 1994

 

Bonds have risk too - as interest rate rise – this will make them worthless

 

Radio was the original WWW.  Early RCA radios had “World – Wide Wireless” imprinted on them

 

In the 1960’s – companies that ended with “onics” or “tron” were the “.com’s” of today” – buyers didn’t care as long as it sounded electronic

 

Hart-Scott-Rodino Act – All mergers must be submitted for approval by Federal Regulators who have 30 days to answer or will ask for more information

 

American Bag:

·         Average US household has 13 credit cards – carries $7500 in credit card debt – was only $3000 in 1990

  • In 2000 - Household debt was 101% of income - up from 84% in 1990
  • November 2002 – consumer debt at 103% of annual disposable income
  • Stock Ownership:
    • In 1990 - 21% of all Americans owned stock
    • In 1992 - 37% of population
    • In 1997 - 43% of all Americans owned stock  (47% were women)
    • In 1998 – 49%
    • In 2001 - 52% of all Americans owned stock (median value of $34,000)
  • In 2001 – 68% of American families owned homes (Median price of $122,000)
  • US population as of 2002 – 286M
  • Consumers – 2002 – consumer spending accounted for 2/3rds of all US economic activity

 

Corporate debt represents 46% of the nation’s gross domestic product

 

Today’s companies can grow more quickly because they are more dependent on intellectual capital rather than physical capital – Michael Mauboussin – CSFB

 

US companies with junk bonds – 5.4% defaulted in 1999

 

Securitization – Bundling of loans into debt securities – lenders can sell their loan portfolio to investors, take the money from the sale, then make even more loans

 

15 technology stocks are today worth more than the entire market in 1990 – observed at the height of the late 90’s bull market

 

Taylor Rule – If inflation’s 1% point above Fed’s goal, rates should rise by 1.5%

On Recession – economies total output is 1% below its full capacity, rates should fall by half a % point

Greenspan doesn’t like the rule – “Employs a forecast that the future will be like the past which always isn’t the case”

 

51% of the Toronto Stock exchange is tech and telecom

 

30% of all trading volume is by retail investors

 

Average holding period for an issue in 1999 - 150 days.  In 1990 – 730 days

 

Short Interest – reflects the number of shares that have yet to be repurchased to give back to lenders – the higher the short interest the more people have shorted stocks

 

The US Stock Market represents less than 40% of the total stock market capitalization in the world

 

Snapple – Original creators, Lennie Marsh, Hyman Golden, Arnold Greenburg, sold Snapple to buyout firm Thomas H. Lee for $130M – was then sold to Quaker Oats for $1.7B, 2 yrs later sold in 1997 to Triarc for $300M (Quaker had huge problems with it), now being sold to Cadbury for $1.45B in 2000

 

US GDP (Total value of the Nation’s output of goods and services) accounts for almost 30% of the worlds output – was 26% in 1992

 

US companies make almost ½ of all the worlds corporate profits

 

Napster accounted for 3%-4% of all Internet traffic in 2000

 

Luxury Tax – 4% on amounts over $38,000 – was 5%

 

AirBall Lending – AirBall is the portion of the loan not backed by hard assets, such as equipment but simply based on expectations of business growth

 

The Bursting of the Internet Bubble in 2000 – Erased more than 3 Trillion in market value

 

Bear Market – 20% drop from the highs, or 15% drop for 18 months, or Dow down 30% for 50 calendar days

  • Rolling Bear Market – different sectors slammed at different times
  • Where did the term “Bear” come from? – Bear Skin Jobbers – short sellers selling bear skins that they hadn’t acquired

 

How bad is the sky falling?

·         Routine Decline – Drop of 5% in Dow

·         Correction – Drop of 10%

·         Bear Market – Drop of 20%

·         Panic -  Bear market or severe correction lasting several weeks

·         Crash – Decline of 20% of more. There were only two crashes, one in 1929 and 1987.

 

Since 1960 every time the FED has lowered interest rates, stock have done better – Except 2001

 

“The Temp boom (temp job placement) is a huge change in the way the economy works.  It’s one reason the US has pushed down the unemployment rate without pushing up the inflation rate”

 

Leveraged Buyout – A group of investors acquires a company largely with borrowed money.  The debt ultimately paid with funds generated by the acquired company’s operations or sales of its assets

 

Hotels – Lodging historically is in the top 10 best performing industry groups for six months after the beginning of an economic slowdown

 

Hotels growth is measured by average revenue per available room

 

Going Concern Clause – if an auditor has substantial doubt about a clients ability to continue as a going concern, it must say so in its report on the company’s financial statement

 

Since 1996 the NASDAQ has tracked the economy remarkably close, in particular, consumer spending.  “The NASDAQ has become almost four times as important than disposable income in explaining swings in consumer spending” – ISI Group - 2000

 

Investment in Software and info-processing equipment makes up almost 40% of business investment and in 2000 accounted for 30% of inflation-adjusted economic growth

 

Mortgage rates usually drop before the Fed eases rates, not after.  Bond Market investors anticipate rate reductions weeks or even months in advanced pushing yields in the bond market lower

 

Chapter 7 – Liquidation

Chapter 11 - Reorganization

 

49 of the companies in the NASDAQ 100 are in California

 

Capitulation – When many investors have lost faith in stocks and have surrendered – so that everybody who’s getting out of the market already has sold out, which relieves downward pressure

 

Patent Office – In 2000, granted 182,223 or 72% of the 252,871 patent applications it received, of those 889 were business method patents – takes an average of 26 months to rule on the patent

 

Every recession since WWII has followed rising inflation caused either by an oil-price pike, excessive consumer demand, or some combination of the two

 

There is no direct economic measure of excess capacity for high tech – people use “over hang” – the difference between desired amount of high tech equipment and the actual amount

 

Return on equity – how efficiently assets are used

 

Sub Prime Loans – lending to individual with poor credit – like consumer junk bonds

 

P/E – How much value the market places on each dollar of a corporations earnings

 

Companies that have increased their shares outstanding the most, returns have tended to lag behind the overall market by an average of  three percentage points a year

 

Window Dressing – Purchases by mutual fund managers to adjust their holdings in advance of their quarterly report filings – term used if they have been sitting on cash and their fund is supposed to be fully invested in the market

 

Stranded Costs – capital invested in fixed assets that don’t produce the expected returns, probably won’t anytime soon, and can’t be easily converted to uses demanded by new economic realities

 

Capital expenditures don’t affect the operating results most closely watched by Wall Street, the deals allow companies to bolster reported revenue.  “…It raises the real question of whether companies are creating real economic value or sham transactions financially engineered to report to shareholders.”  - Lynn Turner , Former SEC Chief Accountant

Together with suppliers and other related business, the auto industry accounts for nearly 6% of the US’s gross domestic product

 

Merger Arbitrage “Risk Arbitrage” – shorting the stock of the acquirer and buying shares of the target

 

The Fed lowered the short-term fed-funds rate 11 times in 2001 to 1.75%

 

When debt tied to equity – if the stock price falls – may trigger any debt repayments that can cripple a company

 

Vendor Financing Agreement – Suppliers lend its customers money in which to buy their equipment – was rampant in the late 90’s /2000 Internet Bubble

 

The top 50 companies in the world control 80% of the capital spending

 

In Germany – Corporate Law doesn’t allow a CEO but a “Vorstand” – a management counsel dedicated to consensus – members can overrule the councils head

 

Synthetic Lease – Allows companies to get the tax benefits associated with owning real estate while keeping the debt associated with it off its balance sheets

 

Deflation – the worse deflation gets, the harder it is for business to pay their debts and the higher the amount of bad loans banks will face

 

“Special-purpose entities” = off-the-books partnerships

 

Savings and Loan “Scandal” of the 1980’s – short version – Congress raised the deposits made in banks that were federally covered by insurance (FDIC) from $40,000 to $100,000 in 1980.  S&L’s came about by savvy businessmen and had investors put up to $100,000 of their own money into the S&L banks to reap larger interest rates than the plain vanilla regional banks.  The S&L’s then made a ton of bad loans/investments and the government had to pick up the bill and reimbursed all the people who made deposits.  Prime example was Charles Ketting, building the most luxurious resort in Phoenix, The Phoenician.

 

Treating Stock Options as an expense would lower earnings of nearly every major corporation in the US – If stock options were expensed in 2000 for the companies in the S&P 500, Fed researchers concluded operating income would have been 13.8% below what they reported

 

The flip side to Stock Options – Options don’t cost the company any cash – companies are just giving out shares, they can’t be expensed accurately because it’s too hard to calculate their value

 

In 1952, tangible assets such as real estate, equipment and inventories represented 78% of the assets of US non-financial corporation’s – today 2002 only representing 53% - Shift due to patents, copyrights and goodwill

 

Defense Science Board – The Pentagons internal think tank

 

The military will need an average of about 16 gigabytes per second of bandwidth to fight a war in 2010

 

Russia account for half of US poultry exports worldwide

 

Cemex – Mexico – Has 60% of the Mexican market share for cement

 

Japan – cross shareholding – practice that is and was prevalent especially in the 80’ and 90’s were big banks, major manufactures, and suppliers all owned shares in each other

 

Profitless prosperity – Ram memory and disk drives

 

July 2002 – Foreigners hold 40% of the US Treasury marketable debt, 24% of corporate bonds, 13% of US equities

 

A Falling dollar – can produce an uptick in inflation – boosting import prices makes it easier for domestic manufactures to raise their own prices

 

Nations currency – weathervane – shows which direction the winds of international capital is blowing

 

80% of US imports arrive via US seaports

 

Japan – 83% of the people in Japan say they have no interest in investing in stocks

 

Six Sigma – Means 3.4 defects per ever million occurrences – concentrates on eliminating defects from the work process – Made famous by Jack Welch of GE

 

Consumers – 2002 – consumer spending has accounted for 2/3rds of all US economic activity

 

Take the “PIL” – looks at forecasts for profits, interest rates, and liquidity, to come up with a predicted value for a stock index  - Tom Gavin CFSB

 

The US makes up 54% of the world’s stock market value

 

“Dead Peasant” Life Insurance – policy on employees without their knowledge and payable to the company when the employee dies – one in four companies in the Fortune 500 have it.  Wal-Mart has taken out 350,000 of these policies

 

Number of venture capital funds in the US – 3568 – In Texas-161, In Mass-451, In NY – 474, In California-1166

 

China – 2002 – Has become the world’s factory floor with output so massive and wide ranging that it exerts deflationary pressure around the globe

 

Cash balances of a company provide a floor to a stock price – If a publicly traded company trades below its level of net cash (total cash – any debt on hand), question the company’s survival

 

Deflation – Dangerous because it makes it hard to boost the economy by cutting interest rates – makes debt harder to pay

·         In a deflationary environment, you don’t want to be in debt - Cash is king

·         Japan learned that stocks can stagnate for a whole decade if you have deflation

 

Prince Alwaleed bin Tala – The largest single foreign investor in the US with $13B invested – Chairman of Kingdom Holdings – Has $9B invested in Citigroup and there largest investor

 

Under-funded Pensions – 143 out of the 600 companies in the S&P 600 small cap had under-funded pensions at the end of 2001

 

A strong currency has the same effect as a policy to increase interest rates

 

9 of the 10 last recessions have been preceded by sharply higher energy prices

 

The competitiveness of the US chemical industry is predicated on natural gas pricing – Greg Lebedev – American Chemistry Council

 

Ethylene – World’s largest commodity chemical

 

Bond Prices often get jittery towards the end of a recession or early in an economic recover

 

Melting Ice Cube Problem – When a company’s core product is in decline

 

“A Fed that is more tolerant of inflation has always been a negative for bonds because the stance will ultimately lead to higher inflation that the Fed will need to quell by raising rates” – Bill Gross

 

September is when stock have done the worst during the past century

 

Junk bonds are considered worth the risk if the yields are at least five percentage points above the 10 Year Treasury Notes

 

Economic barometer – Uniform Rental - As companies increase/downsize their operations so does the number of uniforms that the company will need

 

Current Account Balance/Deficit – measures foreign interest in the US

 

2002 – US Corporations defaulted on more than $105B in corporate debt

 

Monophony – When a company gains enough power to push their suppliers prices down

 

Oligopsony – When a few companies get together and push their suppliers prices down

 

Goldilocks economy – Not too hot, no too cold

 

“Scorched Earth Defense” – When your company is being taken over and you yourself buy a company for stock and put a big block of stock in “friendly” hands

 

Merger Anyone? – More than 70% of the big bang mergers from 1995 to 2003 have failed to create significant shareholder value – WSJ

 

World population living outside the US and Canada – 95%.  Portion of the world’s gross domestic product outside the US and Canada – 65%

 

Mutual Funds – Funds need about $100M to assets to be consistently profitable

 

Bottoms take longer to form than tops

 

“If you look up on Wednesday what companies are announcing on Friday, then you short them.  That’s because there is a 25% greater probability they’re going to announce a negative earnings surprise.” – Professor Della Vigna – University of California Berkley – Why? Less people follow the market on Fridays

 

Japans Ministry of Finance buys US Treasury’s through the Bank of Japan

 

US governments reporting of US treasury data has a lag time of a month and a half

 

Beta – Measure of Volatility in a stock – It’s a statistical comparison of the fluctuation of a stocks share price verses fluctuation of the S&P 500 (or another index)

 

Is there a problem with having large amounts of cash on the balance sheet? – Problem is that your return on capital will lag.

 

When companies are buying back stock, it may be good for you as a shareholder, but it is also saying that maybe they don’t have that great of growth prospects in their core business – Michelle Clayman, New Amsterdam Partners

 

When long term bond rates fall as short term rates rise, the bond market is telling us the economy is going down a path that is weaker than average – Richard Bernstein – Merrill Lynch

 

4Q2004 – US households debt-to-income ratio was 1.2 to 1 – an all time high.  In 1990 it was 0.9 to 1

 

One difference between and EFT and a Mutual Fund – Mutual funds recalculate share price once a day while EFT’s trade all day

 

Sovereign Wealth Funds – Pools of foreign government money used in investing in other countries.

 

 

 

Who pays taxes anymore?

·         More than 60% of US companies didn’t pay any Federal taxes for the period between 1996 and 2000 – these were boom years for the economy/corporations and it was under a Democratic President (Clinton)

·         70% of foreign owned companies doing business in the US didn’t owe any taxes during this time period either!

·         In 2000 – 45.3% of large US companies and 37.5% of large foreign owned companies paid NO tax liabilities

·         The base federal tax rate is 35%

 

Five Tips for Turing around a drab brand – From JC Penny’s Allen Questrom - 2004

·         Be, Patient.  Turnarounds take a long time

·         Old rules of doing business can still be relevant, but choose what makes sense today

·         Simplify your objectives and makes them understandable

·         Don’t try so many new things that you lose focus on your main competency

·         The more employees who understand a new strategy, the more likely it will work.

 

 

 

 

The Accounting Bag                                                                                                           

 

 

Amortization of Goodwill – lowers the earnings of companies that have made acquisitions.  Goodwill is the difference between the purchase price paid for an acquisition and the fair value of the acquired companies net assets.  If a company has Goodwill on its books, it must now amortize, or reduce, that asset over a period of time which can last many years.  People argue that it’s a non-cash charge and leveraging it gives a false impression of the true earning power.  Thus it’s reported two ways:  With Goodwill Amortization – “reported earnings” and Without Goodwill Amortization – “cash earnings”

 

Book Value – the difference between a company’s assets and its liabilities

 

Cash Flow – GAAP – cash receipts minus cash distributions for a given reporting period – Has three different categories – cash flow from operating activities, cash flow from financing activities and cash flow from investing activities

 

EBITDA – Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and amortization – NOT THE SAME AS CASH FLOW – It doesn’t reflect changes in companies liquidity

 

Extraordinary Items – GAAP – items that are both unusual in nature an infrequent in occurrence, like acts of God – counts when calculating net income – not in income from continuing operation

 

Free Cash Flow – the cash the company has left over after its pays dividends and makes capital expenditures

 

Financing Gap – the shortfall between corporate investment needs and internally generated cash

 

Goodwill – an accounting term for the difference between what an acquiring company pays for an acquisition and the value of the net assets of the acquiring company

 

Income From Continuing Operations – GAAP – Revenues and expenses stemming from a company’s ongoing operations, after taxes.  It includes interest income and expenses and other non-operating gains and losses.  It excludes only three things: discontinued operations, cumulative effects of changes in accounting principles, and extraordinary items

 

Net Debt – Company’s debt minus the cash and cash equivalents it has on hand  - Often much lower than total debt in which the cash isn’t always readily available for repayment of debt

 

New Goodwill Rules – Goodwill has to be written down entirely as soon as it is deemed overvalued – with the old rules – you could write goodwill down gradually

 

Operating Earnings – Pro Forma – Ongoing Earnings – Core Income – Economic Earnings  - ALL MEAN THE SAME THING! – Aren’t concepts under the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)

  • These values usually represent higher numbers than net income because they leave out special, one-time, or exceptional charges out of the calculation
  • Makes earnings look better than they really are

 

Operating Income – GAAP – Revenue less cost of goods sold and related operating expenses stemming from a company’s normal business activity.  I t does exclude interest income and expenses, dividend income, taxes, and extraordinary items

 

Operating profit margin – ratio of operating profit to revenue

 

SG&A – Accounting figures which include costs such as salaries, rent, advertising, and travel – gauge on how tightly companies control expenses

 

Special Charges, One Time, Unusual, Exceptional Charges – expenses that are ordinary costs of doing business, but the company don’t want investors concerned about it when valuing their stock – NOT A GAAP TERM! – NOT considered and Extraordinary Item and can’t be considered as one

 

If expensed today – operating expense, If expensed tomorrow – capital investment

 

Percentage of Completion Accounting” – Companies can book revenue they believe they will collect later to offset start-up costs – but only the management knows what the assumption are – Investors are in the dark – especially discomforting if the company has credibility problems

 

“If a company has taken 14 consecutive quarters of “special charges,” these charges aren’t special, they’re a normalized cost of doing business” – Motorola has had 15 consecutive quarters of special charges – Vivian Mamelac

 

REG - G – Prohibits companies from giving greater prominence in their earnings release to non-GAAP financial metrics than they do to comparable GAAP figures – Companies cannot use non-GAAP terms

 

“EBITDA is a lousy proxy for cash flow from operations because most of the fun and games happens in changes in operating assets” – Howard Schilit

 

EBITDA – “The only case in which you can use EBITDA with absolute certainty is when you know the company doesn’t have to reinvest anything in the core business to maintain its competitive nature, and there are only a few business where that is the case” – Tim Chanus – Hedge Fund Manager

 

Free Cash Flow might overstate the true earnings power of a company because technology changes can upend a company’s competitive position, a company might be under investing in technologies that aren’t counted in capital expenditures – Jesse Eisinger –WSJ

 

FASB – Financial Accounting Standards Board – Set the country’s accounting rules

 

Return on Equity (ROE) – Net Income/Shareholder Equity – Measures that return on capital contributed by shareholders only

 

Return on Invested Capital (RIOC) – Return on ALL capital employed including debt – measures “real cash to cash” return – Best used on highly leveraged companies

 

Enterprise Value – Market cap plus debt

 

 

 

Index Anyone?

 

 

The S&P 500

McGraw-Hill Company (MHP)   www.mcgraw-hill.com  and  Standardandpoors.com

·         Formed in 1941 with the merger of Standard Statistics and Poor’s Publishing

·         S&P has changed 20% of the index’s components in the past four years

·         New stocks to the S&P 500 outperform the avg. by 3.06% on their additional date – why? - assets linked to index.

·         Conrail  - only IPO that went straight to the S&P 500

·         1997 –  S&P500 had a 33.4% return - average mutual fund returned 24.2%

·         Return:

·         S&P 500

·                     Year       Gain/Loss             Close     

·                     1999       19.53 %                 1469

·                     2000       (9.19%)                  1334.226

·                     2001       (13.04%)                               1448.083

·                     2002       (23.37%)                               879.819

·                     2003       26.38%                  1111.916

·                     2004       8.99%                    1211.92

·         P/E Multiple:

·         1987 - P/E multiple of 12

·         Aug 2001 – P/E of 22.2

·         Long Term average P/E of 14.5

·         2/3/98  - S&P went past the 1000 milestone

·         S&P weighed by market value of its components, GE most influential stock in S&P

·         Rules used to prevent real estate companies from being in the index

·         REITS now allowed in the index - 2002

·         Chrysler was forced out of the index due to Daimler being foreign.  Foreign companies not allowed in the S&P

·         Among the companies in the S&P 500, the average company derives 23% of earnings from abroad

·         Financial companies including banks make up 21% of the market value of the S&P 500 (2003) – was 17% in 2000

·         Companies picked by a panel

·         S&P Triple A Credit Rating:

  • 2005 –Only six US (Non-financial) companies have Triple A ratings

·         ExxonMobil. GE, J&J, Pfizer, UPS and ADP

·         Past companies that had Triple A ratings

·         GE – Lost Triple A rating in 1981

·         Ford – Lost Triple A rating in 1986

·         Coke - Lost Triple A rating in July 1986

·         AIG - Lost Triple A rating in 2005

·         Companies have to issue bonds to be rated – Reason why many tech companies like Microsoft do not have ratings

·         In 2001 – S&P downgraded the credit rating of 771 companies

 

 

Dow Jones and Company (DJ)             www.dowjones.com

·         Founded in 1882 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser – three reporters

·         Started the Wall Street Journal

·         Launched its first stock indicator in 1884 – now called the Dow Transports

·         Dow Jones Industrial Average launched in May 1896

·         Companies picked by a panel

 

Dow 30

Alco (AA)

American Express (AXP)

AT&T  (T)

Boeing (BA)

Caterpillar (CAT)

Citigroup (C)

Coca-Cola (KO)

Du Pont (DD)

Eastman Kodak (EK)

Exxon/Mobil (XOM)

General Electric (GE)

General Motor (GM)

Hewlett Packard (HWP)

Home Depot (HD)

Honeywell (HON)

IBM

Intel (INTC)

International Paper (IP)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Microsoft (MSFT)

McDonalds (MCD)

Merck (MRK)

Minnesota Mining Man.  (MMM)

J.P. Morgan (JPM)

Phillip Morris (MO)

Proctor Gamble (PG)

SBC

United Technology (UTX)

Wal-Mart (WMT)

Walt Disney (DIS)

 

Dow Transports

Airborne Freight (ABF)

Alaska Air (ALK)

American Airlines Group (AMR)

Alexander & Baldwin (ALEX)

Burlington Northern (BNI)

CNF Transportation (CNF)

CSX Corp. (CSX)

Delta Airlines (DAL)

FedEx (FDX)

GATX Corp. (GMT)

Norfolk Southern (NSC)

Roadway Express (ROAD)

Ryder Systems (R)

Southwest Airlines (LUV)

United Airlines (UAL)

Union Pacific (UNP)

US AIR (U)

US Freightways (USFC)

XTRA (XTR)

Yellow (YELL)

 

Dow Utilities

American Electric Power (AEP)

Columbia Gas (CG)

Consolidated Edison (ED)

Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG)

Duke Power (DUK)

Edison International (EIX)

Enron (ENE)

Houston Industries (HOU)

PECO Energy (PE)

Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG)

Public Service Ent.  (PEG)

Texas Utilities (TXU)

Unicom Corp. (UCM)

Williams Cos.  (WMB)

 

The Dow 30

·         In 1999 - Allied Signal, Chevron, Goodyear, Sears, Union Carbide replaced by Home Depot, Intel, SBC, MSFT, Honeywell (Honeywell and Allied Signal merged)

·         Price weighted – thus IBM, MRK, J.P. Morgan have disproportionate impact

·         10/28/97 biggest 1day point gain

·         Five of the ten biggest one day point losses in the Dow occurred in 1997 (Not taking into account 2001)

·         Eight of the ten biggest one day point gains occurred in 1997 (Not taking into account 2001)

·         Return:

·         Year       Gain/Loss             Close

·         1997       22.64%                  7908.25

·         1998       16.10%                  9181.43

·         1999       25.22%                  11497.12

·         2000       (6.18%)                  10786.85

·         2001       (7.10%)                  10021.5

·         2002       (16.76)                   8341.63

·         2003       25.3%                    10453.92

·         2004       3.15%                    10783.01

·         2005       0.46%                    10717.50

 

·         Feb 1, 2002 – Nikkei dropped below the Dow – last time was in August 1957 (Nikkei peaked at 38915.89 on the last day of trading in 1989)

  • Nikkei closed at 9791.43, Dow closed at 9907.26

·         For every $1 move in a Dow stock it effects the Dow average by seven points – 2003

·         The Dow has been down for the past three years, 2002, 2001, 2000 – it hasn’t been down for four consecutive years since 1932

·         The Dow has crossed over the 10,000 mark 35 times from March 1999 to May 2002

·         Dow changes April 8 2004:

·         Leaving the Dow – Eastman Kodak (EK), AT&T (T), International Paper (IP)

·         Entering the Dow – American International Group (AIG), Pfizer (PFE), Verizon (VZ)

·         The Dow’s make-up has been changed 43 times (ending 2005)

·         Original Dow 12 members: American Cotton Oil, American Sugar Refining Co., American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding Co., General Electric, Laclede Gas & Light Co., Tennessee Coal, Iron, Railroad, National Lead, North American Co., US Leather, US Rubber Co.

 

Dow        Date

1000          Nov. 14, 1972

2000          Jan. 8, 1987

3000          Apr. 17, 1991

4000       Feb 23, 1995                                                       

5000          Nov. 21, 1995                                                     

6000          Oct 14, 1996                                                                                        

7000          Feb 13, 1997

8000          July 16, 1997                                       

9000          Apr. 6, 1998

10000      Mar. 29, 1999

11000      May 3, 1999

11722.90    Jan 14, 2000 – all time high                                                        

 

Date                  Point change          % of change                                            

10/27/97                 -554.26                    7.18%

8/31/98                 -512.61                  6.37%

10/19/87                               -508                        22.61%

8/27/98                  -357.36                  4.19 %  

 

 

Frank Russel Co – The Russel 3000 index - The Russel 2000 index – The Russel 1000 index      www.russel.com

·         Russel 3000 measures the performance of the US’s 3000 largest companies

·         Russel 1000 measures the performance of 1000 of the largest companies in the Russel 3000 index

·         Russel 2000 measures the performance of the 2000 smallest companies in the Russel 3000 index – Companies with market capitalization of less than $1.4B

·         Adds and subtracts companies to their list on a single day each year based on market capitalization – usually on May 31st

·         Called the Russel Shuffle

·         Revised each June 25th based on the companies market cap on the final trading day in May

·         Market capitalization of less than $1.5B

·         Companies shares must trade above $1

·         Russel 2000 Return:

·         2001 – up 2.48%

·         2002 – down 20.48%

·         2003 – up 45%

·         2004 – up 17%

 

 

 

 

 

Exchange What?

 

 

The New York Stock Exchange www.nyse.com

·         Founded 1792

·         In 1998 had 3,058 listed stocks

·         Has 3,525 listed stocks  - 2000

·         2003 – 6384 traded companies on NYSE and NASDAQ

·         As of June 2002 – 2163 listed stocks

·         Chairman Richard Grasso

·         Resigned September 2003 over perceived generous pay package/retirement package of $140M for his 36 year tenure at the NYSE

·         27 member board

·         Single letters available on the NYSE?

·         H, I, J, M, P, U, W, Z and now possible T and G (AT&T and Gillette separate mergers in 2005)

·         Acquired Archipelago Holdings, an electronic stock exchange and creating a new company called NYSE (NYX)

 

 

The NASDAQ    www.nasdaq.com

·         National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System – Launched 1971

·         5,200 listed stocks

·         2003 – 6384 traded companies on NYSE and NASDAQ

·         2005 – 3193 listed stocks – July 2005

·         Had a P/E multiple of 19 in late 1988

·         The NASDAQ and delisting – A company will receive a warning if their stock trades below one dollar for 30 consecutive days

·         NASDAQ Composite Return:

·         Year       Gain/Loss             Close

·         1998       39.6%                    2192.7

·         1999       85.6%                    4069.3

·         2000       (39.29%)                               2470.5

·         2001       (21.05%)                               1950.4

·         2002       (31.52%)                               1335.5

·         2003       50%                        2003.37

·         2004       8.59%                    2175.44

 

·         Nasdaq 100 – (QQQ) – the 100 largest non financial stocks traded in the Nasdaq – Changes made every December

 

NASDAQ Composite:

1000       July 17, 1995

2000       July 16, 1998

3000       Nov. 3, 1999

4000       Dec. 29, 1999

5000       Mar. 9, 2000

5048       Mar. 10, 2000 - Top

               

 

AMEX (American Stock Exchange)     www.amex.com

 

Chicago Mercantile Exchange   www.cmr.com

 

Pacific Stock Exchange            www.pacificex.com

 

 

 

 

What About Overseas?                                                                                                            

 

 

Foreign Markets Index

Japan – Nikkei 25

  • Jan. 2002 – Nikkei dropped below the Dow – last time was in August 1957
  • Nikkei peaked at 38915.89 on the last day of trading in 1989

London – FTSE 100

Frankfurt – Dax – 30

Paris CAC – 40

 

 

Foreign Markets and Exchanges 

Hong Kong Futures                  www.hkfe.com

Hong Kong Stock Exchange    www.sehk.com.hk

Korean Stock Exchange         http://www.kse.or.kr/e_index.html

London Stock Exchange          www.londonstockexchange.com

Paris Stock Exchange       http://www.bourse-de-paris.fr/home.htm

Toronto Stock Exchange      http://www.tse.com

Vancouver Stock Exchange     http://www.cdnx.ca

Tokyo Stock Exchange        http://www.tse.or.jp/eindex.html

 

 

Foreign Currencies – Pre Euro

Argentina – Peso

Australia - Dollar

Austria - Schilling

Bahrain - Dinar

Belgium - Frank

Brazil – Real

Britain – Pound

Canada – Dollar

Chile - Peso

China – Renmimbi

Colombia - Peso

Czech – Krouna

Denmark – Krone

Ecuador - Sucre

 

Finland – Markka

France – Franc

Germany – Mark

Greece - Drachma

Hong Kong – Dollar

Hungary – Forint

India  - Rupiah

Indo – Rupiah

Ireland – Dunt

Israel - Shekel

Italy – Lirs

Japan - Yen

Jordan – Dinar

Kuwait - Dinar

Lebanon – Pound

Malaysia - Ringgit

Malta - Kuria

Mexico – Peso

Netherlands – Guilkder

New Zealand - Doalllat

Norway – Kroner

Pakistan – Rupec

Peru - New Sol

Philo- Poeso

Poland - Zziotx

Portugal - Escudo

Russia - Rubble

Saudi Arabia - Riyal

Singapore - Dollar

S. Korea - Won

Spain - Peseta

Sweden - Krona

Switzerland – Frank

Taiwan - Dollar

Thailand - Baht

Turkey - Lira

United Arab - Piram

Uruguay - New Peso

Venezuela - Boliviar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indicators Indicate What?                                                                                                        

 

Gross Domestic Product

  • What does it measure?
    • Measures the value of all goods and services produced in the US covering every major sector in the US economy.   Includes imports, exports, consumer spending, government spending including local budgets and military budgets, and business investments in equipment and inventories
  • Who Releases it?
    • Released by US Department of Economic Analysis   www.bea.doc.gov
    • Released in three phases
      • Advanced Estimate – reported late in the first month after the end of the calendar quarter
      • Two later revisions – One primary report and one final report after two months
  • What it’s good for?
    • Due to its late release in the quarter, economists already have a good feel for what’s going on in the economy because other specific indicators have already been released such as retail sales and government spending, durable goods shipments
    • Mostly used for/or against political campaigns and the Federal Reserve adjusting its monetary policy

 

Consumer Price Index

  • What does it measure?
    • Measures the price changes of items people use in the US on a daily basis from month to month or against other periods
    • Uses a “basket” of goods and services with one from each group:
      • Housing – rent, mortgage, furniture, gas
      • Food and beverage – milk, coffee, restaurant plate costs, chicken
      • Transportation – cars, airfare, insurance
      • Medical Care
      • Apparel
      • Recreation – cable TV, sports equipment, pets
      • Education and communication – postage and college tuition
      • Other goods and services – funeral services to haircuts
    • CPI used to benchmark how much the US Government pays to Social Security recipients
  • Who Release it?
  • What’s it good for?
    • Considered one of the best indictors for inflation
    • Does not take into consideration seasonal factors which can cause prices to flux in the food and energy
      • “Core CPI” – excludes components that are affected by these fluxes
    • Does not take into account changes in quality especially with medical advances
  • CPI Hedonics?
    • Hedonics refers to the way that the people who compute the CPI account for the technology/feature advancements in ordinary items year by year.  An example is how electronics constantly increase in functionality.

 

Producer Price Index

  • What does it measure?
    • Measures the average change in selling prices of the final product that US producers pay to produce their product
    • Details price movements for almost everything produced
  • Who Release it?
  • What’s it good for?
    • Due to its early release, it’s the first measure of movement of inflation in every month
    • “Core PPI” – excludes food and energy component which is subject to volatility
    • There is not a direct relationship between an increase in CPI and  an increase in PPI due to the fact price increase are not always passed on to the consumer

 

Housing Starts

  • What does it measure?
    • Reports the number of new residential single family homes and multifamily buildings construction projects
  • Who Releases it?
  • What’s it good for?
    • Have been strongly correlated as an indicator to recessions and recoveries
    • Weather is a volatility factor and thus subsequent revisions are produced
    • Economists tend to watch for longer term trends than just focusing on monthly numbers
    • Numbers can point to other increases in the economy which are based on the “home improvement or hardware” sector such as furniture or appliances

 

Employment

  • What does it measure?
    • Measures the employment, unemployment, hours and wages for US non-agriculture payrolls
    • Data compiled from a monthly survey of 300,000 business in hundreds of industries
  • Who Release it?
  • What’s it good for?
    • Heavily focused on because of its early release
    • Employment drives consumer spending
    • Report overtime numbers which indicate which can elude to new hiring is on the way
    • Releases data on which sectors lost or gained job giving  a measure of health of the sector

 

ISM’s Purchasing Managers Index – Released by the Institute for Supply Management

  • Shows what materials are getting scare

 

 

 

Doesn’t the Government(s) rule the world?                                                                                                           

 

 

The Federal Reserve Board  www.federalreserve.com

·         Chairman Alan Greenspan

·         Chairman’s have a four year term

·         Term lasts till August 2004 – He is unable to pick his successor

·         Congress approved his fifth and final four year term – June 2004

·         Second longest servicing chairman

·         Was appointed in 1987 by Ronald Regan

·         G.W. Bush Ok’d him for another four years – can technically be in position until February 2006

·         Was President Ford’s Chief Economist

·         In 2005 – Mr. Greenspan is 70 years old

·         Married to NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchel

·         By law, the Chairman must address congress and its monetary policy two times a year – usually in February and July

·         The report was once called the Humphrey-Hawkins report

·         Mr. Greenspan has addressed congress 35 times from 1987 to July 2005

·         “What is happening amongst our trading partners has a greater effect on the US than we can readily understand directly…that leads us to be, obviously, quite sensitive to what we see going on abroad.”

·         The Fed lowered the short-term fed-funds rate 11 times in 2001 to 1.75%

·         13 Federal Funds cuts in the past 2 ½ years – From 6.5% to 1% - July 2003

·         Summer 2003 – Fed rate at 1% - 45 year low

·         The Fed Fund rate bottomed out at 1% in June of 2004

 

US Treasury www.ustreas.gov

Past Secretaries

·         Robert F. Rubin  - July 11 1995 to July 2nd 1999

·         Lawrence H. Summer – July 2nd 1999 to Jan 20th 2001

·         Paul H. O’Neill – Jan 20th to present – resigned December 2002

 

CBO – Congressional Budget Office  www.cbo.gov

·         225 person agency created in 1974 to take some control over the budget process from the White House

·         Makes predictions two times a year – how fast the economy is growing, where interest rates are heading, and employment  - uses these number to predict how much money the federal government will collect in taxes and spend in outlays for budget surplus or deficits

 

 

The Trade Deficit

·         As the trade deficit continues to expand, The US is forced to increase borrowing to pay for the rising tide of foreign goods and services and thus will increase interest rates

·         $125 - $150 B trade deficit $50B w/China $50Bw/Japan

·         In 73’ the US was a creditor nation, now we are the world’s largest debtor nation

·         In July of 2000, reached new record high of $31.84B

 

 

 

 

More Seas                                                                                                           

 

 

The European Union

·         Comprised of 25 Nations – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, U.K., Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia

·         Originally 15 Nations: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, U.K.

·         Has a population of 376M – world’s 2nd largest economy – GDP of $9,097.8B

·         Euro launched on January 4th, 1999

·         Full converted January 1st 2002

·         Has a cap on running budget deficits of more than 3% of the country’s gross domestic product

·         10 nations entered May 1 2004 – now 25 nation European Union would have 444M people (NAFTA has 387M)

·         Those getting in – Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia

·         EU – 2007 – Those looking to enter:  Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia

·         Population: US 281.4M, US w/NAFTA 450M, EU-15 375.3M, EU-25 450.5, EU-27 481.2

·         The EU forbids governments bailing out national companies – BUT France has bailed out three companies and the EU has not said a thing

·         France bailed out Groupe Bull (Extended a 450M Euro loan in 2001 and 2002), France Telecom (9B Euro Fall of 2002), and Alstom (August 2003)

·         Tax Harmonization – EU initiative to end competitive tax breaks among its member states

·         European Central Bank – President Jean-Claude Trichet

European Commission

·         Executive arm of the EU

·         Obliged to review all mergers and acquisitions involving companies with combined world-wide sales of more than 5B in Euros (around $4.3B) and European sales of at least 250M Euros, regardless where the companies are based

·         Has the power to seal off corporate offices to look for evidence for as long as they like.  They also can go in personal homes, cars, all private property of company executives

·         Mario Monti of Italy is their anti-trust czar

·         Blamed for collapsing the GE Honeywell deal

·         Under current conditions - cannot break up companies once they have merged

·         New proposal by Mario set forth on September 27, 2000 – will be able to break up companies that do business in Europe – thus will include many and most US corporations

·         Proposal can be found at http://www.europa.eu.int/

·          

 

The EURO

·         European Currency – EMU - economic and monetary union – Euro launched on January 4th , 1999

·         January 1st 2002 – the euro will be introduced in notes and coins for everyday use.  In March of 2002, the old currency will no longer be legal tender

 

The UN

Originally 51 members – now 191

Security Council – US, Britain, China, France and Russia (the winners of WWII and have permanent seats on the council and voting rights) and 10 countries that the general assembly elects for 2 year term

General Assembly – Debate Forum – Overseas UN administration and every country gets a say

 

The G-7

Countries:

·         US, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, and Germany.  Russia takes part in foreign policy discussions at which point the forum becomes G-8.

 

 

Countries, Leaders, People and their bags                                                                                                           

 

 

Argentina

·         Has a $130B in Government debt

·         Latin America’s 3rd largest economy

 

Brazil

·         President Luiz Inancio Lula da Silva – Brazil’s first elective leftists leader

·         Worlds’ 9th largest economy

·         Largest economy in Latin America – 160 M people

·         Largest exporter of raw sugar in the world, No.2 for soybeans, No.3 in beef exports

·         Whirlpools leading foreign market

·         $260B in public debt  - 170M consumers

·         Brazil land mass – larger land mass than the continental US – much in Amazon is inhospitable or arid northeast

·Arable territory is held by just 3% of all landowners

 

China

·         Premier Zhu Rongji

·         Now Wen Jiabao

·         Considered a $1.3B consumer market

·         Had $266.2B in exports in 2001

·         World’s fourth largest industrial base

·         No.2 petroleum user in the world – took over No.2 spot from Japan in 2003

·         Has a 11% general tariff on goods

·         In 2002 - accounted for just 3.8% of the world’s gross domestic product but contributed to more than 15% of global growth

·         US exports to China – No. 1 airplanes, No.2 semiconductors, No.3 scrap (scrap metal, paper, plastic, etc.)

·         Basically fixes the Yuan at 8.28 to the US dollar – As the dollar moves so does the Yuan – fixed currency

·         Why? – A strong Chinese currency will starve the growth of its exports and limit the speed of Chinese companies to grow globally

·         China claims it will float the Yuan in 2008 when it enters the WTO

·         Yuan also called Renminbi (RMB)

  • Yuan has been pegged to the US dollar since 1994
  • China revalued their Yuan, July 21 2005

·         US imports 40% of its plastic bags from China

·         600M people expected to move from farms to cities in the next 20 years

 

Egypt

·         President Hosni Mubarak

·         Prime Minister Atef Obeid

 

Germany

·         World’s 3rd largest industrial base

·         Helmut Kohl

·         Gerhard Schroeder

·         Social spending has reached close to 30% of gross domestic product (second only to Sweden)  – US less than 15%

 

Indonesia

·         Suharto resigned and/or thrown out - B.J. Habibe took his place. 

·         Habibe thrown out

·         Megawati Sukarnoputri - New President

·         Mew president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonu

·         Glokar, biggest political party

·         Has $140B in external debt - 60% of which is owned by private companies

 

Iraq

·         Iraqi Intelligence organization - Mukhabarat

 

Israeli

·         Ehud Barak

·         Ariel Sharon

 

Japan

·         Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto – resigned in July 98’ from economic woes was in Liberal Democratic Party.

·         Prime Minister Yoshino Mori took the helm after Hashimoto

·         Hashimoto now replaced by Junichiro Koizumi

·         Ruling Party – Liberal Democratic Party

·         Yamaichi Securities Japan, after 100 years in the business, the country’s 4th largest brokerage firm shut down in the largest corporate failure in Japanese history - Nov. 24 1997

·         As many as 75% of Japanese banks are already insolvent

·         Japan’s fiscal year ends March 31st

 

Mexico

·         Ernesto Zedillo (PRI)

·         Fox (Pan)

 

Oman

·         Sultan Qaboos Bin Said al Said

 

Pakistan

·         Prime Minister – Nawaz Sharif

 

Peru

·         Alberto Kenyo Fujimori

·         Current - Alejandro Toledo

 

Philippines

·         President

·         Fidel Ramos

·         Replaced by Joseph Estrad

·         Replaced by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

·         Abu Sayyaf – Rebel Islamic leader in Mindanao

 

Russia

·         House – Duma

·         Russia accounts for less that 1% of the words gross domestic process

 

Singapore

·         Prime Minister Goh Chok Toug

 

South Africa

·         President Thabo Mbeki

 

South Korea

·         President Roh Moo Hyun – Won presidency on an anti-American stance

 

Switzerland

·         Taxes are often the subject of negotiations between local government officials and corporate CEO’s – Companies general pay corporate tax of 6%-10%

 

Venezuela

·         Hugo Chavez

 

Zimbabwe

·         President Robert Mugabe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Assortment of Thoughts – Trinkets                                                                                                            

 

 

The Telebras Auction

Property

Winner

Paid (B)

Premium

Telesp (Fixed line Sao Paulo)

Telefonica, Banco Bilboa Vizcaya, Iberdrola (all from Spain)

4.94

64%

 

Portugal Telecom, RBS of Brazil

 

 

Telesp Celular

Portugal

3.07

226%

Tele Norte Leste (fixed line N. Brazil)

Andrade Gutirres Grp

2.93

1%

Embratel (long distance)

MCI

2.26

47%

Tele Centro Sul (fixed)

Telecom Italia, Opportunity Bank of Brazil

1.77

6%

Tele Sudeste Celular

Telefonica, Iberdrola, Japan's NTT

1.16

139%

Telemig Celular

TIW of Canada, Brazilian Pension Funds, Opportunity Bank of Brazil

0.65

229%

Tele Sul Celular

Telecom Italia, Banco Bradesco, Globo of Brazil

0.6

204%

Tele Nordeste Celular

Telecom Italia, Brazil's UGB

0.56

193%

Tele Centro Oeste Celular

Splice do Brazil

0.38

91%

Tele Leste Celular

Telefonica, Iberdrola

0.37

241%

Tele Norte Celular

TIW of Canada

0.16

109%

 

 

 

Mutual Funds

In 1998 - 8695 mutual funds, only 34 outperformed the S&P500 for the 1,3,5,10 yrs

 

Fidelity Magellan – Robert Stansky, was Peter Lynch from 77’ to 90’

·         Problems in 1997 for Fidelity Magellan

·         Sold bonds  - hurt in late 97’

·         Phillip Morris only 20% gain

·         Hurt by oil and tech

·         From 19777 to 1990, the Fidelity Magellan fund returned 2,703% return (S&P 500 – 574%)

Mutual Fund General Info:

·         If portfolio of more than $75,000 – cheaper to own stocks directly – only less than 75K – no-load funds

·         From 1991 to 1998, a staggering 1.1Trillion has flown into stock mutual funds

·         Mutual funds hold 21% of US stocks (was 19% in 1997)

·         Shareholders actually own the fund

·         How many funds are out there?

  • 1998 - 8695
  • End of 2000 – 6702
  • March 2003 – 5947

·         First American Mutual Fund – MFS Massachusetts Investors Trust – Formed 1924

 

Hedge Funds – Investors need at least 200K in income in past 2 years with net worth of 1M – was 100 people max till 1996 now 500 investors

                                Typical fees - 1% annually & 20% of any profits

 

2002 – Largest Mutual Funds

1)  Fidelity

2)  Vanguard

3)  Capital American

 

2005 – Largest mutual funds – as of April 30, 2005

Firm                                        Assets under management in Billions

1) Fidelity Investments                       $851B

2) Vanguard Group                             $813

3) Capital Research                            $663

4) Franklin Templeton                        $237

5) Legg Mason                                     $206 – With Citigroup asset swap

 

 

 

REITS Description and General Info

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts – avoids taxes – created in 1960 to encourage real estate investment by people of modest means

·         REIT'S don’t pay corporate income taxes, so they must pay out 95% of their taxable income as dividends, which are taxed when shareholders pay their personal income.  – But aren’t allowed to directly operate properties - Paired Shared REITS are.

 

National Assoc. of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

·         In 80’s REITS had a 5 fold increase.   In 1998 REITS had a market cap of 1.3 Trillion representing ½ of investment grade property in U.S. - Prisons can even be REIT's now

 

REITS moving into hospitals, car dealerships, fast food restaurants, Clinton may set limits on them

 

REIT's Paired Shared – a long ago grandfather clause - Four publicly held REITS can run and operate companies and this shields profits from corporate taxes

 

To grow, REIT's have to issue stock, and if you issue stock when your stock price is low or depressed is crazy

 

Starwood fought for ITT against Hilton and Marriott, Starwood won and Hilton and Marriott were pissed and pushed for REIT tax changes

 

Equity Office Properties Trust – Run by Sam Zell – Largest publicly traded real-estate company

 

 

Paired Shared REITS

·         Starwood, (HOT) Owns Sheraton and Westin

·         Patriot American Hospitality  (PAH)

·         Meditrust  (MT)

·         First Union Real Estate (FUR)

 

 

 

STEEL

 

Trade – US International Trade Commission

·         Steel files 83% of the Trade Commission dockets for complaints, since September 30,1997

·         Past two decades, steel filed about 46% of the nations unfair-trade complaints – steel accounts for less than 5% of US imports

·         Filing and Fighting the case is part of its competitive strategy

·         “You can use trade laws to affect the supply in the market place”

·         “Whenever the market goes soft, for whatever reason, the steel industry will file, you can almost set your watch by it”

·         The market gets week, the industry files trade cases and then imports from the target company drop.  The case bumps along for a year or so, allowing domestic steel makers to raise prices.  Even if the complaint is rejected, the market has time to rebound

·         Once filed – months to wind through the 4-step process

·         First, show ITC a “reasonable indication” of harm from imports.

·         Commerce department can then set preliminary duties on imports.

·         Importers must post a bond to cover those duties

·         Imports of specialty steel have more than doubled in the past few decades

·         Foreign mills have become far more aggressive in the past few decades

·         Highly cyclical industry

·         Canada and Mexico – biggest foreign takers of steel

·         If US firm loses, duty is never collected and the bond lifted

  • If win , importer is liable for the full amount

·         Past 10 yrs. Steel makers have lost 54% of the claims compared to 48% of non-steel cases

  • Flat, rolled steel sheet has lost more than 70% of cases since 88’  (cars, washing machine etc.)

·         Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Program

  • Offers $1B in loan guarantees to those steel companies that can’t qualify for private loans without large backers

·         Cleveland Cliffs Inc. – manages ½ of the nations iron ore productions – owns less than 20% though