Contrarian Profits
Stock marketing investing news and opinion from a contrarian perspective with insights about commodities, gold investing, oil, energy, china, the Fed, inflation, deflation, and global markets
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The Lehman of 2009
Naturally, at the focus of renewed market pessimism is a struggling financial: CIT Group. (NYSE:CIT) The company — a hundred-year-old staple of small/medium business lending — is no stranger to walking the credit tightrope. They narrowly averted fiscal meltdown late last year with $2.3 billion in TA …
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Three Big Movers to Start the Week
They may not be the big mergers investors were hoping would fire off another winning week, but today’s movers help prove there is upside potential left in the market. Even though the “Merger Monday” trend is not continuing this week, we have a Monday morning filled with positive news and upgrades. T …
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A Bull in a Silver Shop
One of the most interesting news items I’ve found was on the cover of The Financial Times, where I learned that a guy named Lahde “made tens of millions of dollars from betting against the financial and property sectors during [the] past two years”, and he now wanted to thank “the low hanging fruit, …
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H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) Is a Long-Term Keeper, but Will Struggle in the Months Ahead
H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) dominates in the ketchup market. There is no second. And Heinz has taken advantage of its revered ketchup brand over the years to develop organically and acquire other brands. However, its overdependence on developed markets and a sluggish U.S. consumer are currently ho …
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Harry Dent: Bold Predictions of the Great Depression Ahead
As they said in the movie “Poltergeist”: “They’re baaa-aaack.” Who’s back? Harry Dent, the self-styled “economic futurist,” who presumes to tell us about the great economic booms and busts that lie ahead. How can he possibly know these things to Dent, an analysis of the “highly predictable” nature o …
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Jobs Disappoint…
September job losses soar to 263,000G-7 does not make statement on currenciesRBA meets tonightIndia & Brazil pull the right stringsAnd Now Todays Pfennig!Good day And a Marvelous Monday to you! The Regular Season for Baseball is over, except The Tigers and Twins have to play a one-game playoff t …
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Welcome to Zombieland
Welcome to Zombieland…where the most amazing things happen…Starring Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and a cast of millions… The new movie – Zombieland – about a group of survivors in a world of zombies, was the biggest grossing film in America and Canada over the weekend. It must reflect the zeitgeist of …
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Boom, Bust and Rebuild: Bank of America and the Kenneth Lewis Legacy
Kenneth D. Lewis There are many ways to view Kenneth Lewis’ eight-year reign as Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) chief executive, but two seem to hold the most landscape. On one hand, the $130 billion he spent on acquisitions – FleetBoston Financial Corp., MBNA Corp., LaSalle Bank Corp., Country …
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OLED: The Next High-Tech Profit Opportunity
The first chapter of a colossal technological shift in the electronics industry is beginning. Displays on small televisions, iPods and smart phones are getting smaller, clearer and brighter at a rapid pace — and it will forever change the way you work and play. Simply put, it’s difficult to overstat …
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Ready to Retire? Think Again
Retirement is part of the American dream. Unfortunately, the nation’s financial meltdown is making the act tougher than ever. Social Security alone won’t pay the bills. Yesterday evening, I had the courage to do something I have not done in a long time. I opened my 401(k) statement. It was a brave, …
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Spending Soars, Savings Suffer
Personal spending soared 1.3% in August, the biggest monthly leap since 2001, the Commerce Department announced today. Of course, this $129 billion jump in consumption “shows strength in August, indicating some economic improvement,” as CNN writes. A quick look at the chart reveals that the once sob …
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hhgregg, Inc.: The Only Retail Stock Worth Buying Right Now
For the first time in six months, retail sales ticked higher in August. Granted, it wasn’t by much – a scant 0.7% higher than July. But it’s inevitable that consumers will eventually get back to their spending ways as this recession subsides. And if you’re looking for a way to play it, consider hhg …
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The New Way to Collapse an Industry
We don’t have to go back very far to see the classic boom, bubble, and bust play out. In just the last 15 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to watch over-zealous traders lose their heads again and again. First, they bought tech companies for 80 times their earnings in the late ’90s and then happily …
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Could Goldman Sachs Share GM’s Fate?
Investment banks have gotten fat off the land since 1982, when the great U.S. bull market got its start. Their business has multiplied many-fold, and their earnings have soared into the stratosphere, to a level far higher than any other sector. Now, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has issued a …
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G-7 to Discuss Currencies?
The ball is in the dollars court todayAussie is unable to hold 14-month highChina and Eurozone print stronger PMIs. Chock-full-o-data todayAnd Now Todays Pfennig! Good day Welcome to October! And a Tub Thumpin Thursday to you! No real reason to get Tub Thumpin, but I thought why not? The non-dollar …
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The Rally Rests on a Knife-Edge
The longer the rally persists, the more dangerous it becomes. The S&P 500 is up almost 60% since March. The Dow just had its best quarter since ’98. Yesterday, the Dow slipped 29 points. Is the rally finally rolling over? Or is this a genuine bull market, just taking a pause? If it is a real bu …
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Why You Should Invest in the ‘New’ Germany
Pundits greeted Angela Merkel’s convincing election win in Germany Sunday with a collective yawn. Commentators think the German economy is sluggish and over-dependent on exports, and believe that a change in the German government from a grand coalition to a center-right coalition will make little po …
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US GDP is Irrelevant
The American economy contracted only 0.7% in the second quarter, the government finalized today. That’s down from its previous projection of 1% and practically seals the deal for a positive GDP number when Uncle Sam gives his initial third-quarter guess in late October. Still, this is the fourth con …
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Are the Bears Turning Bullish?
Some of Wall Street’s most prominent bears are turning bullish right now. But that doesn’t mean that your small-cap portfolio is safe. Here’s why these brilliant minds think that we’re back on the path to recovery — and why they’re wrong. I was in Manhattan last week attending Grant’s Fall Investmen …
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Four Companies Set to Profit from a Federal Cash Injection
What do Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), IBM (NYSE: IBM), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) all have in common? The obvious answer is that they’re four of the most successful technology companies on the planet. But they’re also heavily involved in the modernization plans for America’s “Smart …
Contrarian Profits
