Archives: March 2006

Virtual Piggy Banks

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 30

I recently wrote a story about Citibank's new online high-yield savings account, which has an annual percentage yield (APY) of 4.5%. What sets this e-Savings account apart from other high-yielding...

Protests everywhere!

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 28

The immigration protests across the country are grabbing lots of attention. But something you might not have heard about is a protest launched today by social investors. More than 38,000...

Wendy's may not be a great Tim Hortons value play

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 28

All the talk about Wendy’s International (WEN) and its semi-hot spin-out IPO of Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons (THI) had me thinking back to an earlier age. The current theory...

Cruising Along

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 27

My sister can't stand cruises--questions how anyone could think spending a week or so on a ship would be a vacation. Of course, her views are probably clouded by the...

Another Hot New Fund Alternative

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 23

I've been a longtime advocate of social investing, much to the dismay of friends who think it's best to simply make money in the market and give it away to...

Hi ho Silver, away - new ETF very near

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 22

All that glitters is not gold, at least in the ETF world this week. The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally approved (PDF file) the American Stock Exchange's plan to...

Bernanke's no Greenspan - look for higher rates

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 21

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was famous, or infamous, for his cryptic remarks and speeches that required a Kremlinologist's skill for parsing, a finance Phd’s knowledge of market history...

Taking Stock of the Exchanges

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 20

I spent the past five days in Boca Raton (yes, it was 77 degrees and sunny). Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time lounging by the pool (woe...

Crocs stox schlocks ignored as shares drop

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 20

Crocs, maker of popular and brightly colored plastic shoes, had a rip-roaring IPO last month run by underwriters Piper Jaffray and Thomas Weisel. Priced at $21, already 50% above the...

More ways to use the latest ETFs

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 17

I have a story in the current issue of BW out today on using some of the newer and more targeted ETFs to fine tune a portfolio (still behind the...

Bond Banter: ARM in ARM

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 16

I've been covering fixed-income for a long time. And while I'm the first to admit it can be a snoozy topic, lately it's a little more interesting to write about....

You Mean Tim & Faith?

Posted by: Roben Farzad on March 16

Actually I'm talking about......

Forget the man of steel, what's up with steel?

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 15

I must admit that I've paid more attention lately to Bryan Singer's upcoming entry in Hollywood's Man of Steel (aka Superman) oeuvre than to that old rust bucket industry that...

No good news for newspapers in KRI deal

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 14

Pull up the one-year stock price chart of almost any newspaper company – Gannett (GCI), Tribune (TRB), Washington Post (WPO), or Belo (BLC), for example. What you get is various...

Investing with the Newlyweds

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 13

I had sushi this weekend with my favorite newlyweds. That is my favorite newlyweds now that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have split. (A moment of sadness for there will...

Marty Whitman dips a toe into GM's sea of debt

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 10

Another day, another fascinating read from one of the planet's great investors, in this case, Marty Whitman of the Third Avenue Value Fund (TAVFX). In his first quarter letter to...

Zig zags after the jobs report

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 10

The jobs report for February came in slightly stronger than expected, showing a healthy 243,000 new jobs were created last month. That's had a predictable impact on bonds (they're down...

New Funds: The Value Meal Sequel

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 09

New mutual funds used to be quite the rage back in the latter part of the 1990s. In 1998, more than 303 new funds were launched. But last year, far...

Big fake out in tomorrow's job report possible

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 09

With news of the Fed and the future path of its rate hike campaign driving the market of late (mostly downwards), tomorrow's Labor Department report on jobs could have an...

A fund gem in Pressman's coal pile

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 08

I came in to work this morning to find the dreaded "mailbox over size limit" warning in my in-box. Actually, about 10 copies of the warning - IT department, you...

A Krispy, Krafty Comeback?

Posted by: Roben Farzad on March 07

Krispy Kreme still retains quite a bit of goodwill, and I suspect that the virtuous cycle of analyst upgrades and institutional buying will set in the instant Brewster shows progress.

Another smart guy dumping newspaper stocks

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 07

I was shocked last week when I read that an analyst at well-respected media tracking firm, Borrell Associates, was predicting the death of newspapers unless online advertising booms off the...

Buffett's Annual Blog

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 06

Few annual reports are as eagerly anticipated or as closely read as those of Berkshire Hathaway. Indeed, waiting for the latest word from the legendary investing wizard Warren Buffett is,...

Investing horizons and small cap stocks

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 03

Market guru Michael Panzner has a post up this week noting that we've just entered a six-week period of the year when small cap and technology stocks historically tend to...

A Third-Way Beverage Play

Posted by: Roben Farzad on March 02

Cadbury Schweppes (CSG): The name immediately brings to mind the Easter-favorite creme egg, which, according to those '80s TV spots, was pumped out by a delusional RabbitChicken. The 223-year old...

The PRIMECAP diet

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 02

Dan Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, just published an interesting round-up of the buying habits of Vanguard's fund managers. According to Wiener, few Vanguard managers actually...

Looking for possible S&P 500 additions?

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 02

When I used to cover Washington, D.C., it was sometimes said that when a member of the House of Representatives was elected to the Senate that the average IQ of...

Fidelity: now famous enough for email scammers

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 01

Fidelity Investments has suffered a few embarrassments over the past couple of years as its traders got caught taking expensive gifts, it had to replace managers on several of its...