The markets saw broad selling pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average down another 207 points to the bottom of the correction range. From a technical standpoint the DJIA the down broke through support at 13,041; but is still above the numerically significant 13,000 level.

The NYSE had volume of 3.8 billion shares with 440 shares advancing while 2,924 declined for a loss of 174.59 points to close at 9,254.27. On the NASDAQ, 2 billion shares traded, 797 advanced and 2,234 declined for a loss of 43.12 to 2,499.12.

With all the market volatility, options continued to be very active. In options there were 7.6 million puts and 6.2 million calls traded for a put/call open interest ratio of 1.21. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) saw heavy volume on the January 45 calls (KOAI) with over 44,000 options trading. General Motors (NYSE: GM) tallied volume on the August 30 calls (GMHF) with over 31,000 options trading. American Express (NYSE: AXP) saw heavy volume on the January 60 calls (AXPAL) with over 28,000 options trading. Home Depot (NYSE: HD) moved heavy volume on the August 45 puts (HDTI) with over 90,000 options trading.

Kevin Kersten is an Options Analyst with InvestorsObserver.com. Disclosure note: Mr. Kersten owns and or controls a diversified portfolio of long and short positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.

Tuesday Market Rap: KO, GM, HD & AXP originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fifteen stocks have been reviewed, fifteen to go to complete the Dow Jones Industrials whittling. Of the first fifteen, five will be looked at again as possible value plays: Alcoa Aluminum (NYSE: AA), American International Group (NYSE: AIG), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Disney (Walt) Company (NYSE: DIS) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) . You can link to Part 1 of this series or Part 2 or Part 3 if you want to catch up. Comments are always welcome; on to the next five...

General Motors (NYSE: GM) has practically returned from the dead rising about 100% from it's lows 18 months ago, and it was the number one performing Dow stock last year. That's wonderful for shareholders and the UAW and the managers that steered the ship. Looking at it today as a stock investment I think it would take too much speculation to be an investor. I have no idea whether GM will produce some great car designs that will be appealing to future customers or whether they will effectively compete in the marketplace against worthy alternatives. I have no idea what will happen in UAW contract negotiations. When I look at the metrics it is a mess. All I can say is that for me GM stands for "Giant Mystery," and let others wiser than I support the shares.

Continue reading Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - GM, HPQ, HD, HON, & INTC: Part 4

Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - GM, HPQ, HD, HON, & INTC: Part 4 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was just invited to a conference at the University of California at Los Angeles by Natalia Johnson of the economics division of the Consulate General of Poland and I thought I would share this tidbit with those that might be interested and live in the vicinity.

Poland has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and its economy has been expanding rapidly even long before they became a member. Natalia informs me that last year Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) opened a large factory in Lodz, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) opened shop in Krakov, General Motors (NYSE: GM) has been operating at several locations and the list is growing.

In addition to the presentations from representatives from Poland there will be presentations and a panel discussion by members of the Czech, Hungarian, and Slovakian missions. The UCLA Kane Anderson School of Management has scheduled the lecture for April 18, 2007 - next Wednesday, in the Korn Convocation Hall.

I have written about opportunities in China and India and others have included Russia and Brazil as offering large opportunities for significant growth as well. Central and Eastern Europe receives less press than the other regions but should be included in discussions about economic prosperity and integration into the global community.

I chase opportunity wherever I find it and if I can get out of some meetings will be there at this conference. If you are interested in long-term value investing you should read Chasing Value and put it on your toolbar.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.

East meets west at UCLA - Not Asia, Central Europe originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Merger and acquisition talk abounds and the following two possibilities will not bring value to investors.

Why would General Motors (NYSE: GM) consider buying DaimlerChrysler AG's (NYSE:DCX) Chrysler unit? Is GM lacking scale? Has anyone accused it of not being big enough or broad enough? Hasn't it already acquired many brands over the years and still run up against superior Japanese and German manufacturers? Will acquiring Chrysler help rebuild its own brand? Does GM need Chrysler? The obvious answer is no, it does not.

What GM needs is better car design, improved and more uniform quality control, sharper focus, better vision, more efficiency, streamlined management structure and less overhead burden. How does Chrysler solve any of these problems? It doesn't!

GM has spent the last year addressing many of these issues and its stock performance has reflected this, as the best performer among the Dow Industrials. It should continue to refine the company in this manner and not deliberately go out looking for new and unwarranted challenges. If Daimler is selling, GM should not be buying!

The Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) / XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:XMSR) deal has other problems. They are both big money losers and while they will save some money combining forces they are still in a bad business. They do not just compete with traditional radio but Internet radio which is ever improving and has billions of world wide consumers plugged in for free already. They are in very capital intensive business and they have less capital than their competitors.

I see no reason to get satellite radio and I certainly do not need one more monthly expense. This deal reeks of desperation. There is an old adage to Buy on the rumor and sell on the fact. In this case I would sell on the rumor and buy something else!

Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

GM/Chrysler or Sirius/XM: Two losers don't equal a winner: originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As a long-term shareholder I appreciated news of the breakout of Time Warner Cable.

Now, I'm sure some clicking on this post thought that maybe a typo had escaped the editors, but I did mean "muddle" in the title of this post and not "middle". Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) has been encouraged for some time by shareholders, Carl Icahn, analysts, and various prognosticators and their like to give the market place a clear picture of the company's assets, company's goals, and to unlock their hidden value. This is value that many viewed as mired in a muddle of slow-moving, misdirected pieces aggregated in a conglomerate, lead by a board that just did not get it or get with it.

The news that TWX is going to release Time Warner Cable, which flies under the banner TWC, from its corporate bondage was welcomed by Wall Street and I'm sure Mr. Icahn. In fact this plan may be one of the things shared with Carl Icahn months ago that pacified him and his investor group from "throwing things" in the meetings with Chairman Richard Parsons. This and dramatic changes at the AOL division which are still ongoing.

Continued clarity of purpose and strong leadership will continue to bring value to TWX in the coming years so I will be holding on for a while.

There are many companies stuck in the muddle that should give some thought to this issue of clarity and give investors something they can understand while demonstrating they themselves (corporate executives) know what they are doing.

Other companies that I believe are stuck in the muddle include the following: Yahoo (YHOO); Sun Microsystems (SUNW) which is just plain stuck; General Electric (GE) which should at least tell us why they must continue to own NBC; Microsoft (MSFT) is less muddled lately and 2007 should be their opportunity to come clean; Citigroup (C) is going nowhere fast with lots of potential and nothing happening -- this is one that should definitely "speed up, slow down, or get the hell out of the way"; Ford (G) and General Motors (GM)... could they be more muddled up? Anybody want to add to the list of muddled companies? There are plenty.

Disclosure: In addition to owning TWX, I own Ford bonds bought at a discount to face value. I hold no other position long or short in any other stock mentioned.

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Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for Design and Research of an Architecture & Planning firm.

Time Warner Cable no longer stuck in the muddle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.