The stock market has enjoyed a strong rally the past ten weeks, even with a few very minor setbacks. If you were in the market, you enjoyed it too.

It is more likely that the market will become somewhat volatile for the rest of the year rather than continue to rise substantially, barring some outlier. For this reason I have been emphasizing to our readers that they focus their attention on creating a watchlist of stocks they would like to acquire, potentially at great discount for the long haul.

I started this recent series last week with Serious Money: Keep your eyes on UPS and FDX, focusing on large cap stocks certain to make it through these difficult times.

Continue reading Serious Money: Duke Energy & Southern 'Power-Full'

Serious Money: Duke Energy & Southern 'Power-Full' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TXU Corp. (NYSE:TXU) is now the popular girl whom everyone wants to take the the prom. Not bad for a stodgy utility company.

The Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings may make a counter offer for the Texas power company which has agreed to be bought out by Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts and Texas Pacific Group in a $32 billion private equity deal, the biggest ever, according to Reuters. The buyout firms are still in early discussions about a potential bid and it may not happen.

As part of the KKR/Texas Pacific deal, TXU has until April 16 to solicit and consider other offers, Reuters said.

Blackstone, Carlyle and Riverstone should get the blessing of the environmental groups that blessed the KKR/Texas Pacific Group bid. That was a PR coup that will help the companies gain leverage with regulators.

Electric utilities generate strong cash flow which private equity firms like. It's only a matter of time until the next deal emerges.

TXU gets private equity counter offer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.