Thoughts

The GM Deal Just Got Bigger

The firm increases the size of its stock offering to $15.5 billion.

Comerica Boosts Dividend, May Announce Buybacks

This is very important regarding the banks.

I couldn't agree more with Jim Cramer's latest post that this is a correction, not a meltdown.

Another Long Look at the Banks

The steepening yield curve and continued improvement in asset quality has me re-examining the banks for long plays.

Carry That Weight?

Why is having the ability to buy all The Beatles songs for $149 on iTunes such a big deal for Apple?

Ireland Seeks Bailout

Stay tuned.

It appears that Ireland is in bailout talks with E.U. officials.

Anti-Fed Rhetoric Heats Up

Congressman Mike Pence proposes a bill for the Fed to focus solely on controlling inflation in setting monetary policy.

The Republican party's attack on the Fed is intensifying, with conservative Congressman Mike Pence proposing a bill that would force the Fed to focus solely on controlling inflation in setting monetary policy.

This movement is P/E multiple-deflating, and bullish investors should be mindful and forewarned.

No Market Is an Island

The word 'contagion' is back in the headlines.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

-- John Donne, "Meditation XVII" from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

The role of the QE2 program in changing expectations is greatly underappreciated and something I planned to write about this morning, but news elsewhere trumped that opener (which will wait for later this week).

While the anticipation associated with QE2 has already impacted (rising) input prices and (rising) U.S. stock prices, it has yet to produce a knock-off effect on domestic economic growth and has had only a limited impact on the economics over there.

And while the opposition to QE2 is apparently growing, most of the market making news was over there last night.

And the international news, despite the protestations from the bullish cabal (which has been enveloped by the attraction and the force and the rising animal spirits produced, in part, by quantitative easing), has turned cautious as the word "contagion" is back in the headlines.

Greece, Portugal and Ireland's debt spreads have widened as rumors of a swap in sovereign debt for assets rise.

The European finance minister meeting today will give us some clues as to what will happen next.

No market is an island.

long AAPL