The Kirk Report

Trash For Cash Posted: 03 Feb 2009 04:27 PM CST As UPS goes, so goes the economy? A recession of biblical proportions Runaway trains gather momentum The bulls are desperately looking for a rally Wall Street becomes the target of scorn It's time to disgorge Wall Street's fat cats JPMorgan's Dimon defends pay for "hard jobs" Maybe the watchdogs should get a bonus A lonely lament from a whistle-blower Stop bashing Wall Street! Sink your clawbacks into this Lobbyists raise stimulus price tag! Stimulus: how porky is it? The debate rages over tax cuts vs government stimulus Government policy is still backwards Wall Street terminators trade cash for trash The bulk of Obama's tax cut wouldn't reach workers until 2010 We have to be patient with monetary policy Barney Frank proposes creating a systemic risk regulator Policy makers weigh oversight of derivatives How we learned to stop worrying and love credit default swaps FDIC raises cost estimate to cover bank failures Was that a Dow Theory sell signal? What happened to those easy comparisons? The myth of the sophisticated investor "Living a healthy life is crucial to having a satisfying life and is more important than money in the bank. When times are hard, it's important to eat well, go to sleep early, and take care of your health. This is, of course, so you can live to fight another day when times are once again good." - James Altucher *More links have been posted at the members' only website.

Profits & Profit Margins Posted: 03 Feb 2009 12:00 PM CST In a recent basic training tutorial, Harry Domash reviewed profitcents - a free service that provides analysis on just about any company's financial condition. The website essentially provides a 5 star grading system (1 star is the worst - 5 star is the best) in five categories: liquidity, profits and profit margin, borrowing, assets, and value. In Harry's checks, the profits and profitability grade has been proving to be a good tool as those with higher scores in this category recently outperformed others. While admittedly his testing was unscientific and limited in scope, it was enough for him to recommend the service. Well, you know me - there's not a tool I won't use (especially if it is free) to see how my own watchlist ranks according to this type of ranking system. So, earlier this morning I ran all of the stocks currently found within my stock screen machine to see how they ranked according to "Profits and Profit Margin" grade. Like Harry, I performed comparisons using "one quarter against the same quarter from the prior year." Here's what I discovered.....[READ]

Mixed Earnings Ahead Of Jobs Data Posted: 03 Feb 2009 08:30 AM CST Good morning. Premarket futures are currently in positive territory but have been hovering around unchanged in the morning session. As Obama's stimulus plan faces changes in the Senate, another batch of mixed earnings reports and data that retail chain store sales rose +1.6% from a week ago and dropped 2.5% year-on-year are in focus. Premarket gainers: ITMN, OSIP, RCII, DRYS, COCO, NETL, ADP, MRK, AFL, ARMH, VOD, ATHR, CCK, ADM, C, ELN, CME, WFMI, GOLD, ROK, FTI, DSX, CCK, EXM, TBSI, PTRY, SUNH, & ZQK. Premarket losers: SNDK, MOT, MNTX, TRID, HOLX, CE, AIB, MGM, SGMS, JDSU, FNF, IRE, PRGO, ACXM, OHI, OSK, ADVS, DOW, BP, TS, MT, CSIQ, QGEN, ROL, & WCG. At 10:AM we have the release of Pending Home Sales and throughout the day some data on motor vehicle sales will be reported. Of course, the rest of the week will be primarily focused on the employment picture culminating with Friday's jobs report. Again, more weakness versus strength would be helpful as we get closer to Friday's jobs data. We'll see if they'll let it happen or whether we'll remain confined to the bottom of this multi-week trading range. Go make it a great day!

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