- The market looking ugly as I type. So if I'm combing the wires for a reason du jour, I'd say the ruling against Microsoft in the EU could be a culprit. MSFT is weighted heavily in multiple index trackers. Hard to make any gains when a heavily weighted component is being fined hundreds of millions with threats of $3+ million a day. It is wednesday before options week. Heck, I'm looking at some calls right now. I'd go out a few months, though. (Left all my gambling money in Reno last weekend!) If I do anything, that is. Probably won't here. I'm still thinking summer rally followed by a swoon in the late summer.
- Dan Rather will have a weekly news show on HDNet. Rather, 74, touted his new three-year deal with Cuban, the firebrand entrepreneur and owner of professional basketball's Dallas Mavericks, as a chance to escape the "corporatization of news" and practice serious journalism that "really matters." Of course, will there be an audience for content that Dan Rather says "really matters?"
- I might've learned my lesson about using off-site links to pics yesterday, having a pic redirected to something a little unsavory. Might've! It was funny if you caught it, though.
- Makes you wonder why MSFT even does business in the EU at all. I suppose the fine(s) are small potatoes to MSFT compared to all the money they pull in from doing business in the EU.
- The problem with having toys (boats, bikes, kayaks, rollerblades, pools, etc) is that we have to work for a living. Here it is, summertime, and instead of kayaking or biking, I'm working in the office. I like my job, sure. But there just isn't enough time for play. Agreed? It's heating up here in Sac again, so good pool weather. For those at home by a pool...
- I found Heartless Economics from Cafe Hayek, Economists tend to care more for Pakistanis than polar bears. He links to a column by John Baden (Consensus on Contentious Claims) that goes over the costs of fighting global warming. While most agree that climate change is occurring, many proposed “solutions” are monumentally expensive, uncertain, and distant. They are, in sum, the sorriest of investments. Check it out!
- Hah, as I'm thinking about buying some calls I run across this blog entry from Kim Snider at Kimmunications, Lies Advisors Tell: Options are Risky. If you want to use options to gamble on the future direction of stock price, you might as well pile your money up in the front yard, pour gasoline all over it and light a match. You are placing a bet - a highly leveraged bet no less - on a random event. Gee, it must be karma.
- Market continues to sink. Buyers not stepping in (so far), like they did yesterday. Somebody give KLAC a call again, eh?
