#6: The iPad has Arrived

via AudioBoo

Posted via web from muckdog's posterous

The Monday Rebound

• Was today just a bounce or are we back on track for the bull market?  $$
• Getting the credit for the stock surge was the European bailout of Greece. Global financial markets roared back in response to the European Union's nearly $1 trillion plan to avert a public-debt crisis that has threatened to derail the worldwide economic recovery.  Nothing like helping Greece with their debt problem like borrowed money (new debt) from somewhere else!
• Lots of speculation on when, if, to jump in BP stock.  From gloom, doom, and fear comes opportunity, right?  But is this time different?  Is the catastrophe in the gulf something that could bankrupt BP?  Executives from BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. began pointing fingers on Monday over who bears ultimate responsibility for the April 20 oil-rig explosion that took 11 lives and is spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The question will loom large at a Senate hearing Tuesday that will hear from executives of the three companies.
• Elena Kagan…  Really.  Someone with no judicial experience?  I don’t know, this seems ridiculous to me.
• Lowest level of taxes since the Truman administration!  I suppose it depends on how you define “lowest.”  Anyway:  Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.
• You know, JaMarcus Russell was the biggest bust since Ryan Leaf.  What made it worse was that the Raiders kept trying to play the guy over and over and over.  The cause of death for his career as a Raiders quarterback was on display almost every day of his three-plus years in silver and black: A chronic and apparently incurable aversion to work and the necessary dedication to his craft.
• Why not appoint JaMarcus Russell to the Supreme Court?  He’s available!

Saturday Night!

• Quite a week on Wall Street. I’m not sure where to start.  Bottom line is that I think that we’re in a bull market.  Any panic selling here is just a buying opportunity.  A good chance to buy leaders. $$
• IMHO.  And warm weather means hot women in bikinis.  Just sayin’…
• So, I’ve added a few things.  First, more podcasting via audioBoo.  You can subscribe in iTunes or via the RSS feed.  If you want to.  LOL.  The updates will also show up in the sidebar, and elsewhere if the auto-updates work via Posterous.  Yes, that is my real voice!  No computer-enhanced shenanigans.  I’ll mostly be chatting about the markets and tech stuff.  Maybe about other stuff.  We shall see.
• Just trying to embrace some of the social media ease of use that has crept in over the years. Time is always an issue.  This year has been extremely hectic at the Fun Factory.  So also keep an eye on Twitter (also in sidebar), as sometimes I just jot down thoughts during free time.
• Tonight I went to a River Cats game.  That’s the AAA baseball franchise for the Oakland A’s here in Sacramento.  Domestic drafts are $7, and Tecate was $9.  Yowch.  It was a pounding.  16-5 over the Colorado Sky Sox.

• More big earthquakes… Indonesia:  An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled Indonesia's North Sumatra province Sunday, prompting a local tsunami watch, knocking out power and damaging some homes, officials said.  With all the earthquakes in diverse places lately, not a bad time to check that earthquake insurance policy.
• Leaders of the 16 euro-zone nations agreed to assemble a fresh pot of money that could be used to rescue its troubled members, as a crisis spurred by Greece's fiscal woes spiraled well beyond its epicenter.  Of course, they’re all harboring massive debt, too.  Right?
• One of my favorite weekend vices is watching Leo Laporte’s The Tech Guy on Twit.tv. Kind of fun to watch the streaming as a lot happens during the commercials and hard breaks.  Yes, I am a geek.
• No iPad yet.  Those things are hard to find so far.  On the list at the Apple Store, so it’s just a matter of time.
• BP’s attempt at placing a containment dome over the oil leak in the gulf failed. BP lowered a concrete-and-steel structure known as a containment dome almost a mile to the seafloor in an effort to stop the flow of oil from the drilling site. But gas hydrates, ice-like solids that form when methane gas combines with water under certain conditions, clogged the opening at the top of the dome, preventing oil from being funneled to the surface.  What a flippin’ disaster.
• Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates vowed Saturday to lead an effort to cut as much as $15 billion in overhead costs from the Pentagon's $550 billion budget and warned that without the savings, the military will not be able to afford its current force.  Yeah, good luck with that cutting of overhead costs.  It’s the government.

Monday Randomosity!

• One day up.  The next day down.  Lots of big point swings.  Topping action?  $$
• Sell in May?  Mid-year election cycle?  Lots of things to think about.
• I am no longer 100% invested.  I sold some beta (NDX and Small Caps) last week.  Eh, so far nothing dramatic.  The problem is that there is nowhere else to put that money to earn anything.  Maybe that’s the biggest bullish argument out there!
• And if you can’t invest it, I guess you could light your cigarettes with it.
• IHOP Pancake Stackers.  1250 calories of yummy goodness.  IHOP's "Pancake Stackers" will be a limited-time offering through June 20, and consist of: a layer of cheesecake sandwiched between two pancakes, available in strawberry, blueberry, or cinnamon apple, all topped with whipped cream. They will be available a la carte or as part of a combo meal, with eggs, hash browns, plus bacon, porks sausage links, or ham, which will tally up to 1,250 calories.
• The knee-jerk reaction to the horrible oil disaster in the Gulf is to ban offshore drilling.  Why not a knee-jerk reaction to ban cars?  Cars are the things using all that oil.  Anyway, my guess is that if oil prices get above $4-5, then the next knee-jerk reaction will be to resume the drilling.
• I’m on the iPad waiting list at the local Apple store.  What the heck.  Should have one in a few days.  And then my life will be perfect, if not iPerfect.
• 1 million iPads sold in 28 days.  So… uh…  I sold my Apple stock prematurely.  "Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement.
• I have Joe Mauer and Manny Ramirez on my fantasy team. Neither are playing.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes smoking ban at parks.  Heck, CA has a big deficit.  We need more people to smoke more often.  Even at parks!  …the law would have been too intrusive and would not have done much to curb litter on California's shoreline.

Going Nowhere Fast

Here is a story on Fox about a woman who has grown frustrated with saving for her retirement the past ten years. I'm wondering how many folks feel the same way? Because the other option, saving nothing or very little, means that you are almost guaranteed to work until the day you die.

iPad?

Today, I went to the $AAPL store to see if they had an iPad 3G.  Denied.  The very hot Japanese Apple store worker told me that they receive shipments every day, excluding Sundays.  I may just order one online, or visit the Apple store everyday because that woman was so. damn. hot.

I didn’t think there would be any 3G iPads available today, but what the heck.

The Apple store was crazy crowded.

The iPad Line

On Friday, I went to the local $BBY to get in line for the $AAPL iPad 3G.  I was 16th in line.  They had 15.  Denied.