Adding to my General Electric Exposure by Selling Puts Written By: David Neubert 2007-06-06 17:00:11 Every hedge fund is long their little portfolio of favorite stocks and short the market. For almost everyone, "short the market" means short S&P500 futures or SPY (the ETF that represents the S&P 500). With a market cap of $386 billion and representing 2.9%, General Electric (GE - $37.29) is the second largest company in the index (#1 is Exxon (XOM - $83.62). So with nearly every hedgie operating in U.S. markets short GE, what do I want to do? OWN IT!
Big Oil Does the Stock Market Victory Dance Written By: Miranda Marquit 2007-09-21 12:11:22
Just like nearly everyone else, Big Oil is doing a victory dance on the stock market. And why not? The Fed rate cut made money cheaper, so that helps earnings. And oil prices are at record levels. That supposedly eats into Big Oil profits, but it never seems to really reduce profits, and the Fed rate cut will probably take care of that anyway, despite threats by a variety of oil producing countries to move away from the dollar.
Consumer Products Shopping Spree Inspired By Russell Rebalance Written By: David Neubert 2008-06-27 16:10:44 Photo: Alexsandro Alves, Creative Commons, Flickr
The market was selling off today, which hit consumer stocks. Added to that was the fact that the Russell Index Rebalancing that occurred today tends to push down the stocks of companies that have been engaging in buybacks.
So what's a greedy trader to do? Since, I don't like shopping in stores, I went shopping in the market.
Here's what I bought:
Ecomagine That Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2007-09-20 15:16:07 GE has really committed to its 2-year old "ecomagination" program, at least with marketing dollars. It is hard to watch TV these days without seeing a dancing animal and a light bulb. But according to the Wall Street Journal, it is more than just good PR. GE's environmentally-friendly products are selling well and are expected to grow 10% annually through 2010.
However, even with a real commitment to the environment within certain parts of the behemoth, GE has not stopped pursing contradictory income streams, such coal-fired steam turbines and investing in oil-and-gas production. While GE Chairman Jeffery Immelt backs carbon-limits and supports R&D for forward-looking products, the company still continues to support all projects, including coal-fired plants, "when the economics makes sense." As Dan Bakal, director of electric-power programs for Ceres, says in the Journal article, "GE is 'looking toward the future but they are not yet giving up all of the past.'"
GE, like may other multinationals, are attempting to change their core activities in order to be socially responsible, as well as to remain ahead of the curve on issues they predict will be major market movers in the future. We can only hope the commitment remains and these news products and programs begin to replace the old way of doing business. Otherwise we simply have more of a good thing . . . and more of a bad.
