451. Expecting Up Market Tomorrow

I found it interesting that both European and Asian markets rallied MORE than the U.S. Markets today. Usually, the U.S. Market follows those markets unless some big news item comes out after they closed. I found on the positive job report news (expect official stuff tomorrow) which should have taken it even higher. Thus, with the job news AND Greece bond swap news, it must go up tomorrow at least 1%. Well, nothing is ever certain (caveat). this is just another pull of the one-arm bandit at Vegas that hasn't paid off in a while (like it matters). Do your research, but the train might have already left the terminal for this week.

450. Price Fixing & Dodd-Frank Costs

Ever wonder why all the gas stations in the area come out with the same price plus or minus a penny? Well, don't expect the answer here. Instead look at something so important that the Justice Department had no time to delve into the gas-fixing price problem: e-book pricing! Wow, that's a big impact. But, with the percentage of people buying e-books went up, the people in the Justice Department who had their feet up for years must have seen a price increase and could no longer find a cheaper price for their e-book, on-the-job reading time. What does fascinate me though is why some e-books cost MORE than the lowest paperback! Let me think on this: get a digitized copy of the book from the editor who has to already have it in this form to publish a paperback, and put it's link on the web-buying screen to fetch it if asked. Hmmm. No additional work other than that, except for additional screens to jazz it up with intros, picture-hype, etc. I say, stuff the e-books then. All I need is to click on a link to get it at the lowest price. If I need research, I just go to Amazon and read the comments. Anyway, back to price fixing. I went to a comparison site and looked e-books (epub type at this site) for Septhen King. If you look at the details, there is a large range of prices for all books. So, what's up with the Justice Department? In other words, somebody led the effort to negotiate electronic, digitized discounts/fees, like it was done with the music composers re downloaded music, and others followed suit. Copycats do not make them collaborators in price fixing! Aren't there more important issues for the Justice Department, like Solyndra and the other government ripoffs totalling over $1B? they are grabbing at straws and COSTING us taxpayer dollars for their army of lawyers to rape private industries. Talk about TORT REFORMs being necessary. The government needs only look under its own nose. They spend MILLIONS of dollars (OUR money) pursuing things that cost private companies (again, at our cost since those costs are passed along). Here's something you may have missed: Remember the Dodd-Frank bill that imposed all kinds of regulations on the banking and financial industry? Well, $1.3B has already been spend (they get that last dollar from your wallet?) and they aren't even 1/3 through! Now, add the costs to the companies that get passed through to you and the OBlunder spending train will have rolled over you to the tune of over $5-10B by the time it gets completely implemented. This should have been a different blog, but I couldn't resist tossing in more OBlunder blunders!

449. Grocery Price Watch

Walmart plays hard ball with its food suppliers (see link), but commodities still continue to increase squeezing profits from BOTH the suppliers and Walmart. As I mentioned in previous posts, Walmart is capturing more customers during the consumer-weary period. Yet, check out these increases this week at Walmart:

Strawberry Jam,     up 11.6% in 2 months
Peanut Butter,        up 42.4% in 4 months
Cranberry Sauce,   up  29.3% in 4 months
Canola Oil,            up 9.6 % in 7 months
Butter,                    up 7.2% in 1 month

Those PPJ sandwiches are getting expensive.

448. New Greecy Bond Certificates look good

According to this article, Greece may have escaped for another few months by swapping bonds for new longer term bonds at the expense of investors. tomorrow the official word will come, but this article claims more than 75% of the investors have already signed up. I fortunately am not involved, but I was in the CIT Group deal, where after 2 years with new bonds and common stock offered, I got away with gains. Unfortunately, Greek bonds do NOT have a common stock to bank on for gains. It was the common stock that helped me tremendously. Some times you win, some times you lose. Cut your losses before they become larger losses. It seems that the Greek investors realized that too.

447. Speaking of Walmart

Now that Walmart raised their tortillas 62% it can afford a 9% raise in its stock dividend. Guess I'll have to look again at its stock. lol.