The annual rights of passage known as 'Black Friday' came yesterday with all the fanfare which goes with it. The day after thanksgiving is very important to retailers as it is a day which helps set the tone for their performance during the fourth quarter. For many companies, the holiday shopping months account for the majority of their profits for the entire year. As a result, thoughtful enterprises put a great deal of planning, effort, and resources into having an approach which allows for high levels of execution across all areas of the business. Mobile based efforts are increasingly being integrated into existing strategies as more and more shopping moves to smartphones and tablets.
Consistent with this customer migration are the development of applications which take traffic away from web sites. Smart organizations use a variety of strategies to attract customers and make the buying experience as convenient as possible. I do not own shares in Amazon.com, but their management does a great job of attracting customers any way it can. I certainly think their efforts in the tablet space with the Kindle, Kindle Fire, and a growing library of content puts them in great position, along with Apple and Google (I know, really going out on a limb there, huh) , for many years to come. The hard part about technology based companies is they are constantly rapidly changing , but for that matter, so is almost every part of the business world, just not as fast as tech focused sectors.
The negotiations for averting the "fiscal cliff" will intensify this week as both President Obama and House Majority Leader John Boehner try to come to an agreement which will both please and upset their bases. The main players are Obama, Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Every other politician is not worth paying attention to as they only make the discussions more difficult. The people with the decision making power are the three I mentioned. A deal will probably get done, but it is hard to have any confidence at all in this group.
The market anticipates a deal and as a result had a nice run last week. Usually this is a time when the stock market does well, but one never knows as investors have been very pessimistic for a long time. If institutions ever get the sense the economy will grow quicker than they thought, or large companies will start to invest the large cash balances sitting on their balance sheets, the stock market will move higher. If the big boys do not believe those things, we will keep meandering along with performance based on individual company execution, which is what pretty much happens anyway.
The perception of bankers in both the United States and Europe is very poor-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-22/jain-gets-silent-treatment-as-bankers-eat-humble-pie.html
Large institutions are now seeking retribution based on the idea J.P. Morgan Chase misallocated capital in an investment process designed for trading-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-21/jpmorgan-turned-cio-into-prop-trading-desk-pensions-say.html
The media is focused on the war in Gaza, but even more interesting is the cyber efforts Israel is making to keep their government sites protected-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-19/israel-wages-cyber-war-with-hamas-as-civilians-take-up-computers.html
I hope you had a great thanksgiving and enjoy the weekend. In addition, I hope the holiday season is a happy and healthy one for you and your family!!!!
Y H & C Investments, Yale Bock, and the family of Yale Bock own positions in securities mentioned in the blog post. Investing in stocks can lead to the complete loss of your capital. As always, on any company mentioned here, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk of losses on invested capital. One should research any investment and make sure it is suitable with your objectives, risk tolerance, risk profile liquidity considerations, tax situation, and anything else pertinent to your financial situation. Also, the CFA credential in no way implies investment returns will be superior for any charterholder.
Here are some articles written about specific companies by Yale Bock at Seeking Alpha-
http://www.y-hc.com/resources/newsletters/50-seeking-alpha-research.html
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