Jack--
Sorry if it came off kinda rantish - just seizing the chance for a little deeper look at things. Not everyone can see past price per share and a little education is always a good thing.
For a short term raid... yea you should have gambled.
I still don't think K-Mart is going to make it - they're under too much pressure in their market and their competition is a lot more shrewdly managed. IMHO K-Mart's stock recovered for a couple of reasons... first they got slashed down to what? like $12/share when they went chapter 11. That was probably an over-reaction... understandable but still an over-reaction. Then they dumped a good portion of their brick and mortar and laid off a lot of workers to cut expenses. The 'street' loves that so naturally you'll see some recovery as the quarterly earnings start to look better.
But I'll tell you from observation - they closed stores where the competition was starting to eat into them. Again, logical choice, but it did not-a-thing about the essential problem that caused the chapter 11 in the 1st place: Walmart and Target are eating them alive. By conceding the field in a number of locations all they've done is put a tourniquet on the wound. They're going to lose the leg and they're still beleeding. Unless they manage a fundamental change in the way they do business they'll be going the way of Caldors, Ames & Bradlees soon enough.
Which brings me around to the big, big problem that the US economy is going to have to face sooner or later - managing to quarterly earnings... even a company as robust as IBM is finding itself punished on the Street. Not because they're not MAKING money. Not because they're not making MORE money. But because they're not making ENOUGH more money. The rate of increase in the rate of growth is not high enough. That's scary and it's not sustainable. You end up eating your seed corn for short term gains. Very bad.
But most people , even in the financial sector, don't see it. All they see is the chance to get in, make some money as the price goes up and get out. The quick kill. It's not about dividends and the long term health of the company - just the Gordon Gecko in and out.
Nothing against anyone in particular... you can't blame a man for playing the hand he's dealt... but we're headed for big trouble and there is eventually going to be a reckoning. Exponential growth is just not sustainable.
So thanks for the opportunity to hop on my soap box and harp one of my favorite tunes
theSea
"there's always more to the story than the sound-bite"
Topic: KMART beech slaps IBM, who would have thunk it? (Read 840 times)