Blog Posts by Michael Santoli

“Get long and get loud,” or “Go short and get shrill.” These tactics of taking a position in a stock, then spreading the word to persuade others to follow along, is as old as the markets themselves.

Yet this year the jawboning of stocks seems to be happening more often, more publicly, and by bigger-name investors. And it’s no wonder: The world appears to be listening, and acting on the utterances of the do-as-I’ve-done big-money crowd.

When pioneering activist investor and hedge-fund manager Carl Icahn Tuesday disclosed a “large” new position in Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares, the stock added $20.2 billion in market value by the close of trading – more than 13-times the reported $1.5 billion stake and the equivalent of $150 million for each of the 135 characters in his tweet.

As noted here several months ago, the current market cycle has produced an increase in the frequency and volume of outspoken investment views by the sort of accomplished hedge-fund managers who generally used to keep mum

Detroit’s bankruptcy filing has kicked up a storm of numbers that animates the city’s predicament: $18 billion owed to some 100,000 creditors; 40% of streetlights broken; two-thirds of the city’s ambulance fleet out of service.

Yet a mere three digits go a long way toward capturing the Motor City’s long, steep decline: 313. This has been the city’s main telephone area code since such codes were first assigned 66 years ago. And when Detroit was given 313, it marked it as essentially the fourth-most-important metropolis in the United States.

The system bestowed the lowest numbers — including a “1” rather than a zero in the middle — to the most populous cities with the greatest volume of incoming calls to businesses and individuals. Such numbers — such as 212 for New York and 213 for Los Angeles — were the quickest to dial using the rotary phones of the time.

As the thriving low-sum area code cities New York, L.A. and Dallas (214) show, simply having such a privileged phone zone doesn’t

A bullish investor’s tour of the world should begin in South Korea.

This is not the most obvious destination for an optimist’s dollars, and that is precisely why it makes sense to consider buying Korean stocks. The market is cheap, unloved, weighed down by well-known cyclical challenges and some temporary technical factors – all in all, a brave contrarian’s dream.

In a terrible run for emerging-market stocks and Asian equities (aside from Japan), Korea has been beaten down worse than most, the iShares MSCI South Korea Capped index fund (EWY) down nearly 20% year to date.

The country’s export-geared economy is stinging from China’s slowdown. Samsung Ltd. (SSNLF) accounts for more than 20% of South Korea’s stock-index value, and the company has been suffering from the maturation of the smart-phone industry, its earnings falling short of expectations last week as sales of its Galaxy 4 disappointed.

The forced, rapid depreciation of the Japanese yen has fanned worry that Korea’s manufacturers

They sell cropped workout pants and crop fertilizer; they serve up beer, burritos or blond highlights.

These companies have little in common, really, except that they're America’s new favorite store chains, expanding quickly throughout the country, exciting shoppers when they arrive in their town and generating lush profits along the way.

While delighting consumers with their take on the familiar presented in fresh, convenient ways, these retailers on a hot streak have also enriched their investors. Each of them is arguably in or near the sweet spot of their development. They’re large and mature enough to have perfected their store models, won widespread consumer recognition and reached sufficient scale for effective advertising strategies. They have expanded their locations by 40% to 90% since 2008, in most cases going from regional to national.

Yet their brands, so far, haven’t turned tired or over-familiar, and by their own and analysts’ estimates they are not much more than halfway to

The one-year charts of amusement-park company stocks look like roller coasters that only go up, at a steep angle.

Cedar Fair LP (FUN) and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX) are trading at 52-week highs and have gained 50% and 68% in the past year, respectively. SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS) shares are up 37% to about $37 in the three weeks since its initial public offering was priced at $27 each.

These theme-park operators thrill investors who these days covet companies with a couple of key attributes: They do all their business in North America and benefit directly from peppier spending by Americans, who are enjoying firmer employment trends, recuperating housing markets, moderate gas prices and reduced debt burdens.

Having a few extra bucks and the confidence to spend, more Americans are taking a day or two to check out the latest taller-and-faster roller coaster at a regional amusement venue.

“The leisure industry, to some degree, helped lead the country out of recession,” Cedar

Baseball and Wall Street have a lot in common these days – and not just because both games are followed by guys who speak with more confidence than insight about how they’re played.
 
Both Big Finance and Major League baseball teams are adjusting to new realities following an era of overstated results achieved through unnatural performance enhancers, leading them to pay too much for talent that was not as valuable as it appeared. In each case, leaders are trying to impose more rational pay schemes, stronger performance measurement, and better data and technology to hone smarter decision making.
 
And both baseball and Big Finance are proving to be better, more resilient businesses for those still around to deploy the lessons of the bubble-and-bust years.
 
In baseball, player performance was juiced by steroids and growth hormones, which inflated hitters’ statistical exploits and allowed many players to extend their careers. While strength-building drugs were presumed to be distorting the

Investors have suddenly tuned in to signals that mainstream American consumers are sweating the start of 2013.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (WMT) weak fourth-quarter sales and leaked insider emails about a rough start to February have helped to amplify concerns that the restoration of the 2% payroll tax Jan. 1, delayed tax refunds and steadily climbing fuel prices have stressed household spending. Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI), parent of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, Friday blamed these factors for soft customer volumes. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) and Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) chimed in with tempered outlooks for coming quarters, as well. Most of these companies’ shares have been clipped as the market adjusts to a more sober consumer theme.

The logical reflex impulse now would be to further sell stocks at direct risk of experiencing this apparent consumer fatigue - the chain retailers and casual-restaurant operators. These have indeed underperformed the market in recent days. Yet, another big

Investors had not even begun celebrating the Congressional agreement to forestall the “fiscal cliff” plunge when Washington watchers and Wall Street wags alike began warning against cheering too long or loudly. The deal to allow tax rates to rise on high earners represents a fragile and flawed partisan peace, they pointed out – one that will quickly give way to a grim, three-stage budget fight in the coming months.

As the Dow industrials  surged 300 points on the first trading day of 2013, amid relief that a threatened half-trillion dollars worth of tax hikes and automatic government-spending cuts wouldn’t kick in right away, the rally was shadowed by the need for Congress to agree on vexing long-term spending measures before spring. A two-month delay in the automatic 10% cuts to many government agency budgets will expire in early March, just as the nation’s borrowing limit will need to be raised and an annual measure funding the government must be passed.

The Debt-Ceiling