January 9, 2012
JOBS BY THE NUMBERS
If you weren’t paying attention, some important data was
released this week. The US Labor
Department released the number of jobs that were gained/lost in the previous
month. Drum roll…companies hired 200,000
employees in December and the famous unemployment rate dropped to 8.5%. If you aren’t familiar with the numbers this
is POSITIVE in my book. The reasons are:
(1) More people have been getting jobs and this has been consistently happening
since last summer, (2) The jobs are being added across small, medium, and large
companies, and (3) Jobless claims (i.e., people filing unemployment claims) are
falling. In case you were following
along at home, the number usually has to be over 125,000 to signify that jobs
are being added.
We want more jobs, I want more jobs, and we should expect
that are federal, state, schools, and citizens will do and try everything to
continue to get this number to a level that allows our country to grow and
people to work consistently. So please
when we watch debates or listen to the evening news keep that in perspective
that without jobs a lot of other things seem pretty trivial.
COMPANY WATCH – St.
Joes Company (NYSE: JOE) / Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS)
St. Joes Company – This stock is a great example of trusting
your instinct. I like the prospects of
taking a contrarian, or against the grain, stand on some investments. JOE was one of those companies that I thought
is a better investment than owning home builders. My thesis is you get to own land and that has
an intrinsic value that should hold its worth in economic downturns like the
ones we’ve suffered. Well to make a long
story short, I believe I had the right thesis however I never expected there
was going to be such a dispute as to what the true value of the land is. David Einhorn made a compelling case as to
why the value of the land St. Joes held wasn’t worth what St. Joes was claiming
and the stock has fallen sharply. WELL,
finally there appears to be some upside to the stock. I’ve noticed that some analysts have upgraded
their outlook based on future growth prospects.
The development of land in the Panama City area, the recent development
of an international airport, and recent cost cutting measures are signs that
they might be moving in the right direction.
Price: $14.67
Barnes and Noble – I am a sucker for stocks on the decline
and Barnes and Noble is showing up on my radar. The other day is dropped
roughly 20% on news that they were changing their future outlook lower. That is never good and investors let them
have it. BKS even mentioned making
changes such as spinning of their NOOK business.
COMPANY WATCH - Lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) / Netfilx (NASDAQ: NFLX)
Lululemon – I’ve had my eye on LULU for quite some time
now. This stock has been a high flier
and it you don’t know they make money by selling $100 dollar yoga pants. Yoga, it’s all the craze for people with
money and to show of that dough they buy expensive pants to get their work out
on. Well LULU had come under some
pressure and the stock dropped a bit. I
am a stock hater here! And because I like things on the cheap I want LULU to
fall further before I begin buying. I
may not be able to get that opportunity because LULU seems to go one direction
and that’s up.
Netflix – Quick note, I trashed it on the way down and I
love a good rebound. NFLX, at the lows
of $70 is attractive to me. It’s
rebounded strongly and they recently talked about expanding further
internationally.
Price: $98.18
