HBO is running a new documentary on fracking (shorthand for hydraulic fracturing), a key technology in the current US natural gas boom. Readers can find more information on fracking here but in brief, it is the process of injecting fluids into wells to break up earth and allow better well flow. Since Chesapeake Energy (CHK) [...]
A passing sentence in Barron’s this week caught my eye and really highlighted the disparity I’m seeing between the macro corporate outlook and economic reality on the ground. Market analysts are predicting $96.43 of S&P 500 earnings in 2011, which would top 2006 as the record year for corporate profits. Yet a quick survey of the [...]
Even as markets wobble on the basis of global macro uncertainty, we do not have 2009 redux. During that tumultuous period, nearly all asset classes, save US Treasurys, lost ground regardless of fundamentals. Now, however, many stocks are moving due to their specific situations, regardless of the broader market moves. Personally, I favor this environment [...]
THE ENLIGHTENED-AMERICAN PORTFOLIO SPREADSHEET Enlightened-American Portfolio: +1.1% through May, 2010 (my actual IRR, including cash balance) DJIA: -2.8% Nasdaq: -0.5% S&P 500: -2.3% DJ Wilshire 5000: -0.8% Russell 2000 (smallcap): +4.3% And we’re back, once again beating nearly all major indices, with the exception of the small cap index, plausibly due to the lower global [...]
