Magic Numbers?
Published March 15, 2012 6974 Views
What happened to the "news" story that was Dow 13,000? Over the last few weeks as US stock markets rose and the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with 13,000 stories filled the financial media. Their content was a typically breathless "will it or won't it" close above that magical mark. Experts o...
Cycles
Published March 9, 2012 7077 Views
Recently, my colleague Brennan published a post relating our current economic climate to that of the 1970's. This concept of a cyclical economy is something that has been studied in great detail for many years. As Brennan posed, history never repeats itself exactly, but there are often many measurab...
Kodak's Apple Problem is Apple's Kodak Problem
Published March 8, 2012 7806 Views
George Eastman was attacking apples before Steve Jobs was born.
However, George grew up in apple country (I don't mean Cupertino) and must have had an appreciation for NY State's delicious varietals.
There's a very good argument that Kodak was the Apple of its day.
So, why is tod...
History Repeats (or at least rhymes)
Published March 8, 2012 6836 Views
Investors often use historical comparisons to help gauge expectations on their investments. While this is a useful practice, history is full of time periods that have little in common with one another. If we look at the returns of a balanced portfolio (60% stocks / 40% bonds) from the years 1900 thr...
Our Team is Growing!
Published March 7, 2012 7165 Views
Brighton Securities is pleased to announce that Chuck Wade has joined our expert team of Financial Advisors. Chuck brings several years of client relationship-building experience from his previous career as a Sports Reporter on 13 WHAM. He is currently pursuing his MBA at The Bittner School of Busin...
Rumors and Trust, A Lesson From Kodak
Published March 6, 2012 7054 Views
I tell a lot of people about websites like Snopes.com. For those who don't know, Snopes and sites like it provide a resource for checking out the veracity of those pesky emails about things like bacterial onions, NPR's annual imminent defunding, or the laptop you can win by forwarding an email to 8...
Did I Miss Something?
Published March 5, 2012 6923 Views
Apparently I did. Last week, while I was going about the business of business - analyzing & advising, mainly - the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 13,000 for the first time since before the financial crisis gripped the global economy back in early 2008. I was informed of the Dow crossing th...
Kodak Seeks to Reduce Retiree Health Care
Published February 27, 2012 7305 Views
Kodak has announced that it intends to seek to cut some retiree health care benefits at the omnibus hearing in its bankruptcy court proceedings on March 20, 2012. The reduction of health care benefits has been an expected result of Kodak's Ch. 11 filing. Their intention as stated in the letter below...
Apple As An Income Stock
Published February 24, 2012 7795 Views
Yesterday, Apple held its annual shareholder meeting. One of the hot topics discussed in this meeting was Apple's massive, almost $100 billion, cash reserve. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook reiterated that the tech giant is still exploring its options for putting this cash to work and that paying a...
Could You Use It In a Sentence?
Published February 24, 2012 6791 Views
The Opening Belles (and Joe)!
This past Saturday, Brighton Securities participated in the 13th Annual Wayne County Rotary Spelling Bee. Marge Geyer, Danielle Wilkins and Joe Boyd were the members of our team, The Opening Belles and Joe! This was our fourth year participating in the Spelling Bee....