In case you missed any of these catchy tunes last week, it's not too late to boogie down. Since the market finished yet another week in the black, unless you're covered in hair and have big, sharp claws, you might as well be dancing.
"Make It Rain" by Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne, featuring Citigroup
It looks as though the private equity party may continue in force in 2007, and banking giant Citigroup
In 2006, private equity helped push the S&P up in the latter half of the year to finish up 12% after losing ground in the first six months. Massive deals like the $33 billion buyout of hospital holding company HCA by a club, including Bain Capital and KKR and the pending $36 billion bid for Equity Office Properties
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" by the Verve and Gap Shareholders
Last Monday's 7% jump in Gap's
Though Banana Republic's comp-store sales increased 2% in December, the woes at the rest of Gap continued. Gap's other brands saw further declining comp sales, including a double-digit decline at Old Navy North America. The company also cut 2006 year-end earnings estimates. Of course, none of this shocked shareholders; it seems they've gotten pretty used to disappointing results.
Over the past few years, shareholders have been weathering an extended gale at Gap and have been rewarded with a 7% loss in share price since the beginning of 2004. The waiting game has not offered much hope as far as a turnaround for Gap's fortunes goes, and as management shakeups continue, any silver lining could still be a ways off from showing itself. The second half of 2006, though, did bring the hope of a private equity buyout of the ailing brand. As private equity firms made big waves by taking down a number of massive public companies, the rumor mill started to churn out the name Gap as a potential private equity target.
Even after announcing that heavyweight Goldman Sachs
"You Win Again" by the Bee Gees and Me
That's right, that's me conceding to Apple
This year, in his keynote speech at Macworld, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, a touch-screen phone that will do what all those other MP3 phones wish they could -- play music like an iPod. The phone will also surf the Web and snap pictures, but, more importantly, the device oozes sex appeal, just like most everything to come out of Steve's Cupertino stronghold in the past few years. Sure, Cisco
In conjunction with the iPhone announcement, Jobs also pushed Apple TV, a device that syncs up a digital TV with a computer to allow the streaming of multimedia content. He then revealed that the Apple would be dropping the word "Computer" from its official title. This name change is meant to be a sign of the new, refocused Apple, which is quickly moving to take over all of our living rooms with its white, sleek, and stylish media devices. I can't help seeing a trailing P/E multiple of 42 as somewhat rich, especially for a $83 billion company, but it's hard to argue with a company that has made white the new gold.
More Foolish fun:
Gap is an Inside Value and Stock Advisor recommendation.
Though Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer has not perfected investing the way Warren Buffett has, he bets he could outdance Warren at this point. He owns shares of Goldman Sachs but does not own shares of any of the other companies mentioned. The Fool's disclosure policy is always in tune.