Welcome to week 36 of my stock-picking throwdown with Mr. Market. Let's get right to the numbers:
Company |
Starting Price* |
Recent Price |
Total Return |
---|---|---|---|
Akamai |
$22.23 |
$20.47 |
(7.9%) |
Harris & Harris |
$6.22 |
$5.01 |
(19.5%) |
IBM |
$127.64** |
$101.27 |
(20.7%) |
Oracle |
$22.69** |
$19.06 |
(15.9%) |
Taiwan Semiconductor |
$10.34 |
$9.60 |
(7.2%) |
AVERAGE RETURN |
-- |
-- |
(14.24%) |
S&P 500 SPDR |
$124.37** |
$87.08 |
(29.98%) |
DIFFERENCE |
-- |
-- |
15.74 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
* Tracking began on Aug. 7, 2008.
** Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.
Another week, another market rally. Banks, in particular, are seeing huge gains. Bank of America
Yet the euphoria has us asking: Is the worst finally over?
There's really no telling. Even as critics paint them as unpatriotic, credit card companies are also earning interest on a lot less debt than they were before. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that revolving credit balances fell an annualized 9.7% in February -- the largest decline in more than three decades.
Meanwhile, there's wide disagreement over whether China's proposed stimulus plan will change the world, enriching investors in emergent Sino superstars such as American Oriental Bioengineering
The week in tech
It's unclear whether the tech sector will be your most likely source the very best stocks. I've been arguing that for months, but recent news casts doubt on my thesis.
Twitter once again suffered trouble when an obnoxious bundle of mischievous code called Mikeyy attacked the service. The targets: Oprah, Ashton, Ellen, Demi and the multitudes following them. No serious damage was done -- as far as we know -- but the breach once again raises questions about the security of cloud computing.
eBay
Sad? Sure, but eBay CEO John Donahoe is shrewd to shed Skype and spend $1.2 billion for Gmarket
Meanwhile, Intel
I hope Otellini's right. And yet it could be months or even years before we see a full recovery. Investors are best served by exercising prudence -- picking only the very best stocks, and staying patient when waiting for gains. That's how David Gardner produced a decade of 20% returns in the real-money Rule Breaker portfolio. Tom Gardner's "simpleton portfolio" was also a 10-year winner. With these five tech stocks, I believe I'll achieve similar success.
Checkup time!
Now let's move on to the rest of today's update:
- Oracle stepped in when Big Blue stepped away. Earlier today, CEO Larry Ellison announced a $9.50 cash-and-debt acquisition of Sun that values the business at $7.4 billion. Look for more on the implications of this deal at Fool.com in the coming days.
There's your checkup. See you back here next week for more tech stock talk.
Get your clicks with more techie Foolishness:
- This video game company rocks. Literally.
- One columnist calls this techie a $6 trillion business in the making.
- Palm's Pre isn't dead already, is it?