Dueling Fools: 2008

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
December 28, 2007 | Comments (0)

Recs

3

Can we kiss 2007 away now? Despite the market's gyrations, the overall return stuck to its historical norm. This doesn't mean that a lot of interesting things didn't happen.

  • Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) shed roughly 40% of its stock value.
  • XM (Nasdaq: XMSR) and Sirius (Nasdaq: SIRI) agreed to merge back in February, yet both stocks lost ground in 2007.
  • Market darlings like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), and Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) continued to hit fresh highs.

Why should 2008 be any different? Sure, it's an election year. Interest rates are likely to bounce around like a pinball. The ingredients are certainly in place for some eventful trading in the year ahead, but which way will the market turn?

Not all Fools agree. Ryan Fuhrmann sees good things in the marketplace for 2008. Chuck Saletta is braced for bear.

Where do you stand on the market's prospects for the coming year? That's what this week's bout is all about.

Duel on!

Closed for 15 months – opening 10 days only! Get notified ahead of time as our expert portfolio manager invests $1 MILLION in the best opportunities from across The Motley Fool’s premium investment services. This is the first open since August 2008, by invitation only. Enter email below.

Starbucks is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. Intuitive Surgical and Baidu are picks in the Rule Breakers newsletter service. A 30-day trial subscription is yours for free after you take in today's Duel.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is an optimist at heart, though he does have his concerns about 2008. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

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