With most companies keeping it quiet as 2004 comes to a close, there will still be some stories hollering for your attention.
Monday
While retailers will be dusting off their customer service desks to prepare for a deluge of returns and exchanges, the more interesting trend that continues to build momentum is the growing popularity of gift cards. The National Retail Federation claims that one in three of us will have bought at least one this holiday season. The TowerGroup consultancy pegs last year's gift card tally at $45 billion, and that figure will only continue to grow as shoppers migrate toward the open-ended promise of a gift card over a static selection that may not pass the recipient's taste test.
So this isn't just a heads up to watch out for surprisingly lengthy lines at the cash register as folks put the gift cards to use. As an investor, it is important to understand the accounting implications. Gift cards aren't counted as sales until they are actually consumed. That is why retailers are having more robust January months as the holiday season stretches into the following year. Yes, for retailers, gift cards are the gift that keeps on giving.
Tuesday
You won't be coming across too many quarterly reports this week, so if you pull up a chair and ottoman to ride this quiet week out you may as well rest on some Hooker Furniture (NASDAQ:HOFT). While you may normally consider furniture a sleepy industry -- as dull as textiles -- that certainly hasn't been the case with this company, which sells its wares through more than 3,000 authorized dealers.
While the furniture market has had its ups and downs -- from the positive impact of a bubbling housing market creating new homes to furnish to the negative impact of cheap Asian imports -- Hooker has served its investors well over the past year, and on Tuesday it will be one of the few voices chiming in with its financials.
Wednesday
Splits are bad if you're bowling or dating. Splits are good if you're into ice cream with bananas. So where do stock splits fall into the mix? They don't. In fact, when a company goes through a stock split, it's a zero-sum game.
Why are we talking splits? Well, it's a slow news week, and on Wednesday bebe stores' (NASDAQ:BEBE) 3-for-2 stock split will go into effect. Others, like Leucadia National (NYSE:LUK) and Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT), will be paying out stock dividends in the form of a stock split this week, too. In a nutshell, there is no free lunch. If you had 100 shares at $30, you will wake up the next day with 150 shares at $20. It's the same $3,000 stake, only broken up in a different way. While some may believe that a company announcing a split is a show of welcome bravado, expecting its shares to rise again, that obviously isn't always the case. Just as stocks fall in price by the amount of every cash dividend that they pay out, the same applies to stock splits. It all balances out in the end.
Thursday
So it's Thursday and you're suffering from reality television withdrawal. With Survivor and The Apprenticewrapping up their seasons recently, what will you do with your evenings?
I can offer up plenty of suggestions, but if you really do feel as if your Thursday night is incomplete without watching one or both of the popular shows -- on Viacom's (NYSE:VIA) CBS and General Electric's (NYSE:GE) NBC, respectively -- fear not. They will both be back with new seasons early next year. Until then, amuse yourself by snuffing out your tribal torch and muttering "You're fired!"
Friday
You're now just hours away from 2005. We all know that the market offers no guarantees other than its historical advantage of outperforming other asset classes. Yet some stocks rise even in bear markets just as a few stocks are bound to suffer through bull runs.
So here's an early toast to the New Year. May all your stock picks be the right ones!
Until next week -- or next year -- I remain,
Rick Munarriz
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz doesn't know what to do first, make some New Year's resolutions or break them. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
