WallStreetOasis.com Newswire

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:

As of the close Thursday, the Nasdaq 100 index was up 15.19% since the March 10th bottom. A look at the impact of the stocks that make up the index shows that the gains have largely been concentrated in just three stocks -- Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and Research in Motion (RIMM).

As shown below, AAPL has been responsible for 35% of the gains in the index, GOOG 9.87% and RIMM 8.50%. Collectively, these three names have accounted for more than half of the gains in the index during the post-correction rally.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:

After another 600+ US companies reported earnings this week, the earnings "beat rate" dropped slightly from 57% to 56%. Currently, 1,163 out of 2,076 companies that have reported since April 7th have announced better than expected earnings per share. As shown, the "beat rate" has fallen from the mid-60s over the last few quarters, but it's not yet at the low-50 levels seen during the last bear market.

click to enlarge

Kite Realty Group Trust (KRG)
A1 2008 Earnings CallComplete Story »

Dr Pepper (DPS) debuted at $10 billion on the NYSE last week, after shareholders pressured Cadbury to spin it off when an IPO plan failed. But CEO Larry Young says $25 shares are cheap. The No. 3 U.S. soda-maker trades at less than 13 times P/E, while rivals Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) trade at 18 times 2008 P/E. Barron’s says Dr Pepper should trade at a premium even to bottlers Coke (CCE) and Pepsi (PBG), who trade at 14 times estimated 2008 P/E.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
The Baltic Dry Index is up 82% since bottoming in late January,
which might be a sign that the global economic environment is not
faring as poorly as many think. The index was cut in half from its
October peak to its January bottom, but it quickly reversed and is now
approaching record highs again.
The Baltic Dry Index measures changes in the cost to transport raw materials by sea, and as noted on Investopedia, it

You know, the usual: supreme power, undue influence over others, world domination.
-David Harding of Winton Capital Management when asked about what drives him in Traderdaily
Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

Roger Nusbaum submits:
In a video on Bloomberg Stephen Roach said that no country has ever devalued its way to prosperity, and the U.S. won't be the first.

A few times since the tech bubble burst I've heard or read people pointing back to some very specific indicators/factoids from when the bubble was inflating with the tone that an extreme bursting was "obviously" going to happen.

Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA submits: I
love the price/earnings ratio, but like all investment tools, it is
flawed. This is because it is only as good as the numbers that go into
it.

Michael Goode submits:Many people have argued that the current high house price to income ratio is not reason for house prices to decline, considering that interest rates are very low now. These people argue that what is important is not the actual price of the house, but the mortgage payment required to carry the house (for an example see user jcrash’s comments on my previous articles on the coming mortgage crisis at SeekingAlpha).

Tim Price submits:

“What are the facts ? Again and again and again – what are the facts ? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell”, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbours think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places ? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts !”

- Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein’s “Time Enough for Love”.