COST - Costco is still kicking!

Costco is still moving steady.  They are slowly but surely increasing there fundamentals.  Their leadership team is doing a very nice job doing it too.  

Last month, Costco had a 10% total sales growth, and that was just June.  It wasn't anything special, such as the holidays or any tax holidays.  

It is expected that there's a corresponding earnings growth this quarter.  

Sources: 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/16/costco-wholesale-corporation-is-still-on-the-rise.aspx

AAPL & IBM - Can they be friends?

After having a rough competitive history between the two decades ago, Apple and IBM are teaming up.  

IBM has agreed to bring in iPads and iPhones and develop business and big data apps for their customers.  They also plan on bringing in IBM employees to support their devices on-site for their customers.  

This is another step closer of Apple taking over the commerical market and widening the uses of their devices.  As of October 2013, there were 1,000,000 apps in the App Store with 475,000 of them native to the iPad.  In June 2014, there were 1,200,000 apps.  

iOS developing has exploded since 2008.  Apps are Apple's strength.  People who were interested in developing apps for the iPhone, have now had the opportunity to graduate from a 4-year college by now and are prime for programming and developing.  Apple recently release they new iOS 8, with a health-monitoring kit. The best apps are yet to come!

Sources: 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2316545?source=iphoneportfolioapp_copy

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonesoftwareterms/qt/apps-in-app-store.htm

TSLA - Tesla's secret market

Tesla recently announce that last month, they reached 1GWh of charging at their supercharging stations.  Based on the math and estimates done by Siddharth Dalal, Tesla made $1.8 million from the supercharging access payments and yet only paid about $120,000 supplying the electricity.  It's a highly profitable, subscription service for charging your car!

With more and more of these stations being built and filling in the grid across the country, more Tesla owners should find the fee more reasonable and surely adopt it.  Tesla is becoming a cross between an auto company and an "oil" company, which makes them very exciting to be an investor of.  

Hold TSLA!

Sources:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2315075?source=iphoneportfolioapp_copy

Jobs - Status of the Job Market

With some emphasis brought by President Obama the economy and jobs are coming back strong and it's about time!

Housing is coming back!  This news means people are feeling more stable at their place of employment.  

Manufacturing jobs are also coming back to pre-recession levels.  Manufacturing however, has a ways to go to become strong again. China reaching slower growths and workers demanding better conditions and pay, certainly help US workers in the long term.  

Talking about jobs, the cofounder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, has said that the job market needs to evolve once again after the recession.  After reports of workers afraid of leaving they current job for another, even for advancement, and employers giving out yearly contracts, instead of the traditional hire, he came out with an interesting solution.  

Hoffman states that new-employees should be given less of a "trial run" and more of a "tour of duty" for 2-4 years.  This allows the employee to follow through a project or product life-cycle while having meaningful meetings every couple of years about career development, expectations, and most certainly pay.  You are forced to have those conversations while giving you stability of having a job.

I think of this as an inbetween an employee and a contractor and certainly benefits from the stability of one while having the pay of the other.  

Sources: 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-radical-approach-to-hiring-152858417.html

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/obama-finally-has-some-good-economic-news-to-deliver-172745113.html

Trading Volume and Frequency - A sign of something?

In last couple weeks, I have read multiple articles about how trading volume has slowed down.  Just today, a Wall Street Journal article (Empty Floors Fray Traders' Nerves http://online.wsj.com/articles/empty-trading-floors-fray-nerves-on-wall-street-1405302362 ) made me realize, maybe it is more than a fad, but a long-term trend. 

The article was about how bond trading is down and "boring."  The economic downturn caused new regulations and empty desks.  The new regulations kept the empty desks empty and with fewer people, there are fewer people to make sales calls and trade securities.

Another player is computer-aided trading, also known as high frequency trading.  High frequency trading can be used to sneak in before large orders or as the first  orders after a news event.  They make there money based off of making hundreds of trades throughout the day and manufactured using algorithms and complex programs.  Mark Cuban has voiced his opinion about high frequency trading in his blog,  http://blogmaverick.com/2014/04/03/the-idiots-guide-to-high-frequency-trading/ and he isn't afraid to come after them. He thinks it should be banned.  It's manilipulating the stock market and only certain giant players can play the game.  It short changes the average investor and makes the stock market unwelcoming. This is a rare comment coming from a guy who owns a NBA franchise and loves competition.

KEY- KeyCorp is the key!

KeyCorp is doing awesome fundamentally.

First, it just beat garmin in market cap.  That is good news since this will increase the volume through a greater interest of mutual funds and ETFs looking for this sized market cap position.

Second, it is growing it's commerical, financial, and agricultural loans.  This growth is great news for the economy, but it is also great news for profitability.

Third, it's book value is up 5% from the 1st quarter of last year, which translates to a 27% premium for investors.

Fourth, KeyCorp is constantly trying to improve their stock.  Constant buy backs and an increase to their dividend is definitely pleasing.

My recommendation: buy and hold until $25.

References: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2014/07/09/keycorp-now-327-largest-company-surpassing-garmin/

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/does-keycorp-hold-the-key-to-a-fortune.aspx

F - Ford Motor Company, dividend

Ford just released there quarterly statement about their dividend.  They have decided to keep it at $0.125 per share.  

Ford is at the higher end of there 52-week range being priced at $17.32.

Currently, their competitor, GM is getting hammered by all of their recalls and the scandals behind them.  This is also reflecting on Ford a little, making them a little undervalued.  

My recommendation is to hold if you have it, but it's not quite a buy or a sell at this point.  

AAL - American stays alive!

Shortly after my article about American Airlines, the stock took a tumble.  The stock dropped to $37.95 by Tuesday morning.

This was caused by a reaction of statements made by their European competitors about how competitive international travel is.  

Luckily for us, the CEO released a statement stating passenger growth and a more stable flight paths.  Also released was a report about how American made $580 million on hedging fuel.  

These new stories have return AAL back to normality with the stock hovering $42-$43 Wednesday afternoon.

I change my recommendation to sell at $50.  

WMT - Walmart, Going, going, gone.

Walmart is in trouble in this dynamic global market.  It is struggling on its uphill battle of online shopping and believe it or not, the revival of US manufacturing.  

Walmart's aggressive pricing strategy is based on selling tons of cheap products. These cheap products are getting more expensive to sell in the stores, and the average consumer has the easy knowledge of scoping out the market online while shopping.  Things are not getting easier for Walmart.  Having such large stores with footprints to fill could be a huge self-inflicted wound that can't be fixed.  

I recommend you stay away from Walmart in the long run.  Profitability will be a huge issue in the next couple years.  

HD - Home Depot, Inc.

Home Depot is ready for take off!   It has been relatively flat for the past year while producing $0.47/share dividends.  

This morning, it is priced at $81.42, with the 52-week high and low being $83.20 and $72.21.  

There's plenty of room for growth as the economy picks up and people start to enjoy their free time the second half of the year.  

Goal: Sell at $90

AAL - American Airlines Group Inc.

Including today, AAL is on a two-day slump since it was reaching all-time highs of $44.  The sell off might be more of a market adjustment.  

AAL is now half a year old and the effects  of the merger should now be fully in play. I would expect a higher than expected quarterly report due to the market effeciencies it is now taking advantage of.  

Sell point: $50 in 2 months