What's going on? -RYTNX

Rydex S&P mutual fund has gone down 3.35% today and looking at the fund's chart history, it seems that the fund has reached it's peak and will soon begin to drop. However, I will hold off on buying or selling any shares until I am certain that the fund will decrease in price rather than increase. My belief that the Rydex mutual fund stock may eventually decrease can be confirmed in the article "Rydex tightens belt; closes several inverse/leveraged ETFs" by Tom Lydon because it discusses Rydex' choice to let go of 12 leveraged ETFs that have not made any profit for the fund in the past two-and-a-half years. These ETFs could eventually hinder the fund's stock and cause it to lose profit. It is important to keep up to date with our investments because it will allow us to see how the stocks we invested in are doing and if we should continue to invest in these stocks because we will make profit or if we should sell our shares due to lack of profit.

~Courtney Chu~

What's going on?

As of 12:00 today, the Walmart stock is up .55%. However over the course of the last month, it has gradually been decreasing and since I do not want to lose any more money I will sell my group's shares in the company. Also there is a lawsuit making headlines against the store for sexual discrimination (Forbes.com) so I have a feeling their stock will soon drop as a result of it. According to the article, "Women are only 33% of the company's managers but comprise 65% of hourly employees." We should keep up with our investments to ensure that we are not losing money, and if the stocks are dropping, you will be able to sell them that much quicker.

~Sydney Carlin

What's going on? MCD

Right now McDonald's is said to decrease for this day, this is because Happy meal toys are now banned by a law to be distributed with happy meals in McDonald's in Santa Clara, this probably led to a smaller demand in food bought from McDonald's, because it probably lost many of their young customers that used to go to McDonald's mostly for the toys. However I would still keep McDonald's because, even thought it has a decrease for this day, when looking at how well it is doing today compared to the past years, it looks like McDonald's is the most then it has ever been for the past five years. Therefore I would keep McDonald's because there is a possibility of it increasing even more, especially if the plan of opening a branch in China pulls through.

-Alexandra Yepifanova

What's going on? KO

The current stock quote for Coca Cola(KO) 53.93, having gone up .21 points so far today. I hold my KO shares, simply because in the last 2 months the value has been in around the same place (it keeps fluctuating between 55 and 53 points). A news article, "The Power of Coke's Durable Competitive Advantage", states that "Coke’s distribution ability, superior management, and excellent product innovation truly make the company a “business castle” with a wide “economic moat”. Coke has consistently shown that it can adapt well. Also, Coca Cola stock may experience a very sharp increase very soon. In the summer, The Coca Cola company plans to release a new product: a fruit drink. This was the primary reason that I bought the KO stock in the first place. The price of Coca cola stock will likely go up in the summer, thus, since i have already have shares within it, I plan to reap the benefits.

--Essowe Tchalim

Mutual Fund Blog

Our group will invest in the Rydex S&P mutual fund because the recent quotes have shown that the fund is earning money. Also many of the holdings in their portfolio are companies we have looked at and are performing well. For instance RYTNX has shares in Apple which has been

Spring Break

I will not invest in the American Dairy Inc. (ADY) stock. In the last month, the price of this stock has decreased by around almost points ( it went from 21.75 to 19.95). When i looked back further into the ADY stock, I saw that this industry's stock has been on the decline for the last 6 months. It also seems that i am not the only one who has notice this. According to the article "SmarTrend Detects Continued Selling Pressure in Shares of American Dairy (ADY)" it seems that "SmarTrend identified a Downtrend for American Dairy". In the last six months ADY has not been doing too well, and as a result buying its stock would not be the most prudent or beneficial decision.
-Essowe Tchalim

Group

After reading several articles about Walmart, our group has decided to invest in the company due to its performance in the stock market. According to the stock quotes, even though the economy is grinding to a halt, Walmart's price has been increasing gradually over the last few years. One article that supports our reasoning to invest in Walmart involves the health care plan. Three companies including Walmart are likely to benefit from the law that recently went into affect. Since it is a a provider of in-store clinics, Walmart will be expanding many of their services to other stores around the nation. Walmart's policies and wages have also put it in a good place. Another article "In a praise of Walmart" states that there is a "big rush to get jobs in Walmart", a primary reason being that it pays employees an average of $10 per hour, which is much higher than the nation's average minimum wage rates.

Based on the article "Best Buy, Wal-Mart win most of Circuit City's share: NPD" by By Andria Cheng, MarketWatch after circuit city shut down wal-mart and best buy have been taking up circuit city's shares. an now more wal-marts are being build on places were circuit city one's stood. also according to the article "analysts said Best Buy is also facing growing competition from Wal-Mart, which continues to increase its expansion in electronics and has told MarketWatch it plans to sell 3-D TVs before the holiday season this year." so and eventhought bestbuy is currently investing in more shares of technology the wal-mart, wal-mark continues to catch up to best buy, for example "Best Buy increased its share of the flat panel television market by 5.2 percentage points, followed by Wal-Mart's 3.2 points. Best Buy also gained 5.5 percentage points in its share of the notebook computers while Wal-Mart reaped 2.3 points."

-Alexandra Yepifanova

Spring Break

I will not invest in Starbucks since it is not selling for a high price and has been dropping recently. In the past few days it has been going up and down, fluctuating constantly and I don't think that would be an ideal stock to invest in given the state of our economy. While you do see a Starbucks on practically every block in the city, more and more people probably have to find cheaper ways to get coffee since Starbucks is known to be a bit pricier than McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts. Over the last few years, Starbucks has seen more and more competition from places like McDonald's, and now with Americans being strapped for cash, many will choose to get their coffee for $1 instead of $4. The article from kamcity.com supports my reasoning for not investing in the corporation. It says that Starbucks will be shutting 19 more outlets this year due to poor performance. It has already shut 43 outlets last year and I'm sure there will be more to come in the next couple of years as well.

-Sydney Carlin

Spring Break -MSFT

I am buying 100 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) because I believe that the company's stocks will continue to increase in the future. The income growth of the company has increased to 59.6% annually and the price of the stock seems to stay at a steady rate. The range between the daily high and the daily low is relatively small, which means that the shares do not have drastic changes in their value and the company is not in danger of losing profit. To try and become more successful, Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo in hopes of being on a more leveled competitive field with Google, who has been currently winning the online services against Microsoft. Based on this information that I received in the article, found on moneycentral.msn.com by Charley Blaine and Elizabeth Strott, "Microsoft Offers to buy Yahoo", I believe that the company will be able to be more successful in winning their online battle with Google. This union between the two companies will help to make them a more formidable competitor to Google and would make the odds more even.

~Courtney Chu~

Spring break -MCD

I will invest in McDonald's stock for a couple of reasons. One reason is because McDonald's is currently a pretty successful fast-food business, even with competition with other fast food places like burger king, McDonald's still pretty popular. Even thought the major problem that would ever cause McDonald's to earn less of a profit and become less popular, is because of it’s blame for much of America’s obesity and other health risks. Still because it’s cheap and is easy to find anywhere, McDonald's is far from loosing customers because of it’s health risks. The major reason why I would want to invest in McDonald's stock is because, according to money.msn.com article by Alyce Lomax, “it has announced plans to nearly double the number of Golden Arches locations in that highly coveted market” in china. China currently has over 1.3 billion people living in it, also one of five people in this world are currently living in China. If this plan pulls through, McDonald's will be highly successful, eventually bringing the stock price higher, and is a good chance to make a profit.

-Alexandra Yepifanova

Auto Blog- Ford

I will invest in Ford Motor Company because it is doing relatively well even with the problems other car manufacturers such as Toyota are having. As of right now the stock is selling for around 14.02 which is pretty impressive since its 52 week high is 14.54. I think now that Toyota is losing many customers due to their recall, Ford will benefit since Americans will want to buy cars manufactured in the United States. The article from PR Newswire titled "Ford is winning more new customers from competing brands, fueling market share gains" backs up my thesis. Ford's vice president of marketing credits the increase in customers to the strength of their new products. He says, "We're finding that when customers of competing brands check out our new lineup and understand the quality, fuel efficiency and value we offer, they are increasingly becoming Ford owners." I believe purchasing this stock relates to my team's risk tolerance since for 16 out of the last 17 months, Ford has gained retail U.S. market share.

Sydney Carlin

Auto Blog- Mercedes-Benz Courtney Chu

I will not invest in the Mercedes-Benz stock because the company is currently in debt and the company has lost 3.52 billion dollars this past year. The sales growth over the last 12 months has also decreased by 19.8%. I also feel that the company's new car that they have just released in order to boost sales over-seas will not be a huge success. According to the article, "Mercedes-Benz sports car launched in Saudi", Mercedes has launched their new sports car in hopes that car would boost sales. However, in an economic slowdown, an economic slowdown such as today, people would most likely fail to purchase higher priced cars. Also, Mercedes is a well known vehicle that uses a lot of fuel, and people are not looking for a gas guzzling vehicle during our time of economic crisis.  Buying into this stock would most likely end in a loss of money instead of a profit.

Toyota (TM)

I will not invest in Toyota stocks because of it's current failures in supplying cars. Even thought the problem had a lot of time to be resolved and the stock is probably cheep at the moment. I do not think that Toyota will be as successful in the future. According to reuters.com just today, March 25 2010, toyota "has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide, two-thirds of which were to address the risk that floormats may entrap accelerator pedals and cause unintended acceleration." This problem makes past Toyota buyers less trust full of Toyota cars, therefore i would not invest in Toyota stocks, because i do not see a bright future for this company.

Alexandra Yepifanova

Auto Blog-Chrysler

I will not buy the Chrysler Stock. According to the New York Dispatch, Chrysler is working to develop a fully electric version of a current car which they plan to sell in 2012. This may sound like good news, but given its recent economic trouble i feel that it is too soon to trust Chrysler with any stock. It is even doubtful that Chrysler will be able to carry on with its plans. My group has a moderate risk policy, and i deem Chrysler too risky

Apple

I will invest in the Apple Corporation since it is selling for a high price even with the poor economy. Although the stock is dropping as I type this, it is still selling for over $223. For quite a few years now, Apple has been crushing its competition when it comes to mp3 players and computers. Now with the Ipad set to be released in April, the company will try and take over Amazon's popular "kindle." According to a news article, the pre-orders are averaging 10,000 a day and are expected to pass 200,000 by Friday. And this doesn't even include in store pick ups.

Sydney Carlin

Motarola

I would not invest in Motarola stocks, for a couple of reasons. First of all Motarola has a lot of competition, especially with currently striving phone companies such as research in motion with their blackberry's, and apple and their iphones. Even with their new phone the motarola droid they are not nearly as succesful as the iphone. Motarola used to be popular, but right now the Motarola is a substitute for people who can't afford more expensive phones. So therefor I would not invest because I do not see any succes in the future of the motarola company, that would give me a decent profit.

by Alexandra Yepifanova

Cellphones

I will not invest in Skyworks solutions stock. The reason is that even though according to the trend in this company is going up, in the last five days the price dropped 1.80%. Although this is not a large decrease at the moment, it may start a steeper decline in prices, and i am not willing to take that chance.
-Essowe Tchalim

NOK Stock

I would not buy shares from Nokia (NOK) because the value of the shares are dropping everyday with little or no increase. Over the past year, the sales growth of the Nokia shares have dropped 19.2% and are predicted to keep dropping for the next year. In the article, "Nokia asks judge to toss Apple's antitrust claims", Nokia has been accused of trying to force Apple to give up its proprietary technology and "concealing the extent of its patent holdings" and charging astronomical prices for its technologies that include wifi transmission. I believe that

Courtney CHu

Blue Chips- Essowe T.

I will invest in the Coca Cola ompany because of it is doing relatively well and plans to do even better. As of right now, with an average of 53.7, it is not doing decently. However, things may change for the better. According to NDTV profit, Coca Cola announced to "launch new fruit juice for summer". This new product will likely cause the Coca Cola company to shoot up in its profits. given the health craze in this country. The fact that Coca cola is doing this also shows that it knows how to change with the times. Even though this is somewhat of a gamble, investing in stock always comes with risks, as this one seems relatively small.

DIS Blue-chips

I will buy shares from Walt Disney Co. because the recent growth earnings for this year has increased by 8.90% from the previous year and it is predicted that the growth earnings will increase to 10% over the next 5 years. The daily trading rates seem to be at a leveled rate and do not have dramatic increases or decreases in value. This is a perfect company to invest in because my group is a a moderate risk group and the company's values are staying at an almost constant rate. Disney's headlines would help to increase the price of the company's stocks because many people seem to be interested in many of the company's products, such as, the recent release of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, which has been at the top spot for the second weekend in a row.

~Courtney Chu

MCD Blue-Chips

I will buy shares in the McDonald's Corporation due to how well it has been performing given the economic crisis facing our country. It is trading up compared to exactly one year ago, and over the next 5 years the company is expected to increase its earnings by almost 10%. I think the state of the economy will affect McDonald's in a positive way since more people will be looking for cheaper alternatives when it comes to food. And although their food might not be the healthiest, McDonald's "Dollar Menu" is an offer many Americans will not be able to refuse when they are strapped for money, especially those who are let go from their jobs. The article from the Wall Street Journal confirmed why I should buy shares in the company. The title alone ("McDonald's Posts Robust Sales") shows how even with the poor economy, their corporation is doing better than expected. Its competition, including Burger King and Wendy's were both down during the month of February while McDonald's saw a rise of 4.8% globally.

~Sydney Carlin

Blog 1

For the stock market game our group will be moderate risk tolerance. We are hoping to make a profit of at least 50%. Whatever money we earn will be invested in purchasing more stock. Before we start, our group plans on researching the stocks to see their trends. We will also consider how long the businesses have been running, and if they are fairly new, we probably won't invest any of our money in them. Current advertisements for the companies will also play a role in choosing what stocks to invest in. If the company has a successful ad, we will be more likely to invest in their business. We are considering investing in the food and technology industries. When it comes to all the decisions in the group, we will probably take a vote.