1. Bought 50 IXC to Replace STO (see disclaimer): I mentioned in an earlier post today that I sold STO, and I intended to use the proceeds in another energy investment. I bought 50 shares of the Ishares S & P Global Energy Sector Index Fund (IXC) at $31.9. As of 8/5/09, this ETF contained 82 companies, including the foreign energy conglomerates like Total, Royal Dutch, ENI, Statoil, Repsol, Petro Bras, and the Canadian oil and gas companies. iShares S&P Global Energy Sector Index Fund (IXC): Holdings Exxon has the largest weight at around 16%. That is still lower than a U.S. only energy ETF such as XLE, where Exxon has a 21.58% currently.http://www.sectorspdr.com/spdr/composition/?symbol=XLE The expense ratio for IXC is .48%. iShares S&P Global Energy Sector Index Fund (IXC): Overview Except for the Canadian energy companies, where I do have some ownership stakes, I do not own any of the other international oil and gas firms contained in IXC, so this buy today does achieve some diversity for me in this sector. I was not able to muster much in the way of animal spirits today before the jobs report.
2. BOUGHT 30 Shares of the ETF TIP at $99.95 (see disclaimer) The ETF TIP fell below $100 today intra-day, and I added 30 shares to my position at $99.95. I do not view treasury inflation protected securities to be a screaming buy, at best a lukewarm add as an alternative to cash earning next to nothing in a money market account. I am reinvesting the dividends to buy additional shares, and I now prefer to buy these securities directly at auction in my ROTH IRA. This ETF has a weighted average maturity of 9.18 years. iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP): Overview I therefore use the 10 year treasury as a benchmark for comparison purposes. Today, the 10 year nominal rate was around 3.75% and the 10 year TIP was approximately 1.86%, as shown at Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com. That would place the break even at around 1.89% which for me at least is -at most - okay for a small nibble.
The next 10 year TIPS auction is currently scheduled for Monday, October 5, 2009. http://www.treas.gov A five year TIP, which does not interest me, is scheduled for October 26th.
My broker did not charge me for submitting a non-competitive bid for the last 10 year auction. 10 Year TIP Auction/Sold Pepsico/ Sold General Mills
This kind of buy originates more from a recognition that I need to do something with at least some of the cash recently raised by selling stock, and the TIP buy is sort of a default option which does not require the LB to endlessly over think a course of action.
3. SunOpta (owned Lottery Ticket): Sunopta continues to generate a lot of sales without earning much in profit. While revenues declined 11.7% year over year, STKL still generated 257.7 million in revenues for the quarter. The market cap at today's close of $2.73, up from my purchase at $1.65, was only 176 million. The company simply can not earn much money on those sales. Earnings were a paltry 1.8 million or just 3 cents a share. If you give STKL the adjustments it wants to make to that number, the result is still a pathetic 7 cents per diluted share. The book value according to this earnings release is $3.56 per share. The president, Steve Bromley, said the management team was focused on improving operating margins and the return on assets, and I certainly hope those items are on their to do list. Still, at my purchase price of just a 100 shares at $1.65, I intend to hold, wait and see what happens. Buy of Sunopta: Highly Speculative
4. Paul Tudor Jones: P T J believes that we are in a bear market rally, and he is not inclined to chase this rally.CNBC.com His hedge fund did underperform the market in July with a 1.04% rise compared to the 8% increase in the market which is where I ended up after taking out the cash component which is really starting to be a big drag at near zero interest. I am not inclined to chase the market now either. My knee jerk reaction is to sell short parabolic moves in any asset class. Most of the positioning was done in March and early April, and I have been selling rallies mostly over the past two weeks.
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