Thursday January 8, 2009 Navivest

Shares of Walmart (WMT) are indicated to open down a whopping $4.53 after the company cut its forecast for Q4 2008 earnings from continuing operations, to $0.91 to $0.94 per share. The company had previously issued guidance for the period of $1.03 to $1.07 a share, with consensus estimates coming in at $1.06.

Walmart was supposed to be a standout as the economic downturn cut consumers’ spending power, and more of them turned to discount stores to save money of which Walmart is the clear leader. But apparently, even Walmart is not immune.

The company also reported that same store sales for December rose just 1.7%. Wall Street analysts had been looking for a rise of 2.8%.

Tags: Walmart 

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HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

The good news is there is only one month left before the end of the year.

But that’s still plenty of time for the crisis that began in the subprime mortgage market to wreak more havoc in 2008.

Especially if today’s carnage is anything to go by.

The Dow has plunged over 400 points at the time of writing. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have also been taken to the woodshed.

Oil is back below $50 a barrel. Gold has given up $50 to reach $770 an ounce.

Last week’s bailout-fueled optimism has given way to economic reality.

Today, the US manufacturing index slumped to its lowest level since 1982.

Retailers did manage to tempt bargain hunters out on Black Friday. But once the mega-discounted products had gone, so did much of the shoppers’ enthusiasm.

We’re reminded that the America’s recession is now a year old. The wonks

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Buy Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), the End.  It's really as simple as that.  Times are tough, investing is even worse, and there's only one evil corporation that will benefit during a time like this...take a guess who? Que ClusterStock.com That's right: People have to shop and eat. So Walmart (WMT) and McDonald's (MCD), the two marquee sellers of cheap stuff and food, have thrived. The defensive ...

Perf Go Green Holdings Inc. (PGOG.OB) is a New York-based biodegradable plastics company. The company’s focus is on the development and global marketing of 100% eco-friendly, non-toxic, food-contact compliant, 100% bio-degradable plastic products. The company currently offers plastic trash and kitchen bags, dropcloths, and pet pick-up-after bags.

Perf Go Green uses recycled plastic bags combined with an oxy-biodegradable proprietary application method to produce the film for the biodegradable bags. This product, when discarded in soil in the presence of microorganisms, moisture and oxygen, decomposes into simple materials found in nature. PGOG Green Bags will completely breakdown in a landfill environment in 12-24 months, leaving no residue or harmful toxins. This is a vast improvement over traditional plastic bags, which are estimated to take 1,000 years to degrade.

The potential market for PGOG’s Green Bags is enormous. It is estimated that Americans throw away approximately 100 billion plastic bags a year, and globally

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Brite-Strike Technologies, Inc. was started by two police officers who believe the top manufactures of tactical lights do not meet the needs of police officers. The company is committed to using the very latest technology, while abiding to the highest design and manufacturing standards, so that policemen and consumers can rely on Brite-Strike products when they are needed.

The company’s Tactical Blue Dot series was specially designed for patrol officers. Features include a tri-sided barrel design for a more ergonomic grip, as well as front and rear tri-strike-crowns for maximum impact when using the device for pressure point and weapon retention techniques.

The Protector series allows citizens to also participate in non-lethal self defense. The tactical LED flashlights use the latest Luxeon® LED and EMP chip technology, which is unparalleled by older LED and incandescent lighting technology. Current retailers selling the product include JB’s, Sky Mall, FrontGate and Brookstone, with Walmart,

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Just skimming through all the restructuring/firings of late [May 21: American Airlines Cutting Jobs and Routes], I am wondering out loud where will all these people go to work next? Just looking at the airline industry, in the past week or two aloneContinental(CAL) became the latest airline to announce cutbacks in its schedule, saying it will chop fourth-quarter domestic mainline capacity by 11%, resulting in about 3,000 job losses.On Wednesday, United Airlines, a unit of UAL(UAUA), announced plans to reduce its fleet by 100 aircraft, taking out 17% to 18% of its mainline domestic capacity by 2009, and eliminate several thousand jobs.American Airlines, a unit of AMR(AMR), said it would lower mainline domestic capacity by 11% to 12% in the fourth quarter, retiring at least ...

No surprise here - I mentioned in the fall the path for "no more house ATM for you" American consumers would be credit cards first, drain 401ks (whatever they actually invested, which is very little) second, beg borrow steal (pawn) next, and away we go to bankruptcy circa 2009 last. Real wages stagnant for a decade (using government inflation figures, far worse with 'real inflation') eventually will catch up to you. Keep in mind folks, we are not even "in a recession"; what happens if we "enter" one.Thankfully issues like this will be resolved in less than a month as the 2nd half recovery commences, and my scenario will not play out. Once July 1, 2008 arrives and the 2nd half recovery begins we won't have to deal with front page stories like this one in the Wall ...

In October 2007, when gold was USD 750/oz and a US Dollar fetched 7.5 Chinese Renminbi Yuan (RMB), I published an article titled “Gold and RMB – Last Shoe to Drop for the dollar”, in which I said:

For a US family that spends $300 to $500 a month on Chinese goods, a further 40% appreciation of the RMB will translate into a $100 to $200 monthly cost increase. The logic of asking the Chinese to revalue their currency upwards is no different from asking the Saudi’s to jack up their oil price further, which is no logic at all for a US consumer.
Holding Dollars is like playing musical chairs. When the music stops, the one holding the most Green IOUs, loses.

With a rapidly sinking Dollar vs. western currencies, the Dollar’s supreme image is now very wobbly.
Having built up a war chest of USD 1 …

First let me preface this entire entry by saying, I don't bemoan the type of work firefighters or police officers do - along with coal miners these are among the toughest jobs in America. That said, I wrote a piece on the bankruptcy in Vallejo [May 7: Vallejo California Votes for Bankruptcy]; Mish over at Mish's Global Economic Trend blog followed up Thursday with a look at the salaries of public workers in the city. He took a look at all the workers who made more than $100K - there were 292 city workers (I don't know out of how many) - but this is only a town of 100K people. Not New York City. Below are charts of the $200-$299K and $180-$199K ranges. Dominated by firefighters (and some policemen). Again, I have no bones with these people being compensated for tough work but ...

I don't have anything earth shattering to report on these sales, I just want to build more cash and lock in more profits in my layer in, layer out approach. These are names I have not taken any profits on of late, so I am going to begin now. Mechel (MTL) always seems to lag the other domestic names in iron/coal etc by a few days, so its finally making its move, so I am taking a bit off here; same with Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) which despite an "ok" quarter jumped post earnings - it seems people are willing to excuse any bad results in anything in the steel (or related) sectors at this point, and a bit off National Oilwell Varco (NOV). I reversed this week's earlier buys of Potash (POT) and Mosaic (MOS) for small losses (yes I'm a flip flopper - the charts looked ready for ...