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Auto sales in October could hit the lowest levels since the early 1980s, says Ford Motor’s head of sales analysis, and future …

Four years ago Terkel talked to Forbes.com about his life’s work.

Filed under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, Walt Disney (DIS), Recession

As a little girl growing up in the 70s, Tinkerbell seemed a heroine of another time altogether: the original story of Peter Pan was written at the turn of the 20th century (and did you know that the first version of Peter Pan lived in Kensington Gardens?). Tinkerbell, as Disney conceived her, was too precious; her true heritage was rather dusty. J.M. Barrie described her as a fairy who mended pots and kettles (i.e., a tinker).

Is it appropriate or terrible that The Walt Disney Corporation’s (NYSE: DIS) fortunes should be placed on the shoulders of a tiny, too-precious fairy who fixes pots? Disney has iconized Tinkerbell for decades and three years ago founded a new “franchise” of characters by providing Tinkerbell a “back story” and rolling out fairy friends for her. Management says the sales for fairy merchandise, aimed at four-to-eight-year-olds, is selling three times High School Musical 3 tie-ins; vast praise to be sure.

But analysts aren’t hopeful; Merrill Lynch’s Jessica Reif Cohen downgraded Disney earlier this month, worrying about the economic woes affecting the little winged ladies along with the rest of Disney’s magical creatures (and under this umbrella I most definitely include Hannah Montana and her “teenaged” friends in the High School Musical franchise). Disney CEO Robert A. Iger says that “fairies are forever” and maybe he’s right; but I have reservations like Cohen.

Continue reading Mama on the Street: Disney investors wonder, is Tinkerbell recession-proof?

Mama on the Street: Disney investors wonder, is Tinkerbell recession-proof? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oil prices slipped below $65 a barrel Friday, heading for what will likely become the sharpest monthly decline in crude prices …

EnCana is not just North America’s largest gas producer, it is also one of the industry’s lowest-cost operators.

Filed under: International markets, India, Stocks to Buy

I am the Global Editor at MoneyShow.com and each week I interview an investing expert. This week, I spoke with Pratik Sharma, principal at Atyant Capital Partners, who says the Indian stock market remains attractive.

Q. Pratik, the Indian stock market had incredible momentum, reaching 20,000+ at the beginning of this year, but has suffered substantially with the global economic crisis, and now is trading around the 10,000 mark. Where does it go from here?

A. Many sectors of the Indian market are currently being priced as if there is a systemic crisis in India. That is not the case at all. Indian banks are healthy, and domestic savings is north of 30+%, providing a stable and solid deposit base for banks.

Where the market goes from here is anyone’s guess, but I’m seeing one of the best risk/reward scenarios I’ve ever seen. This is not across the board, but in select areas that are not included in the main indices.

I like those companies that serve a domestic market where the supply/demand dynamic is [favorable]. In this environment, taking a top-down sector approach may not be as good as taking a company-specific approach. Companies that have zero debt, solid balance sheets, and have lots of free cash flow are appealing. History has shown that [companies that] come out of periods like this with assets unimpaired will do really well.

Q. What indicators would tell investors it is time to get back into the Indian markets?

Continue reading Global Q&A: What’s Next for India?

Global Q&A: What’s Next for India? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would be an understatement to say that October lived up to its billing as a scary, scary time for investors. The key question, …

Filed under: S and P 500, DJIA

October 19, 1987 was the day that the Dow fell a record 22.6% — then a record 508 point decline. (The Dow lost a total of 21.8% during that month). By contrast, the current month is on track to end down a relatively modest 16.6%. But even though the Dow went down much more in October 1987 than it did in October 2008, it turns out that the 1987 crash preceded the economic contraction by about two years. By contrast, the October 2008 crash seems to be happening at the same time as the economy implodes.

I remember the October 1987 crash well because I was working in a consulting firm whose CEO asked a colleague of mine to come up with a list of stocks to buy. He was convinced that the 508 point decline was an anomaly that did not reflect the state of the economy. And it turns out, he was right. The 1987 crash seems to have been caused by a computer based trading program that got out of control.

By contrast, when we look back on the current economic and stock market downturn, we may see the peak as having taken place in the summer of 2007 — that is about the same time that the Dow reached its high above 14,000 which took place in October 2007. Unlike in 1987, I would be surprised if that consulting firm’s CEO told one of his people to find him stocks to buy after stocks tumbled this month.

In that sense, even though the market suffered much more in October 1987 than it did this month, I would not be surprised if the current market downturn presaged a much more painful economic contraction.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

October 1987 was much worse than October 2008 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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