Why the Saturn story isn’t yet done
Posted on October 1, 2009 at 11:11 amPhil LeBeau says the Saturn dealers GM so successfully wooed in the late 1980s are likely to throw their weight around in an attempt to save the brand and their business.
They will likely try to force GM into doing one of two things: 1) give them money to go away or, 2) get back in the room with Penske and work out a deal. And with the U.S. Government now owning a majority of GM, you can bet the Saturn dealers will press their case in Washington.
Home price upswing: Seasonal or not?
Posted on September 29, 2009 at 2:25 pmWell, that depends on who’s dissecting the new Case-Shiller numbers: Hedge fund manager Tom Brown says the housing bears need a new excuse.
…[S]equential monthly improvement in the index usually deteriorates seasonally in July. This month, though, the change in the rate of change rose by 18 bps. So instead of a seasonally monthly slowing, we’re seeing month-on-month acceleration.
CNBC’s Diana Olick says the numbers are a lot closer to reality when they’re seasonally adjusted.
whether we’re in a housing boom or bust, home prices always rise in the spring/summer months, due to the type of buyer largely in the market. Families, i.e. move-up home buyers, looking to close and move over the summer so as not to disrupt school, dominate the market in the spring and summer.
They are, for the most part, buying larger, more expensive homes, and they therefore skew the median home price in their market higher. In the fall and winter, you tend to see more first-time buyers as well as more single buyers who want smaller, lower-priced homes.
Stephen Stanley of RBS says focusing on seasonality doesn’t matter too much; the improvements are simply a case of the market coming off the absolute bottom of early this year.
…[I]n retrospect, a rebound of some magnitude was likely as demand recovered from non-existent to merely weak.
No, the foreclosure numbers were not better
Posted on September 11, 2009 at 6:38 am
CNBC’s Diana Olick picks apart some media outlets’ very simplistic interpretation of August foreclosure statistics that needed a good bit of nuancing.
I’ve said it over and over. You can’t look at month to month price comparisons. You have to look year over year. When I see a year over year improvement, I’ll change my tune.
permalink | Comment on this post
Happy birthday, Cracker Barrel – Here’s some CNBC love
Posted on August 31, 2009 at 6:47 am
Cracker Barrel marks its 40th birthday next month. That, along with a well-performing stock (Ticker: CBRL) this year, gave CNBC’s Fast Money crew an excuse to chat with Chairman, President and CEO Michael Woodhouse and praise his team’s work.
He’s got room to move prices up… I think they can continue to do that… They continue to do well because they offer value and that’s what the consumer wants.
permalink | Comment on this post
Home builder CEO: Housing almost back
Posted on April 23, 2009 at 1:00 amToll Brothers boss Robert Toll tells CNBC’s Jim Cramer about 80 percent of the U.S. housing market “seems to be on the way back.”
Toll cited the increase over the past five weeks in “expressions of interest,” which are refundable deposits that start the home-buying process, as proof that the sector was finding its footing. The number of these deposits was better than any other time over the past year.
permalink | Comment on this post
Job-creating sectors
Posted on March 19, 2009 at 10:23 amHealth care companies will add almost 3 million jobs by 2016, with the government and – strange as it may seem – the financial services sector also looking good in the medium run. A CNBC package has the details.
permalink | Comment on this post
Cramer still believes
Posted on March 5, 2009 at 8:50 amThe CNBC host and market maven says Cracker Barrel – which has rallied from $18 to $22 in the past two weeks – continues to be a good turnaround story.
Recent Comments
In our good state a select few run the place, 20 yrs ago and today....
Southernindie…Unfortunat ely you have suffered a dibilitating...
And…Karl (Marx) Dean is spending one billion dollars...
Someone explain the difference between short stay and observation...
Watching the Chairman of Starwood Hotels yesterday on CNBC...
Funny how the Union’s feel about taxes. They complained about their...
Where is it?
An absolutely ugly structure, which I have always thought did not take...
Too bad that ATT changed the look of the building so that it no longer...
Yeah, well, look at the TN Legislature of good ol’ boys and the...
As long as the red rules, we will be far behind other states. The GOP does...
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn: I don’t know what...