The only thing I learnd from Jonathan Laing’s lame cover story, What Could Go Wrong With China?, was a new word: pelf.
“There are only five things you can do with a free-cash-flow dollar. You can pay a dividend, buy back stock, pay down debt, make an acquisition or reinvest in the business … the U.S. consumer is 20% of the world’s gross domestic product.” — William Priest, interviewed by Neil Martin
“Steve Kaplan, a finance professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, thinks the HCA buyout may represent another peak in the private-equity market, as the RJR deal did back in the late ‘Eighties.” — Jonathan Laing
“All things considered, David Rosenberg, the North American economist for Merrill Lynch reckons that the drop in housing will shave as much as two percentage points from normal GDP growth of 3.5% over the next four to six quarters.” — Alan Abelson
“Abitibi-Consolidated, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of newsprint, bid farewell to 57 years of continuous dividends, as newspaper publishers purchased less newsprint in the face of fewer ads and declining circulation. The company eliminated its quarterly common dividend of 2.5 Canadian cents a share, which it had slashed from a dime in June 2003.” — Shirley Lazo
“Over the past seven quarters, Motorola’s global market share has jumped from 13.5% to 22.1%. Meanwhile, Nokia’s has remained relatively flat at 33% … Motorola has shipped more than 50 million RAZRs since their launch in November 2004 … GSM technology is employed by roughly four-fifths of the globe — mostly outside the United States.” — Mark Veverka [ed. the RAZR is so cool that even the gadget-averse Chairman has considered getting one.]
“Hong Kong already has more than 300 hedge-fund managers, and very few people are familiar with them.” — Sandra Manzke
“After Friday’s weaker-than-expected second-quarter gross-domestic-product report, the futures market has priced in just a 31% chance of an 18th consecutive rate hike — compared with around a 50% likelihood before the GDP data were released … S&P earlier this month said that while the global corporate speculative-grade-bond default rate increased in June to 1.13% from 1.09% in May, it remained near all-time lows.” — Tom Sullivan
“The International Coffee Organization estimates the world consumed a record 117 million bags of robusta and arabica coffee in the 2005 calendar year.” — Lisa Kallal [ed. the legalized drug market has never been better.]
“The most recent CBOE seat to change hands went for $1.35 million — up from about $700,000 a year ago and $299,000 in January 2005.” — Kopin Tan [ed. Up 350% in a year-and-a-half? Yowza.]
“China, over 10 years, has more than quadrupled its annual steel output, to nearly 40 million tons — more than its own market can stomach. With excess supply now flowing from that nation, global hot-rolled coil prices, which peaked at $700 to $800 a ton in 2004 and early 2005, are around $600, after having slid below $500 late last year. They seem bound to skid again in 2007, in part owing to the U.S. housing slowdown.” — Rattaphol Onsanit
“Wal-Mart admitted that its inability to achieve economies of scale quickly was the primary reason it couldn’t succeed in Germany … Germany allows retail stores to stay open just over 80 hours a week, half of what’s permitted in the U.K. And German laws that restrict retailers’ ability to sell goods below cost also played against Wal-Mart. — Howard Wheeldon [ed. Does the US permit retail stores to be open 168 hours a week? Loss leading is verboten in Germany? Crazy.]
Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
