Eyeing a Billion Tea Drinkers, Starbucks Pours It On in China, by Janet Adamy (let me know if this link doesn’t work for non-subscribers)

On a warm summer evening at a Starbucks in downtown Shanghai, customers lined up at the counter to order mango Frappuccinos, fruit and vegetable cups and blueberry cheesecake. Warren Guo, a 30-year-old who works in foreign trade, sat on the patio and shared a piece of cheesecake with his friend David Wang, 35, who also works in foreign trade. Mr. Guo says he doesn’t like coffee but comes to Starbucks because there are “many girls.”

There’s an SBUX in my office building and I visit it occasionally (there’s also a Pacific Coffee, which is much nicer). It’s true, no one except foreigners orders coffee, and the place is filled with attractive young women keen on meeting guys who are foolish enough to fork over $3 for a 30 cent cup of the devil’s brew.

Buying in the morning, a bout of selling in the early afternoon, but late afternoon buyers took it up into the close.

On the way home from a dinner last night at 9 PM, I got trapped in traffic once again at Guomao Qiao (World Trade Center Bridge). I don’t get annoyed when this happens. Instead I think of portfolio holdings XOM (ExxonMobil) and PTR (PetroChina) — both trading at all-time highs.

Longtime readers know I’m not a fan of the buck (except for passing it). We live in China and choose to be paid in Chinese Yuan and long ago diversified more than half our assets out of dollar-denominated stuff.

Here’s a smattering of posts I’ve written over the last year related to the US Dollar.

ETF to Watch — Euro Currency Trust (FXE)
The Beginning of the End of the American Republic
The Boomers Will Sell Their Assets to Whom and at What Price?
A Haven for Biomedical Freedom
Buffett Cuts Dollar Short Just As Slide Set to Resume
Nothing Can Save the US Dollar
Trading with the Trend: US Dollar Index
The US Dollar Resumes Its Slide

Whoa God only knows, God makes his plan
The informations unavailable to the mortal man
We’re workin our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway, when in fact we’re slip sliding away

Chop. CSLR was the Crazy Play of the Day — 2,424 times average volume made it stand out a tad.

Selling all day long … non-stop, a classic trend day. Day traders should have done very well, assuming they weren’t spitting into the wind.

1. Maoxian.com Valued at $367,025

You get what you pay for with LeapFish’s free domain name appraisal service. I found this via TheKirkReport which gets at least ten times more traffic than me but is “valued” significantly less. ;-)

2. The Real Problem With Hedge Funds, by Jim Cramer

Remember that Cramer is not just some maniac on TV… he’s a smart guy who writes well and understands the hedge fund industry (unlike most financial journalists).

3. 10 Best Extensions for Firefox 2

CNET put together a nice list of Firefox extensions… I use eight out of ten of these. If you don’t use Firefox by now, you must be living on the moon.

4. Camping Out for the PS3 (Photo)

Proof that PlayStation is more addictive than crack.

5. Disappearing Uncle Ben (Photo)

Political correctness run amok.

6. Switching to Gmail

Good instructions for Dummies who are switching to Gmail. If you haven’t switched to Gmail, you should. If you need an invite, email me. (Do people still need invites?)

7. Fifty Mistakes Men Make When Having Sex

I’ve made all of these, many simultaneously. The good news is that now that I’m in my mid-thirties I’m beginning to figure out what to do and when to do it. ;-)

8. Wild Sex: Where Monogamy is Rare

“Of the roughly 5,000 species of mammals, only 3 to 5 percent are known to form lifelong pair bonds. This select group includes beavers, otters, wolves, some bats and foxes and a few hoofed animals.”

Your wife won’t buy this excuse if you stray, by the way. ;-)

9. Screwed by Bush (Video)

WARNING: This is a little explicit, but if you have a sense of humor and are contemptuous of the Bush administration (you should be), then you’ll enjoy it.

10. Marijuana’s High Times Not Memorable with Neurons Out of Sync

“Neuroscientists have discovered that cannabinoids diminish brain waves and disrupt the symphony of synchronous brain cell firing that may be essential for memory.”

This is why potheads tend to be spacey, unreliable, and difficult to be around.

Money rotated back into Energies and Materials (Metals), and a ton of money came into the REITs following the EOP buyout.

… while Biotech, Big Pharma, and Health Care all were relatively weak.

Chop with a negative bias during this shortened, holiday session.