November 23, 2008
Stunned by Soup
My readers tend to be both better looking and smarter than me. Back when I was shredding what little credibility I have by suggesting a bunch of “cheap” stocks when the old VIX hit 50, commenter Brian wondered if Campbell (CPB) wasn’t a better idea.
Brian was absolutely right, and to make amends for poo-pooing his comment, may I suggest pairing a Bagel-ful with your bowl of soup? It should take some of the sting away from the 1000 mg of sodium you’re ingesting.
Campbell Beats Bear Market as Consumers Seek Out Soup:
“Campbell controls about 70 percent of the $5 billion-a-year U.S. soup market.”
Bonus points to those who recognized the post title from the classic Seinfeld episode:
JERRY: There’s only one caveat — the guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the ordering procedure. He’s secretly referred to as the Soup Nazi.ELAINE: Why? What happens if you don’t order right?
JERRY: He yells and you don’t get your soup.
ELAINE: What?
JERRY: Just follow the ordering procedure and you will be fine.
GEORGE: All right. All right. Let’s - let’s go over that again.
JERRY: All right. As you walk in the place move immediately to your right.
ELAINE: What?
JERRY: The main thing is to keep the line moving.
GEORGE: All right. So, you hold out your money, speak your soup in a loud, clear voice, step to the left and receive.
JERRY: Right. It’s very important not to embellish on your order. No extraneous comments. No questions. No compliments.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
this relative performance stuff is useless when both sides are down/flat. What good is it to me that CPB was less worse than the index. I think comment #8 on that post was more to the point :)
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Here’s a really boring stock that held its own through two recent bear markets:
► http://twitpic.com/nbk5
$GIS - General Mills: the sound of one stock clapping. I believe it’s in the same Sector/sub-sector as Campbells.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:42 am
“The Soup Nazi”
November 24th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Who’s the soup nazi of beijing? I’ll be there in march :)
November 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am
@Born2: If you were holding CPB the last eight weeks, you’d know how useful relative performance is. :-) And I believe you made one or two comments since then about the financials and homebuilders having bottomed, but I won’t point them out.
@Keith: Yes, GIS is another big Consumer Staples component.
@auma: The Chinese make good soup and they’re smart and frugal and hardworking enough to know that good soup can never come from a (very pricey) can. Drop me a line when you come to town and I can buy you a drink (not soup).
November 24th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hey thanks will do!
November 24th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I prefer GIS’ Wanchai Ferry dumplings to go with my soup.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:57 am
For a look at the real soup nazi of NYC, rent “I Like Killing Flies”, or watch it streamed through Netflix.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:22 am
@Cap: I’ve never tried to watch anything streamed from Netflix, not sure how well it would work from China … maybe I’ll give it a shot and write a blog post about it.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
man, this stock took a beating on monday. from $40 to $33 on bad earnings report. wonder if this is a dip to buy on since we’ll be all eating soup soon!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
@Charlie: Figures I’d write glowingly about it the very day they miss earnings. :-)
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:49 am
Even CPB doesn’t look so hot now. Looks like downtrend is in place.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 am
@Brian: The system went long the Staples back in 2006 (!) and still likes them … as far as individual stocks go, I just don’t pay attention to them anymore and focus on the ETFs instead.