Great results at Amazon

Was surprising to finally hear about a company which actually posted great results. And no, it was not Nintendo, which doesnt seem recession proof but Amazon which had their best holiday season.
That is saying something in the current environment

Nvidia Ion and Apple partnering

I saw a very interesting article today about Apple planning to use the superhot Nvidio ion platform. Rumours are afloat on what this will be used for with some stating that this will be used for Apple's mini line of notebooks to compete with Netbooks. Others state that this will be used in Apple TV. If it is for the former, then it will be welcome news for Apple fans, as the share of Apple is going down in the notebooks market

Another bad day at Wall street

Today, was amazed to see stock prices for State Street drop by 52%. that's right 52% in a day of trading.
This was after they announced slightly better than expected earnings for the recent quarter but mentioned that they faced 5.5 bn in unrealized losses.
This kind of had a ripple effect and the now familiar dip in Dow Jones went into overdrive. Am wishing for some days without of these dips.

Circuit City liquidating

Its finally official. What we have been expecting for the past 6-8 months. Circuit city has announced that it will be liquidating all of its US stores. Well, i guess this is another major blow for shoppers who still like to look and see things in reality before buying. I guess Best Buy literally has no competitors now.
Some terrible decisions taken over the past few years at Circuit city are now coming back to haunt them. Interstingly, this may be a good time to get some cool stuff at great prices(as long as you dont have return them for whatever reason).

Steve Jobs- Why is he so important

I was reading today the news about Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence because of his health issues being more serious than initially thought. Subsequently Apple stock prices were driven down and closed substantially lower at the end of the day. This led me to think as to why Steve Jobs is so important for Apple. In quite a few cases, the stepping down of the founder of a company actually helps the stock improve. This is because analysts frequently believe that a founder is good during the formative cycle of a company but his/her value deteriorates as the company becomes bigger and more comples. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have bucked this trend famously, Jobs probably even more so than Gates. Few reasons why i think he is so important to Apple
- he has been famously be able to use new technology to create devices which are usable to the normal consumer segment - Macintosh, Ipod, Itunes etc
- he has been associated with not one but two famous comings for Apple. I firmly believe that his return and turn around of Apple in the early part of the century was what built his legend. Its always easier for thought leaders to come up with a new idea once and build an empire around it but to demonstrate it multiple times has what has caught the imagination of the world
- Finally, i also think that Jobs has for various reasons, never really built up a replacement. Bill Gates had a very well known Ballmer to replace him without the market feeling the difference. Jobs has never built anyone up, so much so that his replacement for the keynote address in Macworld got people wondering "Phil Who

Citigroup troubles

An article today on forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/home/2009/01/11/banking-citigroup-pandit-biz-wall-cx_lm_0112citi.html) regarding how the era of this superbank could possibly be coming to an end. With losses close to 20 Bn and expected losses of 4 Bn this quarter, the bank is at a financial low. Additionally, the investment banking division which drove most of the profits earlier has all but disappeared. Now citi is reportedly considering selling off some of its divisions like Smith Barney, its retail brokerage operation and one of the divisions that was actually making money over the past few quarters

Hope Citi survives. We dont want another piece of bad news in this economic condition

Detroit Auto Show

The auto mapanies continued to blitz the market with new models at the Detroit auto show but the show doesnt seem to be attracting the same consumer attention. GM led the way announcing 2 cdross over vehicles and a sedan but there is hardly any enthusiasm drummed up for any automaker.
Seems like the tough road ahead grows even more daunting for the auto companies