The Tasgall Group

If you’re a hippy and are interested in lowering your carbon footprint, you might find an unexpected place to do so in the stock market and be able to profit at the same time… consider investing in timber. Both Rayonier (RYN) and Plum Creek Timber (PCL) are publicly traded companies that own significant timberland, and if logic holds, the timberland absorb enough carbon dioxide to offset your own personal production. (more…)

Those crafty bookmakers over at TradeSports have decided to put the odds making to the probability of a US Recession in 2007… and here’s the result of the betting on their website:

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I have mentioned the closed-end fund IGR before, and now is a good time to bring them up again… IGR is the “ING/Clarion Global Real Estate Income Fund”. While the full name is a mouth-full, it is quite a good fund, and a good fund to know about.

If you like REITs but think that the US based REITs are a bit overpriced or at least late in a bull cycle, you might want to consider diversifying some or all of your holdings into an internationally based fund like this. (more…)

I just read this interesting blurb from Stratfor…

…Today, for mining companies seeking to expand capacity, the ocean floor is emerging as a focus of attention. Particularly in the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, the ocean floor contains a number of boulders rich in minerals like gold, nickel and copper — a tempting prospect for those who think they can develop the technology to bring those rocks to the surface. (more…)

It seems that the financial news lately has been full of stories like this (via the FT):

Oil producers shun dollar – Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements.

The cover of The Economist last week even taunted a falling dollar: (more…)

Titled “Out-of-the-box Thoughts on the Yield Curve”, Steve Saville throws out some very good commentary on the current yield curve inversion. I have to admit that his commentary has defined my own understanding of what yield curve inversion really means and what (if anything) it forecasts. (more…)

The latest housing report was released today by the OFHEO – Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight – covering 3Q for 2006. From the report:

OFHEO House Price Index Shows Declines in Five States, Continued Deceleration in Others. (more…)

I woke up this morning and saw the following headlines:

• Freeport McMoRan to buy Phelps Dodge for $26b
• Blackstone to buy Equity Office for $20b
• Nasdaq ups bid for LSE to $5b

Mergers and acquisitions are running at $3.1 trillion this year, a truly astounding number.

So, what are the implications to the rest of us? Those of us who didn’t own PD, EOP, or LSE before this mornings news? (more…)

Yes, indexing has a ton of good benefits, but there can also be some interesting side-effects for the astute observer…

This quote is from Bill Cara’s blog on the effects of the re-balancing of the Dow Jones AIG commodities index in January of 2007:

On this assumption there will be heavy buying of Nat gas, coffee and crude and large selling of nickel zinc, wheat and copper. Substantial selling is likely in nickel and zinc; less selling in copper and aluminum. We suspect these changes will occur during the January roll-period.

There are other salient points in the post, specifically that no one can predict how much an effect this re-balancing will have as there’s no easy way to tell how much money is being invested based on the index.

I find it very interesting that this phenomenon is occurring, and I’m sure some nimble traders are trying to capitalize on this special situation…

As we know, the demographics in the US will have a large affect on investments due to shifting preferences as baby boomers retire. I just caught these random statistics from Newsweek…

• There are 78 million baby boomers (around 26% of the total population)
• Approximately 9 million boomers will retire in the next 10 years
• Baby boomers make up 38% of US households
• 78% of baby boomers own a home
• Median Net Worth of baby boomer household: $149,500
• Average value of a baby boomer house: $181,700
• 11% of baby boomers plan to buy real estate within the next year

So, some quick math will tell you that the average baby boomer either hasn’t paid off their mortgage yet — the value of the house is greater than the net worth, or they have some other debt that makes the math work.

Likewise, while 9 million people retiring in the next 10 years is a large number, it is only a fraction of the total baby boomers. I’m not sure if the 9 million would-be-retirees would be the total number, or if a non-working spouse would be included (which raises the possible number to a theoretical 18 million).

The total net worth of all the baby boomers would be $1.35 trillion (assuming the median is not too far from the average). I would hope that those who are retiring within the next decade make up a larger portion of those above the median…