Weekly Wrap

Since it was Retail week at the Chicks Eye View, I thought I'd check out how each of the stocks has performed over the last year. (Chicks are investing for the long haul, but it's fun just to see how some of the companies we are interested in have done. Call me curious.) Chick Cheryl wrote about Ralph Lauren (RL), and in the past year its stock has doubled from a low in May of $12.75, to it's close today of $25.12. Then she wrote about American Eagle (AEOS). Its stock has tripled since it's low in June of $11.62. Today it closed at $46.43. And that ain't no Aesop's fable. (Sorry, but the ticker reminds me of Aesop.) Then I wrote about foxy Quiksilver (ZQK). It closed today at $18.93, that's a 97% gain from it's $9.62 low of last February.

BEBE closed Friday at 26.25... a whopping 280% higher than it was this past June. No, nobody wrote about Bebe, but I have to mention this as my mother bashed the store in her Stein Mart article. She knows I'm a shareholder and a frequent shopper. Hah... lets see how her Stein Mart did... It closed at 11.3, up only 182% from it's 52 week low. I'm giggling when I say "only". But, I still feel like I'm winning, even if the store clerk was rude to her. For an interesting look at Bebe, check out my girlfriend's article over at the Fool.

With all this doubling and tripling, why couldn't the Chick-held Gap have done as well? But get this... if you take it's 52 week low of $18.50 in October, today's close of $27.50 looks pretty good. (Like a 48% in gain two and a half months!) Too bad the Chicks bought at $44.16. But, maybe we should hang on as it seems to have rebounded a bit. How patient can we be?

But, who ever would have known to buy American Eagle in June, Ralph Lauren in May, Quiksilver in February, etc.? If we would have known, we would have bought more Gap in October. Hindsight is 20/20.

Enough numbers. What else happened this week?

The biggest news came from AOL and Time Warner. The merger is finally done. The company will trade under the AOL ticker. Just think of the cross promotions the company can do now with 140 million worldwide internet users and all the media relations that Time Warner brings to the table (CNN, Time Warner, Warner Bros, HBO, The WB, Turner Entertainment, Time Inc., Casterock Entertainment, and New Line Cinema). I personally think it's an amazing merger, but only time will warner, I mean tell. AOL was down 29% for the year, so maybe the merger will end the Looney Tune market.

One company that the Chicks are going to have to watch closely this upcoming year because of the merger is Internet only operating Yahoo (YHOO). Yahoo came out with their earnings this past week and they met analysts expecations, but they lowered expectations for the first quarter of 2001. Chick Cheryl posted the latest news on the Chicks Laying Nest Eggs message board.

Another internet company, Doubleclick (DCLK), reported better than expected earnings this week and it's stock soared 31%!

Hewlett Packard warned of future earnings this past week. It's stock fell 5%, and has lost half of its value since July. Uh-oh, I'm feeling for CEO sister Chick Carly Fiorina.

Also this week, reports on the economy were in. Get this, the economy is stronger than expected!! Now you would think that this would drive the market higher... all is well in Kansas right? Wrong. The market sees it differently. Remember the Fed surprisingly cut rates at the beginning of this month? It wasn't expected until the end of the month. Well, investors are still waiting for the Fed to lower rates a bit more on January 31st, like a half a point or so, but the latest news on the strong economy has them nervous that Greenspan may not lower them. Hence, the Dow slipped a bit this week. I'm going to stick with the fact that the economy is strong, and let the other guys be nervous.

Other than that, this past week had my family battling the Norwalk Virus. It's a twenty-four hour flu bug. Talk about losing half your value in one night. Not fun.

That all folks!

Chick Karin

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