Weekly Wrap

This is probably the most rushed week I've had writing the market wrap. (Remember my promise to always deliver this to you on time? It's still Friday, I'm on time.)

The Chicks and I are in San Francisco for our bi-annual meeting. We attended the Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders' meeting today and that should be the subject of the whole market wrap, but I was informed by Chick Cheryl that it is her story to do. It is HER club stock to track. She will be reporting about the meeting this Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm still coming off the experience; so let me roll with it. Yahooooooooooo!

The meeting was awesome. We all showed up at the Marriott in Santa Clara in our Chick pajamas. Ten of us, an hour early. Picture it. A bunch of Chicks, filled to the brim with Starbucks lattes, with a list of questions. We were not at all egg-cited to be there.

T.K. was the first to enter the room. (T.K. is Tim Koogle but we are now eligible to address him as T.K. Well, I'm not really sure if we got the okay to address him as T.K., but everyone else in the room was doing it so we just followed suit... or PJ's.)

All of the officers of the company strolled in after T.K. It didn't take long for Chick Cheryl to run up to Jerry Yang, or for Chick Kristin to seek out David Filo (a fellow Appleton Wisconsin-ite). I personally sought out Jeff Mallett (a Canadian) and Sue Decker (the V.P. of Finance). We talked about the book, being shareholders, and mostly, about being users of Yahoo. Before they even got up on stage, we were all shootin' the breeze.

Okay, I'm lying. But in my head, they all wanted to be Chicks.

Their presentation lasted about an hour, and then the Q & A. Chick Cheryl asked about their advertising revenue model. Chick Megan asked Tim Koogle why he was stepping down as CEO and Chairman of the board. Chick Kristin asked how they planned on getting new users connected to the Internet, and I asked why they cancelled my online chat last Wednesday. They promised to reschedule me, and you'll have to wait 'til Wednesday for the rest of the answers.

Onto the market wrap.

Did I tell you we went to Yahoo shareholders meeting today? While we were at the meeting, biotech company Amgen (AMGN) rose almost $4.00 after beating the analyst's expectations by a penny. Yahoooooo, Amgen!

This past week Sun Microsystems (SUNW), my club-company to track, is pulling the shades on their business the first week of July. Yep, everyone is getting the week off... unpaid. This was their solution to cutting back the budget. Cisco (CSCO) is also asking people to take some days off... go enjoy the Sun, or perhaps vacation together under the Sun? Yahoooooo!

Cisco's Vice President, Mr. Gordon, is under investigation for alleged embezzlement. That was the breaking news, more to come on the alleged SEC violation. (Read more about it in Chick Susie's message about Cisco.)

The rest of the Chicks are waiting for me downstairs to get my butt in gear to go out for a beer. (Imagine that, Chick Karin drinking a beer on a Friday. It's rare.) Speaking of beer, Anheuser Busch reported their first quarter earnings this week and their profits rose by 12.6% to $394 million. (This was not because of me on Friday nights.) This the tenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth earnings. (So maybe I have two beers on Saturdays, double my intake of Fridays.)

The Chicks are going to speak tomorrow at the Learning Annex here in San Francisco about the book, the site, how to start a club, and our investment philosophy. I should probably get them out and back home before it gets too late. Pardon the shortness of the market wrap... the Friday night Buds (or Chicks) are calling.

Chick Karin

Closing Market Numbers