Weekly Wrap

Pearl Harbor... Pearl Harbor... Pearl Harbor... Can we think about anything else this weekend? Every time I turn around, someone is talking about the movie Pearl Harbor. The DJ's on the radio are hyping it, it's all over the television (including CNBC) and it's in every newspaper across the country. The only thing that has taken a little of Pearl Harbor's air space is the tragedy over in Jerusalem. It is the most shocking video I've seen since the Oklahoma City bombing. Over 600 people were attending a wedding reception when the dance floor gave way. One second you see people dancing, the next, the floor collapses and they fall through to nowhere. One man was holding a little baby. More than thirty people have died, and they are still looking for 15 more. Please say a prayer for these people and their country. They've had a rough go as of late.

If you've followed our Chick message board, there seems to be this great desire to be the Chick who posts on the even hundred. It's kind of like being the 1,000,000th customer. (Or so we think.) Last week Chick Megan recorded post number 2300. I was ticked. I lambasted her in the Weekly Wrap. This week, my mother got post number 2400. Her turn.

HEY MOM... you missed some big news on the company you are tracking!! General Electric came out with news!! Scottsdale business and commercial lender Finova (FNV) looks like it is going to be getting some help from Chick held General Electric (GE). Finova is currently in Chapter 11 (and not of our Chick book) and GE Capital announced a plan on Thursday where they would contribute about $7 billion towards a bankruptcy restructuring. What are you doing in Minnesota, Mom? Loafin'? Playing bridge? Have you forgotten your responsibility to the Chicks to keep us informed?

There. Now that I got that out of the way we can get onto other market news.

Once a week we are required to post on our message board about the company/stock we are tracking. Chick Cheryl got her two cents in about Yahoo (YHOO) and Oracle's (ORCL) latest news. Chick Susie was also busy updating the Chicks about some of our holdings. She posts about EMC (EMC) and some exciting news about their cofounder Richard Egan making travel plans. And in her next post she keeps us up to speed on Sun Microsystems (SUNW). AOL announced this week that their online shopping was up 70% this first quarter from one year ago. For more AOL Time Warner (AOL) news (and a little Ted and Jane gossip), check out another of Chick Susie's post.

Mom, take a cue from Susie and Cheryl.

The market had a rough go this past week also. The Dow ended up losing 300 points to close on Friday just above 11,000. The S&P also closed down, losing 1% over the past week. But, my beloved Nasdaq was up!! There is a God.

The biggest war of the week, aside from Pearl Harbor, was the fighting between Ford and Firestone. Remember the tire debacle? Ford announced that they would be recalling 13 million of the tires. It should take about nine months to put the treads behind them. But get this, Goodyear today ran a huge ad in newspapers across the country boasting of their tire's safety. Sure, maybe their new tires are safe, but the old ones were dogs. What is it with big companies that make even bigger errors and they just try to sweep the mistake under the rug and hope we forget about it fast? It reminds me of the big WOOPS I wrote about yesterday with Cisco (CSCO).

Check out some of the other articles written in the Chicks' Eye View this past week. Cheryl wrote about medical equipment supply company Stryker (SYK) and Chick Megan wrote about getting out of debt before starting to build your nest egg. Matter of fact, peruse the titles of all of our Chicks' Eye View articles and see if there is anything that tickles your fancy. I see one down there at the bottom... Steve Madden.

Our shoe icon was in the news this week. Mr. Steve Madden pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to stock fraud and money laundering and agreed to pay $10.8 million dollars in fines. He's facing up to more than four years in jail. From what I hear, you're only allowed one pair of shoes behind bars. I'm sure he'll bring a pair of those hot platforms. To tell you the truth, I'm disgusted with Steve. Seems he manipulated the IPO's of 23 companies, including his own, Steve Madden, LTD (SHOO). It's sad news for the shoe company, but Madden has stepped down from his role as director and officer and will not work for the company while in jail. How thoughtful. Maybe he'll start teaching classes to university students like the other CEO's who are behind bars. I saw an article in USA Today that said these prison inmates, and former executives are teaching MBA students at the University of Maryland about ethics. Hmmm... there's a joke in there somewhere.

You're not going to find any Steve Madden shoes at Wal-Mart (WMT), but they made the court scene this week too. Seems they forgot to report 41 injuries connected to exercise equipment that was sold at their stores from 1996-1999. Woops. The government is suing them for up to $4.5 million dollars in fines. That's a drop in the bucket for the Walton store, but a lot of bad P.R. Maybe as punishment they should put the Wal-Mart executives on the faulty gliders for a week straight and see if the seat collapses on them. The gliders caused many victims spinal injuries and one woman is now 50% disabled. The kicker is, most of the accidents happened inside the Wal-Mart stores. What was I saying about big companies trying to cover up mistakes?

On that note I'm going to go lay by the pool here in Scottsdale, Arizona and try and forget the week's accidents, the biggest one being the wedding party in Jerusalem. I wonder what big company is going to try and hide the blame for that. Again, please say a prayer for the families of those victims.and don't watch the video.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend. The market's closed on Monday so don't bother turning on CNBC, it'll be some pre-recorded time filler. Why don't you go see Pearl Harbor instead?

Chick Karin

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