Weekly Wrap

I flew into Minneapolis this week because my husband and I are building a home on the St. Croix River, and there were a few things that the builder needed to go over with me. I can't possibly come to town and not see family and friends, but at the same time, I still have to work. I burn the candle at both ends trying to live like I did when I was twenty and keep things running smoothly here at Chickslayingnesteggs.com. Add to that, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is doing a story on the Chicks for their newspaper June 13, and Provident Bank is featuring the Chicks at an upcoming July event, both of these interviews are happening this weekend. I was out to lunch (literally) when I remembered the Weekly Market Wrap.  I have bags under my eyes the size of my water bra, and I have to leave in an hour to go meet the girls from Club Chick in Hudson, Wisconsin for the Relay For Life Breast Cancer Walk. I just wanted to preface this week's market wrap in case it sucks. 

This past week in the Chicks Eye View we wrote about companies that were considered for our quarterly stock investment. Monday was Southwest Airlines (LUV), Tuesday was General Mills (GIS), Wednesday was Anheuser Busch (BUD) and Thursday was Adolph Coors (RKY). We ended up buying the Minnesota based company Medtronic (MDT)... that article to come.

General Mills (another Minnesota based company) recently bought Minnesota's own, Pillsbury (looks like MN is more than just the place to build a house). But any time that these things happen they have to be approved by the "powers that be" in the government. The Federal Trade Commission is a little worried that these two food companies are going to control too much of the market. So, they are sending the dessert division of the Doughboy over to, ahem, another Minnesota based company... International Multifoods. This will move 50 - 60 of Pillsbury employees on over to Multifoods, and hopefully this will satisfy the those Federal Traders.

In the meantime, General Mills has decided to raise the prices on its Big G Cereals, those being; Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Golden Grahams, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Kix, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Total Chex and Wheaties (to name a few). Look for these cereals to go up in price by 2%... about seven cents a box. They haven't raised prices since April of 1999, and it looks like they are trying to increase their already impressive Gross Margins of 58%.

Everyone and their sister is talking about the big Philip Morris (MO) lawsuit. A U.S. jury awarded a record breaking $3 billion verdict to a cancer patient this past week for punitive damages. The punitive award, the largest ever against a tobacco company, sent tobacco stock prices tumbling. The idea behind the billion-dollar award was to hit the tobacco maker where it hurts, in their cash stash. If the man had been awarded millions, this wouldn't be tough for Philip Morris to dish out... but a billion? That would definitely put a dent in the balance sheet. Look for Philip Morris to appeal.

PC Sales will have its first annual decline this year... (like we didn't see this coming.) They forecast a 6.3% drop in computer sales, and being hit by this will be Dell, Apple IBM, Gateway, Compaq and sector leader, Hewlett Packard. In the same week Amazon announced that they will be selling PC's on their website. No indication as to which computers they are going to sell, but look for them to decline.

Home appliance giant Maytag will be buying their rival Amana Appliances for 325 million in cash and stock. (I relayed this information to the sales clerk at the appliance store today, she still tried to sell me the Amana.) This too is subject to the "powers that be's" approval... and they are so busy with those Minnesota companies they will have to put the dishwasher companies on delayed start.

Gotta run, breast cancer walking is calling. Oh and hey, ever heard of the Crash Test Dummies? They're a Winnipeg based band and are playing in the Twin Cities (that'd be Minnesota) tomorrow night. Guess where I'm going to be?

Still burning the candle,
Karin

Closing Market Numbers