Weekly Wrap

Welcome to another Weekly Wrap! Have you noticed that ever since I've started writing the Weekly Wrap, the market has sucked? The Nasdaq was down more than 5% for the week and hasn't managed to finish in the green for last six sessions. (Can I say sucked on this website? Let's see if Tim, "Our Web Guy" pulls the sentence. We'll see if he is doing his usual scanning of the website for profanities.) [Tim's Note: Of course I'm reading this, Karin, but I'm feeling rather -bleeped- myself.]

We featured Tim yesterday in our Chicks' Eye View. It was his birthday, so in that spirit, I wrote a little "Dreams Really Do Come True" story for him. It will probably be the only time he makes the Forbes Richest List, unless I remember his birthday again next year.

All this month in the Chicks' Eye View we are featuring the wealthy of the wealthy. We are highlighting all of the super-duper-mega-rich people of the world and giving you a little background of who they are and just how they got there. On Monday Chick Kristin featured John Mars and how he and Hershey have something in common, Tuesday we had Ted Turner Broadcasting, on Wednesday Chick Cheryl told us about the Oakley Dude, Jim Jannard and Thursday, it was our birthday boy, Timmy.

Making news this week was another Forbes Rich Man, Mr. Stanley Hubbard. I'm going to feature him here on August 23rd, but he jumped the gun and made headlines this week. Hubbard Broadcasting (Stan's company) is the largest private shareholder of Hughes Electronics (GMH). Hughes Electronics is part of the General Motors (GM) large conglomerate and also the parent of DirecTV. You getting this? DirecTV is owned by Hughes Electronics, which is part of General Motors Corporation, and Hubbard Broadcasting is the largest shareholder of Hughes. DirecTV is the satellite television company that brings you a million channels into your home via a little dish on the roof of your house. DirecTV has one huge competitor, dish network, which is owned by EchoStar (DISH). Stay with me here. This past week, EchoStar made a pitch to merge with Hughes Electronics (DirecTV) by offering them a ton (32 billion) of stock in the company. EchoStar's CEO Charlie Ergen hopes to get the deal past governmental anti-trust officials (remember the nixed GE/Honeywell deal?) but it could prove to be an uphill battle. If EchoStar and DirecTV merge, they will monopolize the satellite TV industry, allowing for no other competition. You know how Uncle Sam feels about that, i.e. Microsoft. Mr. Hubbard, who also happens to be my neighbor (and believe me, I'm going to head on down and ask to borrow some sugar to get more scoop on the deal), was quoted in USA Today on Tuesday as saying, "Ergen is a self-made guy. He's a smart, aggressive and tough entrepreneur who has taken a lot of risks that have worked out." It should be interesting to see how this deal pans out. Shares of both were down for the week.

Phew. Why report on anything else? That was brain full enough to think about over the weekend. But wait, there was other news.

Is anyone else finding this Philip Morris (MO) lawsuit getting more and more ridiculous? Let me refresh your brain; Richard Boeken, a 56-year-old man from California recently sued Philip Morris for giving him lung cancer. In June, he was awarded three billion dollars in punitive damages, the largest verdict against a cigarette manufacturer in history. Old Richard probably would have made the Forbes list if he had have actually gotten the money, but he hasn't.  A California judge ruled this past week that, woops, the verdict might have been a bit excessive. The judge has given Richard until August 24th to accept a $100 million verdict or go back to trial. Now, Philip Morris isn't going to roll over and succumb to any judge. They think this whole lawsuit is ludicrous and that the money amount is absurd. They are challenging Richard's credibility.

Seems Richard has been in trouble with the law before (quite a few criminal convictions, stolen property, heroine possession, embezzlement, and the list goes on). Richard, the man who can steal and embezzle, also says, that he thought smoking was safe. But, to Richard's defense, he managed to beat both his alcohol and heroine addictions, but couldn't quit the Marlboro's. He thought smoking was cool. Stay tuned to see if he has any brain cells left and takes the $100 million.

Remember I told you last week that the Tupperware (TUP) will be selling fifty of their designer plastic bowls and cups in SuperTarget (TGT) stores? (Don't worry, a Tupperware salesperson will be close by doing demonstrations.) Well, it seems that Avon (AVP) is following suit. This past week they opened their first in-store make-up counters inside J.C. Penney. They introduced a new line of skin care and cosmetics called beComing, and started selling them at the stores this past Monday. Looks like my "death of the home party sales" dream might finally be coming true.

Avon made news twice this week. They hired a president of their new Teen Business department. She is Ms. Deborah Fine and "more than fine" is what she wants to make young teenage girls. Yep, Avon is going to target young women and their make-up needs. Great, just some more of that glittery stuff hanging around my house. Keep the magazines out of my mailbox, please... or my kids out of J.C. Penney.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the company I was tracking for our investment club, Cisco Systems (CSCO). They met their much-lowered estimates for the year, but how bright can that be when your lowered estimates had you losing one billion dollars? Yes siree, Cisco's net income was down 99% from last year. 99%!! They reported net income of $7 million this year, when last year they reported it at $796 million! So, well, what can I say, I'm doing my job as an investment club member, but sometimes it can be sucky.

Did I just say sucky, again?

This weather the past week in Minnesota has put me in a bad mood. I've been on the road, in my Suburban, with the kids trying to find places to cool down. We don't have air conditioning (I think I told you that last week), so we've been traveling from hotel to hotel, friends house to friends house, in search of cool air. Combine that with a sucky stock market, and you have one crabby Chick.

I'll be better next week. Pray for a cool front, and an up market!

Chick Karin

Closing Market Numbers