Morning Journal--Friday morning humor

Economics

This Week’s Data

June existing home sales fell 3.9% versus expectations of a 2% increase.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/07/existing-home-sales-inventory-and-nsa.html

The July Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in at -12.9 versus estimate of -8.0.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/07/misc-philly-fed-leading-indicators.html

June leading economic indicators declined 0.3% versus forecasts of down 0.1%.
http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2012/07/leading-economic-indicators-decline-by.html

Other

Rail traffic continues to improve (short):
http://pragcap.com/rail-traffic-continues-to-accelerate-higher

Another argument against recession (short):
http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/fixed-income/articles/recession-depression-federal-reserve-fed-unemployment/7/11/2012/id/42324

Politics

Domestic

Cartoon of the day:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/07/cartoon-of-day-crony-capitalism.html

More humor:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/07/schumer-calls-for-us-made-olympic.html

And even more:
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2012/07/19/theyll-never-suspect-a-thing/

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

More quarterly earnings per share reports:

Reported Expected

Nucor $.37 $.48
Sherwin Williams 2.17 2.11
Genuine Parts 1.08 1.08
Schlumberger 1.05 1.00

Steve Cook received his education in investments from Harvard, where he earned an MBA, New York University, where he did post graduate work in economics and financial analysis and the CFA Institute, where he earned the Chartered Financial Analysts designation in 1973. His 40 years of investment experience includes institutional portfolio management at Scudder, Stevens and Clark and Bear Stearns. Steve's goal at Strategic Stock Investments is to help other investors build wealth and benefit from the investing lessons he learned the hard way.