I always see MS as a really short term stock. It goes up so little over time. It's really strange how a company that has such a huge market share and its roots so firmly implemented in everything "computer" is quite frankly letting a lot of opportunities pass. Maybe their quasi-monopoly status is playing strongly against them (which makes sense anyway).
About THQ; they make/publish a lot of low quality titles, and to me their outsourcing mentality was going to help them keep production costs low while at the same time aiming for a less competitive share of the market. But what I realize now is that they didn't aim strongly enough on having a stronger kids-oriented strategy aimed at the PS2/Wii/DS. They definitly could not compete during a transition phase against major hardcore games. Anyway I'll keep an eye on them, but right now it's too difficult to make a good call. I could see them going the way of Midway if they don't manage to become highly successful on the Wii/DS and whatever else can sell to kids. Everyone is focusing on mature-oriented games like FPS, sports, racers, etc., but THQ should focus more on edutainment, kids movie licenses, etc. They can't compete against Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Take2, Capcom, Nintendo, Konami, etc. Even if Ratatouille wasn't a big hit (probably due to the movie itself), I don't think they should let go of that strategy. But quite frankly, Wall-E is unlikely to be a big hit in theaters. Really, it's too difficult to tell with THQ, so I'm avoiding it now. I would have seen it differently if next-gen consoles were more firmly implemented, and if an affordable console was highly popular without too much competition from first-party (like the PS2).
Anyway, some nice looking stuff (still unsure on where the market is going but oh well):
BA; trading at 77 only, 52-week high was 107 (in October I think). I think at this price it's a good purchase, even if they were to go down a bit due to earnings, the company is doing quite well, so it's quite attractive even at this price. Waiting after earnings sounds risky to me.
ATK: trading at 99, 52-week high was 120 back in November. Earnings on the 31st.
DCO; trading at 29.35, 52-week high was 42.70 back in October.
TGI; trading at 57, 52-week high was 86, back in October.
CM: trading at 67, down from 108 in October.
BHI: trading at 72 down from 100 in October.
A lot of Aerospace/Defense have been going down on lower-than-expected forecasts, might happen in this case too. Happened to TXT today. But the drops in general have been rather minimal, so overall there are great opportunities in this sector! LMT and UTX reported good growth and their shares went up, so its not all doom and gloom, and is it really ever in this sector?
EDIT: Nokia, a company I had been keeping an eye on for some time due to the IMMR link, went up 12% today thanks to earnings. Good news. Now hopefully they are still doing SOMETHING with IMMR, but the later has been dead silent for some time
RIMM jumped 7% and some more in AH. Probably thanks to Nokia and their claim that US turmoils mean little to them.
EDIT2: BTW, I see a lot of good earnings today going through my list. Good sign, should give some faith back to the markets
We first had IBM, now Xerox, Nokia and Sun.
EDIT3: OH BTW!!! Ubi was up 10% today. They were trading at around 70 recently, went down to 47 when they delayed Far Cry and the rest, and now thanks to their kickass earnings they are at 57. I would be rich if I bought the shares I wanted to buy back in late 2004 (but didn't because I knew nothing about how to buy shares). BLARGHGAGAGA!
EDIT4: OMG at the gold stocks!:lol (and a lot of solar stocks are up too, but those are fricking risky) There's gonna massive profit-taking tomorrow I bet!
