Ugh, drip, drip, drip. Watching today’s market was like water torture. Until the last half hour it was snoozeville. When Burger King reported fewer customer visits the consumer sector collapsed, led by McDonald’s, down 3% at one time. But the last half hour saved things.
Some will say that consolidation days like today will ultimately lead to a rise in shares. Not necessarily.
I picked up some Annaly (NLY) in a bid to re-establish a dividend stream. This pays $0.50 a quarter, which is reduced from $0.55 two quarters ago. The better than 14% yield looks sweet. Word must have leaked that I was a buyer as shares went up 5% after I bought. (Joke!) I wanted to buy JNK, the junk bond ETF, but it was up most of the day, out of my buy target. The current 14.5% yield is not assured, of course, but sure looks pretty.
Watching Goldman Sachs come back was encouraging. It is still below yesterday’s secondary issue price but encouraging, nevertheless.
Sidebar
Wonder where these tea party protesters were when George decided to lie to the country, spend a trillion dollars on a wretched war, and loose 5,000 soldiers in Iraq? Want fiscal responsibility? Board up the Pentagon.
This has received six million hits in several days. I saw it, briefly, on NBC news earlier this week, and my sister, Connie, sent this link today. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow-up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
And this, as Phil Specter awaits sentencing for murder. His Wall of Sound permeated ’60’s stuff on both side of the Atlantic. The Beatles used him periodically as producer. Rumor has it that Specter introduced the Ronettes to the Beatles during their first US tour. In an interview several years ago on NPR Specter acknowledged he may be insane. His father was treated for the same and his sister was institutionalized. This version of Be My Baby is live and doesn’t exemplify the Wall as well as the recorded version, but I like the way ladies move as well as the Shout! bonus. A classic among all classics. Lets dance! Ronettes – Be My baby
