The state of Wells Fargo

According to Cramer, anything to do with credit, housing, mortgages and banks should be avoided. Unfortunately I currently own Wells Fargo(WFC). I bought it during it’s 52 week high of $36.43 last year. Ever since then, it’s been hovering around $33 and $36.

I like WFC for a few reasons:

• They increase their dividends every year.
• Their earnings are awesome compared to other banks and is reporetedly diversified enough to avoid being crushed by the current state of the housing, mortgage and credit problems.

WFC recently closed it’s subprime mortgage unit, which really is not a big deal since it represents only “1.6 percent of its $397.6 billion of residential mortgage loans.”

I still think WFC is a good investment. The current mortgage and credit problems is just holding it back and it will only start to move up again after over a year when all the panic has died down.

It is a very long term investment and I fear that I will have to wait another six months before I can unload to avoid any loses. We’ll see how much longer I can wait since the current portfolio I’m bought this for is for shorter term investments and I’ve owned this stock for almost close to a year now.

Gap has a new CEO

Gap’s CEO Pick Surprises:

The San Francisco-based retailer named Glenn Murphy, chairman and chief executive of Shoppers Drug Mart, as its new CEO after an intense six-month search. Murphy will replace Bob Fisher, the son of Gap’s founders, who had been serving as CEO on an interim basis since the January departure of Paul Pressler.

Apple Stock Zooms Higher

Apple Stock Zooms Higher:

shares soared toward an all-time high Thursday after the company’s latest earnings blowout.

The stock was up more than 8% to $148.50 after briefly toppling the $150 level in extended trading Wednesday evening.

Mac sales are up:

Revenue rose 24% to $5.41 billion, on a 36% jump in Mac sales.

Apple Falls

Apple falls on initial iPhone activation numbers:

Shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) fell 4 percent on Tuesday after AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) issued initial subscriber numbers for customers of Apple’s iPhone that were below analyst estimates.

Amazon net jumps on strong U.S. sales

Amazon net jumps on strong U.S. sales:

Amazon.com Inc. posted quarterly net profit on Tuesday that more than tripled

Why?

Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak attributed part of the U.S. sales growth to Amazon Prime, a discount shipping program that charges $79 annually for unlimited two-day shipping.

“Subscribers are increasing, customers are buying more, it’s becoming a more meaningful part of our overall units. It’s certainly impacting the growth you’re seeing this quarter,” Szkutak told reporters during a conference call.

Third-party business represented 30 percent of worldwide sales in the quarter, Amazon said. With these sales, Amazon takes a transaction commission but avoids inventory and fulfillment issues, thereby increasing profit margins.

Apple Climbs

Ahead of the Bell: Apple Climbs:

Shares of Apple Inc. rose in Friday premarket trading, after a Piper Jaffray analyst said he expected the company to sell 45 million iPhones in fiscal 2009.

Is the iPhone a big hit? I think so.

Caterpillar Squashed

Caterpillar Squashed

At record highs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average felt one of its pillars crumble on Friday as Caterpillar recorded a big earnings shortfall.

…

Shares recently were sliding $7.43, or 8.5%, to $79.55.

That is a big drop.

Garmin acquisitions

Garmin is buying up it’s distributors in Europe left and right. In January, Garmin acquired its French distributor. EME Tec Sat SAS, is the exclusive distributor of Garmin’s consumer products in France.

Earlier this month, they completed an acquisition of GPS Gmbh, the exclusive distributor of Garmin’s consumer products in Germany.

Now in the news, Garmin has announced it’s plans to acquire its main distributor in Spain, Electronica Trepat SA.

Which European distributor is Garmin after next?

Conoco

I decided to come back in from the side lines yesterday and picked up ConocoPhillips at $86 per share. After watching COP shoot up in the last couple of day’s rally I put in a limit buy order at about $1.50/share below the market price. COP is now trading at around $86.85 per share.

We’ll see how it goes. As usual after a week or more of strong rally the market is dipping a little. Typical.

IHOP Buying Applebee’s

IHOP Buying Applebee’s:

IHOP agreed to buy Applebee’s for $25.50 a share, or $2.2 billion.

I don’t dine at either IHOP nor Applebee’s. I think their food is horrible. Just thought it was interesting news.