Sears Holdings (SHLD) Chairman Eddie Lampert has decided to move the company one step closer to a Berkshire Hathaway model, according to a story by the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The new holding company structure will split up Sears into as many as three dozen separate businesses, each with its ... Read more

Maybe we can hold here. ... Read more

One of the stranger things about 2007 was the huge discrepancy between different areas of the U.S. stock market. Despite widespread problems, the stock market didn't fare badly unless you looked under the hood. The S&P 500 finished the year up 5%, hardly indicative of the issues we are facin ... Read more

John from California writes: "I know you are a long term investor, but given that one of your 2008 Select List picks just went up 30% in a matter of days, I'm stuck as to what to do, sell or hold on? Any thoughts?" John, thanks for the question. A common answer to this dilemma (feeli ... Read more

Sometimes baseball analogies work as well as anything to help explain something. With Bank of America (BAC) buying Countrywide (CFC) for $6.1 billion ($4.1 billion in stock plus the $2 billion in cash they invested last year), one came to mind. I think this is a lot like when a major league pitcher ... Read more

Earnings season officially kicked off this afternoon, with Alcoa (AA) reporting fourth quarter numbers. Given the worries about the economy, these profit reports obviously carry as much as weight as anything in determining market direction, but they also come at a time when the S ... Read more

The 2008 Select List report has been released. Same format as the prior two years, 10 stocks, one from each of the S&P's sector groups (financials, energy, tech, telco, materials, utilities, industrials, healthcare, staples, discretionary). To give you all a sneak peak, let me go into some ... Read more

It has been a couple weeks since I've posted and I apologize for that. The end of the year is always very hectic and this year that has been the case even more than usual. By the middle of the month, I'll be getting back to a more regular posting schedule, but I wanted to thank you all for your pati ... Read more