Comments on: UPDATED: Retail Round Up

By: Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:42:53 +0000

Yeah, Major Chang’s a right bastard, and his restaurants are rubbish..

On the other hand… General Tso was a bloodthirsty foe, but his chicken is delectable!

By: carping demon

carping demon — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:12:19 +0000

I’ve met that Major Chang. Quite an unpleasant man.

By: larster

larster — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:24:29 +0000

So is Merkin saying that 61% of his fund is in illiquid assets and he lost the 39% that were in tradable assets? For this people were paying 2 and 20.

Although upon further thought, investing w/Madoff was pretty illiquid.

By: ButtoMcFarty

ButtoMcFarty — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:38:15 +0000

“Shipping Accomplished”

LOLOL

By: Steve Barry

Steve Barry — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:35:56 +0000

Merkin will unwind his hedge fund per Bloomber…get this…it will take YEARS.

Merkin’s Gabriel Fund to Liquidate After Madoff Loss (Update3)

By Joshua Fineman

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Gabriel Capital LP, a $1.5 billion hedge fund run by GMAC LLC Chairman Ezra Merkin, plans to liquidate after incurring losses on investments with Bernard Madoff, who allegedly ran a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Suspending withdrawals and selling remaining assets is the fund’s “only realistic option” after losing 39 percent this year through Nov. 30, Merkin said in a Dec. 18 letter to clients. The process will take several years to complete because the assets are illiquid, Merkin wrote.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5D7hn0awEsQ&refer=home

By: Steve Barry

Steve Barry — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:14:29 +0000

Everyone gets fooled by Amazon…analysts called for a 14% rise in revenue, so they better have a “record holiday” in units or it would really be news. Their press release gave no revenue or margin stats. Plus, they get half their revenue overseas and will have to discount that 700-900 bps vs. last year due to a stronger dollar.

By: Mark E Hoffer

Mark E Hoffer — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:32:41 +0000

Jurgen,

if this : ” on fear that the retailers may go out of business next year.” is, really, the reason Gift Card sales are down, that a, tremendously, + sign that peep are starting to pay attention..

with that, – another D points from any DOW projections for MMIX

By: VennData

VennData — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:27:44 +0000

The retail industry should hire Bush – he’s looking for a gig – they can replay his “Just get out there and shop” quotes are run them repeatedly, Billy Mays-like, and update it:

“Hi, George Bush, to share with you the most important product I’ve ever endorsed.”

“Call in the next five minutes and buy this war, we’ll give you the second war for half off.”

“And look how much I’ve lowered gas prices for you, so there’s no charge for S&H, we call it Shipping Accomplished.”

By: Jurgen

Jurgen — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:02:07 +0000

Donna,

They said gift cards may fall by 5.3% (again, it was a gloomy prediction, not a fact) on fear that the retailers may go out of business next year.

By: donna

donna — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:17:09 +0000

One of those articles says gift card sales were down this year, too.

The sky may not be falling, but so many were snowed in that many more bought on line this year. We did all of our out of state presents online simply because Amazon ships free, as did most of those receivers to send things to us. It’s a lot easier than going shopping, wrapping, then standing in line for shipping and paying for it.

A lot of our presents this year though were things like car repairs and tires for the kids. So retail sales may be down, as stuff like that gets counted as presents.