My weekly stock report and update...

End of Feb. Sold UEPS (Net1 Technologies) for monthly 7.74% profit. Since then it has dropped 15%.


I considered buying MDR (McDermott International) for Monday March 2nd (they reported after business close) but read conflicting construction and manufacturing reports so decided to wait.


Good thing, because as it turned out, snow was not the only thing that fell. Monday had a huge sell off of the market. Though not terribly bad considering the economic environment, MDR had a less than stellar earnings release.


Tuesday saw a couple good entry points for my watch list.
I Ultimately decided on MR (Mindray Medical) and bought at 18.50. They were due to report after close the next business day and everything I read pointed to having a good report. In my opinion, they did not disappoint and initial stock price jumped 9% but was brought back down by 3 news items:
1)China was not going to increase bailout monies
2)GM might just go into bankruptcy.
3)Dispite what I thought was a good report, some analysts thought they were looking for more.

Oh well, didn't I mention something in a previous post about love hate relationship with China stocks… As of right now, I am still holding to see if it and the market recover next week.








GME (GameStop) – Got absolutely killed by the market news that Amazon was going to start allowing shoppers to turn in used games for store credit and that Toys-R-Us was starting a pilot program at a few stores to test game exchanges

This news basically wiped out all YTD gains for Gamestop!

Personally, I think that this is over blown, oversold and this stock will bounce back.

Note: Gamestop tried what Amazon is doing and discontinued the program because of its limited success. Seems too many people are into instant rebates and exchanges and gratification to wait around for a store credit card/voucher to arrive. Hmmm.. Also, all though a similar business model, the Toys-R-Us pilot program is just that; a pilot; and not corporate wide. Plus, I seem to see a lot more “Moms” and G-Parents going into Toys-R-Us than true gamers. But I could be wrong…

Other events and stocks that I will be watching next week are:

DGLY (Digital Ally Inc) – Reports March 9th.
POWR (PowerSecure) – Reports March 12th.

Other interesting news:

GA (Giant Interactive Group, Inc.) – Was not on any of my lists but is yet another online game company which happens to be based in China reported really good earnings this week and is up 12% for the week.

NTES (Netease) – another China gaming company continues to hold up well since its good earnings release last month and might be worth while investing in if it continues.

Meanwhile GIGM (Gigamedia) continues its slide and is down 14% for the week and off 37% from its YTD high of 7.7 back in the beginning of February. It might be time to look at GIGM again as a turn around to catch up with all its fellow gaming companies. I only wish that they reported more frequently. This would help back up and validate my theory.

And last but not least: Some of my recent posts have talked about erratic behavior, fear and folks looking for any good news.

So here is some more food for thought...

Smith and Wesson. (SWHC) There have been media reports of record sales, profits and back log of orders because of the economic fears. (SWHC) is up over 60% this year and seems to continueing its climb after a brief pull back this week.

People who believed in this company, and held stock before its meteoric rise, really like all this good news. Duh!

And, people who have lost money everywhere else; are looking for the few bright spots of light in this dark market. When this happens folks tend flock to these stocks like moths!

And to top it all off! Smith and Wesson has just announced their earnings report and conference call is scheduled for after market close Thursday Mar 12, 2009, at 5:00 pm.

So far, I see no shortage for fuel to this fire!