Stocks or stock?

Morning Call ^ | 2/25/2009 | Mark Williams

[Red in Blue PA]

Banks, stung by plummeting mortgage values, followed. A share of Citigroup Inc. which cost $55.66 at the beginning of 2007, now costs $2.60. ATM fees can total $3 or more for using an out-of-network bank card.

Since the start of 2007, shares in companies from every sector have been hit:

General Motors shares have fallen from $30.30 to $2.22, less than the cost of a standard spark plug (about $3.79).

New York Times Co. shares have fallen from $24.27 to $3.95, cheaper than the $4 cost of its Sunday edition.

General Electric Co. shares fell from $30.30 to $9.08, cheaper than a GE two-slice bagel toaster at Wal-Mart, selling Tuesday for clearance price of $12.

Office Depot is down from $38.27 to $1.26, less than a 12-pack of medium point Papermate BallPoint Stick Pens that run $1.89.

[Oldexpat]

At this point you need to stress test all your stock investments. What happens if consumer spending drops by 30%? How many of these companies will have cut expenses(including debt repayments) enough to survive?
We face a lot more corp. insolvency before this is over.
Too much of the economy was based on money generated by realestate loans.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

“A share of Citigroup Inc....now costs $2.60. ATM fees can total $3 or more for using an out-of-network bank card.”

I see a real possibility here. Citigroup should make a deal with some discount broker, so that if customers got bank charges higher than the share price of stock, they could opt to buy stock instead of pay the charges. They would not actually own the stock—but the stock dividend would go to offset the charge and future charges against them as a customer.

This would stabilize the heck out of the Citigroup stock floor, as that stock would no longer be on the market. This would be worth a heck of a lot more to Citigroup right now than the small amount of money they would get from the charge.

[Kitanis]

Very true.

But This recession will end.. Panic selling will be only a way to make things much much worse.

I own a small portfolio,... and noticed that my shares have gone down each and every time the President has spoken about regulating business through executive privilege. Or dictating how much a person should make in a any private company. That power should be left to the Board of Directors of that company.

The man should just simply follow the powers of the President as outlined in Article II of the Constitution.. Just like every president before him should have done the same thing. But Somehow this country has allowed the President to be much more than what is outlined in the Constitution to our country.

[sam_paine]

Somehow this country has allowed the President to be much more than what is outlined in the Constitution to our country.

That's it in a nutshell. A vast percentage of Americans can quote something that POTUS said verbatim, and yet not know who their local State or House representatives are.

That is NOT how it was supposed to be.

[Ellendra]

Walgreens (WAG) is at $23.67, less than my family spends on prescription refills (does that count?) 2 years ago their high was in the mid-$40’s (in 2006 it passed $50). BUT, they’ve been growing their business using capital, not credit, their debt-to-asset ratio is outstanding!

A back injury made me lose my job and forced me to sell off most of my investments, otherwise I’d be buying all I could get.

[Kitanis]

Ok.. I will be stupid..

UNP, BP, KO, BGG, MSFT, RGC Are my current holdings. I plan on starting a small automatic investment per month into UNP and BP. If I could get some more income to invest with.. I would look at WMT (walmart), PFE, and now maybe WAG.

I know the Union Pacific well my father worked for them for over 30 years. I am mad at myself for selling twenty five shares back about 18 years ago when I needed some quick money.. The stock has split three times since then. So this year I am only getting back into it.

Walgreens could be a good one to get into, I find it interesting that they bought some Rite Aid stores in CA and ID this year.. But I think for now I am holding pat.