June 2008

Three year revenue growth of 47.6% and three year EPS growth of 76.3%.    That's the story of the numbers at DXP Enterprises (DXPE). This 100 year old Houston-based distribution company is engaged in the unsexy areas of the oil and energy markets; the design, repair and sale of thousands of industrial products.   Things like salt water injection skids.    Their customers run the gamut of ... read more

File this entry under, "it must not be the act, it must be the market" that matters.   Two distinct stories in the Wall St. Journal today opposing Congressional views on forms of speculation.   The first deals with oil and is simply titled "Oil Speculation Draws Scrutiny."  It discusses hearings in Congress suggesting oil prices could fall if bills were passed to curb speculation, perhaps ... read more

Listening to "Bulls & Bears" on Fox News on XM Satellite Radio this weekend (note: Fox Business will get its own XM channel, 128, as of July 14th) I listened a debate about oil prices and the gas tax.     It was a discussion about whether McCain's idea to cut the gas tax for the summer is a good idea and what any economic benefit may be. My co-anchor Dagen took the unpopular side that the ... read more

The big question asked by economists these days is simple: how much will the jump in gas prices impact consumer spending and thus the American economy?    Daily we hear estimates, varying from "some" to "very much."   It got me thinking about the math behind the numbers.     Certainly the higher price of gas is hitting many families hard.    However, based on some standard figures ... read more

Own an offshore oil rig or jack-up and need to get men and materials to it?   You may be calling Gulfmark Offshore (NYSE: GLF). The Houston-based company hit my stock screener with 3 year EPS growth of 78.6% and 3 year revenue growth of 27.6%.    That's according to Thomson Reuters data.    It compares to 3 year revenue growth for the S&P 500 of just 10.6%.   It also has a net profit ... read more

Something on the lighter side this morning, courtesy of a Wired blog: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/06/the-google-of-t.html This is more than a bit truthful.  I am sure that small tech firms are interesting in selling to "Mr Bigbyte" and entering the world of "Google high finance. ... read more

Sitting here at Pittsburgh Airport waiting to fly home (delayed, natch) and looking around realizing it seems the airport(s) are as crowded as before gas surged to $4/gallon and jet fuel spiked.   When I left from Newark Airport on Friday the security lines snaked through the entire roped area and down into the gate area.   In fact, I have never seen a line that long in 15 years using the ... read more

A guest today on the 10am show discusses the difference between being "green" and actually being "clean." Woody Clark PhD of Clark Strategic Partners (and one of the Nobel Prize winning group of Al Gore)  makes the point that while many companies are seizing the national mood and marketing themselves as environmentally sensitive "green" companies, not much has really changed in the impact ... read more

We should place a bet on how many times the terms "tax" and "middle class" and uttered in the same sentence by Barack Obama and John McCain ahead of the November election.    My under/over on each would probably fall somewhere around 1,000.  That's 1,000 times each word is uttered, not combined. While I know what the word "tax" means (believe me, living in New Jersey you do), the problem is ... read more

Its a story that hasn't gotten much attention but should.   LandSource Development Communities, a California real estate partnership, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this weekend.    The company was a real estate venture involving homebuilder Lennar (NYSE: LEN), a unit of private equity firm Cerberus, and MW Housing Partners. The problem is that one of the major investors in ... read more