Monthly Archives: January 2007

We’re three weeks into the New Year and you know what that means — another round of earnings announcements. Earnings season for tech companies officially started after the close on Tuesday with Intel reporting and then Apple following suit on Wednesday. Intel’s “positive” announcement said that net income plunged 39% in the December quarter, on a 5% drop in sales, despite shipping a record number of chips. I say “positive” because they beat revenue and earnings expectations by a penny. The strategy of using pricing power to get market share back from Advanced Micro Devices seems to be working. Their...

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It’s a new year, and, as usual, it is starting with a bang: The JPMorgan Healthcare Conference gives biotech companies a place to shine; The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas unveils the latest and (a) greatest or (b) silliest ideas from inventive tech minds all over the world; And Macworld San Francisco gives Steve Jobs his favorite podium to surprise us about the future of consumer electronics. In all areas of technology, there is always another new product around the corner, and my job is to find the real life-changing revolutions — the MegaShifts — and get you into...

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As you know, I’ve been very cautious about the beginning of 2007 for several months. There are powerful deflationary forces loose in the world. Housing prices are falling. Outsourcing, an undervalued Chinese yuan and the Internet are bringing down the prices of finished goods. High gasoline prices hurt consumer spending last summer, and geopolitical instability means those prices could return anytime. High levels of consumer debt could lead to spending cutbacks. Retiring baby boomers are about to claim Social Security benefits when there is no money in the Trust Fund, so either Federal taxes are going to have to be...

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