Since coming back from the Labor Day holiday, the Wall Street permabulls are acting as if the effects from Katrina are going to be a non-event. Corporate insiders are not that optimistic, they are selling.
Over the past three days corporate insiders have been lining up at the selling window. Insiders are Directors, Officers or 10% Owners of public companies. According to the SEC: "Many investors believe that reports of directors and executive officers transactions in company equity securities provide useful information as to management's views of the performance or prospects of the company."
That being said, let's take a look at the 3 day transactions of the insiders (Source: Insiderscoop.com)
Tuesday, Sept 6th: 60 Buyers, 277 Sellers
Wednesday, Sept 7th: 73 Buyers, 211 SellersThursday, Sept 8th: 60 Buyers, 206 Sellers
I have scene consistent in Google (GOOG). Who will eventually be right, the Wall Street pump and dump crowd (Jim Cramer included), or the Google insiders?
Are you beginning to get the picture?
There was a lot of economic news to digest this morning. It is important for investors to see the "Big Picture" and an evolving trend rather than 1 or 2 week snapshots. I think the trend is pretty clear. For example:
1) US equities to opened modestly lower this morning after homebuilder Hovnanian (HOV) announced earnings that rose 32% from last year, but came in slightly below analyst forecasts. The company still reported outstanding results, but Wall Street is betting on a slowdown in real estate. EVOLVING TREND ?
2) The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell to 319,000 last week, but the numbers did not reflect any of the filings of workers affected by Hurricane Katrina. EVOLVING TREND ?
3)The EIA reported that crude oil inventories fell 6.45 million barrels vs. estimates of a 7.7 million barrel fall. Gasoline inventories fell 4.3 million barrels vs. estimates of a 6.25 million barrel decline.
Get this... Some sources are reporting that gasoline usage fell off a cliff over the past week. Well, duh! We couldn't get the stuff, and those who were lucky enough to find gas were waiting in long lines. The drop off in gasoline usage was not due to a lack of demand, it was a lack of supply.
We have not come close to feeling the economic effects from Katrina. Watch for corporations to begin lowering earnings estimate, and conveniently begin blaming Katrina.
Comments (1)
I have the same opinion on this matter, although mine comes from a canadian point of view. The service I suscribe to for insider information in Canada shows a lot more executive sells than buys in the last few weeks..../sergio
Posted by sergio | September 13, 2005 8:51 AM
Posted on September 13, 2005 08:51