If you are a new investor to the HY market you can take advantage of the biggest monthly loss since November 2008.  In addition, yields to maturity (YTM = cash interest payments + any gain/loss from holding the bond to maturity) relative to treasuries have risen to levels not seen since the summer of 2009.  For example, the YTM’s on a variety of representative high yield indices are above 8% versus around 2% for ‘risk free’ 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds and approximately 4.25% for investment grade bonds.  The last time potential returns relative to treasury bonds were this good was in the summer of 2009, and investors who were brave enough to commit capital at that time were rewarded with 15% – 20% annual returns.

The current high yield opportunity will most likely not lead to double digit returns.  However, as in 2009, the rush to reduce risk by institutional investors combined with declining liquidity has created an attractive return potential relative to the actual fundamental risk in the HY market.
U.S. corporate fundamentals have improved dramatically since 2008.  For example, corporations have lowered debt and dramatically improved liquidity.  Many U.S. companies have enormous cash balances that have been held in reserve due to economic uncertainties.  In addition, unlike the economy overall, corporate net income has grown steadily since the recession low and is making new all-time highs.

If you have been leery of the U.S. stock market and are underwhelmed by the returns on CDs or other low-risk fixed income securities, you might consider the opportunity in U.S. high yield bonds.  There are many HY mutual funds available to individual investors that provide broad exposure to the sector.  Based on fundamentals, I think the HY market is cheap relative to the actual risk of default and high-single digit returns available in the sector today appear attractive relative to other fixed income alternatives.

A Rush Out of ‘Junk’

In a act only a crazy, but extremely wealthy, old man would decide to use, Rupert Murdoch has announced that he wants to make his websites invisible to Google’s search engine.

Why would anyone want to do that? After all, if someone has never discovered the site, the best way to obtain that reader is through a search engine. Well, he doesn’t see it that way. He said, “If they’re just search people, they don’t suddenly become loyal readers.”

However, in my opinion, having someone be able to find your site through search is the best way to GET new readers and if someone is reading your site that’s better than them not reading your site, right? Plus, how is someone going to become a loyal reader if they don’t know about the site? I always thought the best way that sites become popular is because they are able to be searched for.

I have a list of websites I read everyday; many of them are websites I searched for.

Murdoch is also planning on doing something that has really failed to “take off” in the past; he wants to put his news sites behind a “subscription wall.” His reasoning behind this move is that websites as well as blogs don’t earn “serious money.” He currently has this in place at the Wall Street Journal; at the site you can read the first couple of paragraphs of an article but if you want to read more, you have to be a subscriber. Typically, the same article or something with similar content can be found by searching through Google or some other search engine for free.

He did say that he feels that the same “search engine people” are the ones who “steal” stories from his sites. He said, “they just take them.”

This man really underestimates the power of Google and other search engines. I also think that he is too stubborn to realize when he’s made a mistake. What I mean by that is when his plan fails to work, he won’t go back to the way things were. He will keep his “news” sites subscription based where very few people will read it and the sites will quickly fall in every ranking.

The Wall Street Times is one of the largest newspapers in the country. It has subscribers from all walks of life from coast to coast. However, are those readers actually getting out of the newspaper what they were looking for in the beginning?

I honestly don’t think so.

In today’s times there isn’t a real reason to have a subscription to a newspaper at all. You can get your news from the internet or 24 hour cable news. The news on regular non-cable television is even on for hours a day now. People are becoming increasingly aware of the move to a more digital form of the news.

There is a downside of the news becoming completely digital; print journalists are losing their jobs. Newspapers all across the country are going out of business and while newspapers like the Wall Street Journal don’t seem to be doing too badly right now, they have had to begin charging for information on its website to make up for the amount of readers its losing in subscriptions.

The good thing for the newspapers is that they aren’t having to pay as much for printing services and publishing services simply because they don’t need the same amount of supplies.

Overall, I feel as though newspapers in their current print form will likely become more and more scarce. I think that many local newspapers will hurt the worst and many will go out of business altogether.

As funny as it may seem, in the past few weeks (contrary to exactly how I feel) another print newspaper has been showing up in my town of 20,000. I completely did not expect for there to be another print newspaper here ever. With three local newspapers/publications in the county, the market is over covered.

The Wall Street Times is one of the largest newspapers in the country. It has subscribers from all walks of life from coast to coast. However, are those readers actually getting out of the newspaper what they were looking for in the beginning?

I honestly don’t think so.

In today’s times there isn’t a real reason to have a subscription to a newspaper at all. You can get your news from the internet or 24 hour cable news. The news on regular non-cable television is even on for hours a day now. People are becoming increasingly aware of the move to a more digital form of the news.

There is a downside of the news becoming completely digital; print journalists are losing their jobs. Newspapers all across the country are going out of business and while newspapers like the Wall Street Journal don’t seem to be doing too badly right now, they have had to begin charging for information on its website to make up for the amount of readers its losing in subscriptions.

The good thing for the newspapers is that they aren’t having to pay as much for printing services and publishing services simply because they don’t need the same amount of supplies.

Overall, I feel as though newspapers in their current print form will likely become more and more scarce. I think that local newspapers will hurt the worst and many will go out of business altogether.

YRC Worldwide, Inc., a major trucking company that operates as both “Yellow Transportation” and “Roadway,” said that they planned on asking for $1 billion in bailout funds from the government, known as TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). Last month, YRC CEO Bill Zollars told the Wall Street Journal that in applying for TARP, dialogue may begin with lawmakers about YRC’s pension obligations to long time employees and retirees.

The company’s pension obligations are roughly $2 billion, considerably more than many employers pay, not counting the heftier employers, such as automakers. Zollars claimed the pension obligations are unfair because YRC must now pay for employees who never worked for the company. Due to the multi-employer plans of which they are a part, they are actually paying pensions to other companies’ employees – some that never worked for YRC. Zollers made it clear that he thought this was extremely unfair and would like to address these obligations with lawmakers.

In a letter sent yesterday to employees, also for distribution to customers, YRC said it “has no current intentions of applying for TARP funds,” but that they “want to address the structural inequities created by multi-employer pension plans.” YRC sent a fact sheet with yesterday’s letter in which executives claim the company contributes about $540 million each year to 36 multi-employer pension plans “supporting hundreds of thousands of retirees who never worked for YRC or our subsidiaries.” Those retirees worked for companies that are now out of business, but due to the obligations in the multi-employer pension plans, they are stuck with pensions of retirees from those companies. “With the multi-employer pension plans, when one employer fails, the obligations shift to surviving union companies. It is the ultimate penalty for success,” that letter went on to say.

YRC also indicated a search for government support to address their concerns with the pension issue in the letter. YRC indicated ongoing discussions with its union pension plans, but that the issue is not with pension funds paid to its own employees and that it remains committed to funding those plans. So far, YRC has laid off thousands of workers, negotiated sizable pay cuts with remaining employees and drastically cut costs in other areas as the trucking industry, along with the rest of the economy and business in general, suffers from the worst drop in business and revenue earnings in decades.

YRC stock shares finished yesterday up 11 cents, or 4.5 percent, at $2.58. (Expect them to continue going up as they negotiate those pension plans and prove they really do not need TARP money.) So far, AP, Reuters, and other miscellaneous news reporting organizations have been attempting to get a further comment from a spokesperson at YRC but to no avail.

The Wall Street Journal has begun exposing how the New York financial sector is in such dire straits right now that some former stock gurus have gone to the lowly life of working for a living. For instance, take Carlos Araya. He used to be the Wall Street executive you would see ordering expensive dinners at the Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Now, he serves there. As Wall Street began to hurt, he lost his job as a crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2007. After horrible luck at finding a new job in the investment industry, he applied in August 2008 to be a host at the Palm to make end’s meet. He is making just over 10 percent of his original salary.

Some former investment brokers, used to performing high end jobs that they are well trained for and earning salaries some people would kill for, are forced to accept low-wage work because they just cannot convert their experience and training into a job like the one they lost. Now, Mr. Araya is heading toward bankruptcy and is confident that he will never return to the investment business.

Unfortunately, there are thousands of stories like this one. Almost 25,000 jobs have been lost in the financial sector in New York alone since August 2007. Before 2012, that number is supposed to hike up to 56,800. This figure began building in 2007 during the financial hiccup that was a predecessor to our current recession, in which Araya lost his job.

John Carbonaro lost his job with Bank of America as a floor clerk in January 2009, and despite his experience and allure, currently takes care of the domestic duties in the family. Joe Morrone, a former Prudential trading clerk, has been unemployed for two years and struggles to support his daughters and grandson. He has worked in a deli, as a doorman, and a bouncer. He used to own three automobiles for just his own use. Now he shares one family vehicle they struggle to pay for.

Araya sometimes sees former colleagues from Wall Street in the Palm during his shifts. Some are pleasant meetings, offering encouragement. Other meetings are not so pleasant. “The way they look at you, you know they’re thinking negatively,” he says. Others come in asking if they can get a job there too. With 25,000 laid off, it’s certain many of them want a job there.

Araya’s daughter asked him if they could afford their house or if they would have to relocate. He told her he was not sure. She asked him if he knew how much money the family needed. “The way she looked at me,” Araya says, “I could tell she was counting the money in her piggy bank.” The emotionally excruciating exchange with his daughter caused him to run into the bathroom and cry. “At the end of the week, I get my paycheck and I think, ‘I used to make this much in a day,’” he adds.

Starting June 1, Marriott’s full-service hotels will ask guests at check-in if they would like a complimentary morning paper. Members of its rewards program can automatically get their preferred paper by changing their online profile.

Starting next week, free newspapers will only be available in the lobby at non full-service hotels like Courtyard and Residence Inn.

Marriott guests will be able to choose USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, or the local paper.

This isn’t so bad, some people do not even take the newspaper and it ends up laying in the hallway or just being thrown in the trash without even the slightest glance by the occupant of the room.

Source

From the NYTimes:

As suspected the will be a $2 increase for additional subscriptions and a $2.99 fee for the online internet radio service. The silver lining in all of this is that all internet subscriptions will now feature the 128k “premium” feed.

Source

With consumer confidence levels dismal and home prices the lowest they have been in many years, the markets overlooked this news and rallied all week.

This shows that I should just say what happens rather than saying what I think may happen. At the beginning of the week, I really thought this would be another bad week on Wall Street; with the auto industry begging for money (still) and the other news that came out during the week, it should have been, but for the first time it seems like the market didn’t react in the same way it has in the past months.

Here’s a weekly wrap-up from the Wall Street Journal Online:

Some of the ideas are useful, like giving a Starbucks gift card (so the receipent can also save 10%). Some of the ideas are just silly, like the chair sale at the NYSE.

As a consumer, I don’t think I could buy a high end gadget from an electronics store that is going into bankruptcy. How would warranties be handled?

On the other hand, like in my post about Mervyns, this could give budget stretched consumers a break for the holidays.

USA Today is America’s highest circulated newspaper and is raising its prices behind The Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which charge $2 and $1.50 and issue, respectively. Price increases are set to take place December 8th.

I have to admit, it’s nice to hear of any newspaper still in business. Every time I read something about newspapers it is that they’re going out of business because people don’t read them anymore. I can say I don’t help much, I only buy the Sunday edition of the Commercial Appeal for the coupons. I get all my news online or from local television news, but it is nice to hear that newspapers are still being circulated and read by a few.

A Wall Street Journal video poses this question at a Halloween costume shop in New York City. A mostly comical view of people’s spending, people are still willing to purchase Halloween costumes.

You can watch the video below:

Over the last 2 months not only have I seen many items losing their volume in the grocery store, but I have read about it on other blogs and news sources.

If the downsizing of products hasn’t affected you, then I’m sure that the rising price has. It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, the cereal has gotten smaller. A family size box of Honey bunches of Oats is no longer the size it was a year ago. Ice cream has done the same thing…going from 1.75 Quarts to 1.50. It’s gotten so bad that some brands are putting on their labels that they HAVEN’T changed the volume of the product. Blue Bell ice cream and Kraft dressings have done it. Kraft has, however, downsized its deli cheese packages. It has put them in a new container, and downsized from 8 oz to 7 oz. That may not sound like a big difference, but it is one slice of cheese…that is one less sandwich out of a package.

It’s even affected beer. Where a pint has been 16 oz in the United States, the Wall Street Journal has said that many bars have started pouring only 14 oz.

My dogs are even affected. Dog food has gone from 20 lbs to 18 lbs. (Think Purina One). My dogs eat 32 oz. of food a day. hmm…