Clash of the titans
The weakness of the US based car manufacturers was displayed when Toyota overtook GM the world's top car seller earlier this year. GM has not been giving up and noted higher sales attributed to its strong presence in Latin America and Asia. Meanwhile, it seems that customers in North America seem to associate Toyota with high quality and fuel efficiency (and rightly so), making up for the weaker sales on its domestic market. Toyota is expected to beat GM in annual sales for 2007. GM has to either take away Toyota's competitive advantages (superior quality etc.), or refocus their own core competencies (more on this story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118491895284472882.html?mod=home_whats_news_us ).
Dow 14000
Yesterday, DJIA broke yet another thousand of points, springing doubts that it is just too high...
The importance of expectations
... and promptly fell 150 points today, as blue chips were releasing disappointing Q2 earnings data. Google's shares went down 5.2% despite quarterly profit grow of 28%, Microsoft also fell despite growing profit... just shows once again, that the markets expectations are the most important (See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118493115406772925.html?mod=home_whats_news_us ).
Showing posts with label various news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label various news. Show all posts
Friday, July 20, 2007
Bits & Pieces
Monday, February 19, 2007
Follow up
Over a month passed since the time I have created this blog and life has written new lines to some of the stories present in my previous posts.
Business ethics
Last week's Wall Street Journal presented a couple of interesting stories, which add to the post about unethical behavior of business professionals (http://janbartczak.blogspot.com/2007/01/when-will-they-learn.html).
Siemens seems to be in a lot of trouble as bribery allegations might overlap with a German-Russian big-time telecommunications scandal, deepening the company's problems. The case is even more severe, as the issue is clearly not only unethical, but also unlawful behavior.
An example of handling a similar issue completely differently was given with KPMG and its CEO, who decided to admit to the organizations unlawful practices and tried to eliminate such behavior. These actions apparently saved the company, which faced a threat similar to the one that destroyed Arthur Andersen a couple of years ago.
Securities market
In the post “What does the market hold for the future?” (http://janbartczak.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-does-market-hold-for-future.html), I have discussed the possible effect of various factors on the stock market.
Some time followed since then and a couple of things are clearer now. The stock market is obviously affected by the fluctuations of oil prices, and moves in such industries as the Technology Sector (which particularly holds for NASDAQ).
Through this month the Dow Jones Industrial Average showed strength, as it climbed over 12,700 points, and set yet another record in the high 700’s. It is interesting to see now, how the major indices will react to such factors as lower automobile demand, changes in real estate prices and oil price fluctuations.
Business ethics
Last week's Wall Street Journal presented a couple of interesting stories, which add to the post about unethical behavior of business professionals (http://janbartczak.blogspot.com/2007/01/when-will-they-learn.html).
Siemens seems to be in a lot of trouble as bribery allegations might overlap with a German-Russian big-time telecommunications scandal, deepening the company's problems. The case is even more severe, as the issue is clearly not only unethical, but also unlawful behavior.
An example of handling a similar issue completely differently was given with KPMG and its CEO, who decided to admit to the organizations unlawful practices and tried to eliminate such behavior. These actions apparently saved the company, which faced a threat similar to the one that destroyed Arthur Andersen a couple of years ago.
Securities market
In the post “What does the market hold for the future?” (http://janbartczak.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-does-market-hold-for-future.html), I have discussed the possible effect of various factors on the stock market.
Some time followed since then and a couple of things are clearer now. The stock market is obviously affected by the fluctuations of oil prices, and moves in such industries as the Technology Sector (which particularly holds for NASDAQ).
Through this month the Dow Jones Industrial Average showed strength, as it climbed over 12,700 points, and set yet another record in the high 700’s. It is interesting to see now, how the major indices will react to such factors as lower automobile demand, changes in real estate prices and oil price fluctuations.
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