Wall Stream

It was only a few years ago legions of people were rushing to join Facebook. Now, it seems as if history is repeating itself, only this time the interested parties are far from student-aged kids, rather investors looking to turn the company’s vast success into pocket-lining cash. Why so much interest in acquiring Facebook stock?The company’s platform allows for advertisers to track and target Facebook users in ways almost unimaginable in years prior to the website’s inception. Users are given the ability to interact with companies and express their pleasure or displeasure with particular brands, not to mention their lists of interests, favorites and personal anecdotes all of which make them more or less likely to be predisposed to particular products. Of course, basic demographic and geotargeting data, longtime staples of advertising/marketing profiling, are also readily available. It’s potential to expand and take advantage of these capacities establishes as a real life golden- egg laying goose. Furthermore, students, particularly college students, have traditionally been an extremely difficult market to tap for the ad industry. Put simply, it’s been tough to reach them, less subscribing to the old standby forms of media. But, they are on Facebook, and they are on it a lot.Interest in Facebook from investors has been largely reputation driven rather than based on hard financial data. The company’s bottom line numbers have yet to be publicly disclosed, with rumors of growth in the past year to have more than doubled the already impressive estimates of 2009. (more…)

Christmas is over for Wall Street, and though our country’s economy has certainly seen more bleak mornings after, the numbers didn’t produce the proverbial Red Rider BB gun many analysts and investors were hoping for. With recession-provoked doomsday soothsayers turning more into pessimists than survivalists-in-training recently, many market watchers were hoping the holiday season would serve as a beacon of consumerism and spending to assuage remaining fears.For major retailers, sales were less than projected and or hoped for, though not damaging enough to result in any major paradigm shift to mom and pop stores or collapse of capitalism as we know it. Among the mildly disappointed are Target, Gap, and Macy’s, all of whom did not see quite as many customers as anticipated. This cannot be entirely attributed to any sort of economic setback however, as particularly harsh weather blanketed much of the country on and around Christmas 2010, with even the southern city of Atlanta waking up to its first White Christmas in 100 years. Perhaps another problem are the high expectations. In reality, considering the relative drought in retail activity only some time ago, more is expected in terms of profits, sales and growth than is feasible at this point. How quickly tempered success breeds high hopes and casts away the memory of past year’s struggles. (more…)

Job figures in the United States are looking resoundingly better as 2011 kicks off, with claims filed for unemployment steadily declining to close out 2010. More and more people are actually putting money in their pockets, hard earned money at work as opposed to quick earned money via investments, which raises the question can the two co-exist?Traditionally booming employment figures have had an adverse effect on stock market numbers. Yes, this blatantly argues against the notion that economic prosperity manifests itself all members of society gainfully employed and doing well. As far as investors and investments are concerned, times of rapidly rising employment are potentially dangerous because a heightened possibility the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as a safeguard against inflation rates. Ultimately, an accelerating economy, as evidenced by higher than projected employment figures, results in higher inflation, with the Federal Reserve‘s objective to preserve the value of the dollar. For investors, this represents a lessening chance of potential gains. (more…)