Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update Nov. 6) There are many reports saying that PetroChina is the largest company in the world, according to its market capital (> 1 trillion USD), after its IPO/secondary offering in Shanghai. This is a bit misleading, as similar claims regarding ICBC (1388.HK), and China Life (NYSE:LFC) being the largest bank and insurance company in

Reading Time: 2 minutes Week in review 10/27/07 to 11/03/07 1) I found the coffee at On the Run (Mobile gas station) is as good as Panera. I used to get a cup of coffee at Panera every morning, it costs me about $1.70, now I’m paying $1 for similar thing. Even at this price, I believe “On the

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Saturday morning at my STL home is much quite than the apartment I stayed in Shanghai. No more “冰箱, 彩电, 空调” noise from the old applicance collectors. No more street noise from cars, buses, and people. But I also miss some of the good things in Shanghai. The newspapers, the babi bum 巴比馒头, and

Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update) I also listened into its conference call, and it confirmed some of my thought: Chinese domestic market becomes more friendly; south America has strongest international growth, while NA has the slowest. (Original) I went to Panera bread this morning. Here is what I saw: Bagel, 89 cents; coffee, $1.59 to $1.79. These prices haven’t

Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update: 10pm Nov. 1 CDT) The Crocs board approved up to 1 million shares buy back immediately. See this news from Reuters. Crocs has about 80m shares outstanding as of now. (Original 5pm Nov. 1 CDT) From yesterday closing price of $74.75, to today’s closing price of $47.74. It’s a $27.01 hair cut, or 36.13%

Reading Time: < 1 minute Crocs (Nasdaq:CROX) reported a solid quarter yesterday. It also raised its own year 2007 guidance, but the number is not enough to exceed the street’s “sky high” expectation. The stock already got crushed in the after hour and pre-market trading. It’s likely it will suffer for a while. But I think the fundamental of the

Reading Time: 2 minutes Before leaving I stayed at the Jinjiang Inn 锦江之星 near Zhongshan park, so I had an oppertunity to check out the current status of Jinjiang Inn. I stayed in Jinjiang Inn two years ago near Century park at Pudong. Overall I liked the setting, the furniture. It appears to me Jinjiang Inn is more luxurious

Reading Time: < 1 minute This morning when two stocks are traded at about same price, I sold remaining Starbucks (SBUX) , and got some more Longtop Financial (LFT). I still like the long term prospect of Starbucks, especially its international expansion. But at this time SBUX is still a slow growth US company, and it will remain so for

Reading Time: 2 minutes Stocks Vanke (00002.SZ) expects a 100% to 150% profit growth in 2007 (vs. 2006). That translated to a 67% to 100% increase of earning per share. Chairman Wang Shi is saying the China real estate industry is still fragmented: Vanke has 1.25% of market share. Longtop Financial (LFT), the new IPO, is under pressure today.

Reading Time: < 1 minute The AA 0288 flight from PVG to ORD yesterday was very much full. The airline offered $600 coupon if someone is willing to give up his/her seat, because the plane is overbooked. As usual I saw more American than Chinese, besides business people and college students, we saw a little girl played ballet in Shanghai,