Reading Time: < 1 minute Highlights From its IR web site Sales up 20 percent at constant exchange rates to $7.3 billion Crop Protection sales up 21 percent(2) at $5.55 billion Seeds sales up 15 percent(2) to $1.74 billion Earnings per share(1) up 36 percent to $16.53 Earnings per share $15.93 after restructuring and impairment Capacity expansion to meet longer

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is a stock I have known for a while. I traded it in year 2006, I did not hold it for long term partly because I usually don’t hold a stock for more than a year (until Mindray), more importantly I did not understand all the natural gas price volatility, CHK’s

Reading Time: < 1 minute Background Couple days ago the Apple stock got a hit not just becaues of the soft earning guidance, the more important reason is the company declined to answer the health question of its co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs in the earning call. You tube videos Great Artists Steal – Triumph of the Nerds – Revised

Reading Time: 2 minutes Apple launched its first China store in Beijing last Saturday, with 2000 fans waiting outside, including some celebrity names such as Lu Yu (Phoenix TV), Cui Jian (China rock star) etc. You can see the scenes of Apple launch at Sina (Chinese), or preview pictures at David Feng. The Sina picture reminds me of the

Reading Time: 2 minutes (What a week, Yahoo Tech-ticker, link) China’s role in the Fannie/Freddie mess As Fannie/Freddie crisis deepens, people find China in akward postion because China is the largest holder of 2F’s bonds: total $376.3 billion. I don’t know exactly how China got into this mess, but I think one reason is decision maker in China must

Reading Time: < 1 minute 401k Last week my old 401k at Vanguard was merged to my new 401k. I don’t know if you paid attention to your 401k or IRA lately, not a fun thing to do. I did a quick calculation, my old 401k portfolio lost 7.56% of its value from Dec 31 2007 to July 7 2008

Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update July 17) I went to Fazoli this evening to take some food home. Surprisingly there are many people again. Another sign average people are feeling the pinch in this recession. (Original) Fazoli has been my favorite lunch places for a while. Recently it got more and more crowded during lunch time. This seems strange

Reading Time: < 1 minute Greenspan (regulators): for he kept interest rate too low (1%) for too long, during the recession after dot com bubble. Bush (politicians): for his failed Iraq war which cost American tax payers more than 500 billions so far. He asked American “go shopping” after 911, in addition to buying a car or a house. Democrats

Reading Time: < 1 minute Fannnie and Freddie crisis I read Burham’s beat Fannie Mae’s Golden Goose article last Friday, after seeing the dramatic stock actions of FNM and FRE on that day. Following that, I also reviewed Barrons March 11 article, IS this Fannie Mae Toast? Yeah, it looks like it. The bad thing is, those executives at Fannie

Reading Time: 2 minutes Friday evening I was checking out the air fare for the planned China trip later this year. And I found aa.com price irresistible: $1000 from STL to PVG. So I jumped on it. With sky high gas price (and jet fuel), this price seems cheap to me. I remember last year I paid close to