The Best of Kass

My expectations are now above the market's expectations.

As I mentioned in today's opener, stocks are priced inexpensively against corporate profits, margins and return on investment, private market values and interest and inflation rates.

At the time of publication, Kass had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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More Blather -- Caveat Emptor
Originally published on Wednesday, May 23 at 9:40 a.m. EDT.

Blame the buyers and the business media.

Surprise No. 18: Facebook's (FB) IPO fizzles. The new offering is priced at a $70 billion equity capitalization but opens flat and breaks issue price in the first day of trading.
-- Doug Kass

There is a lot of discussion regarding who is to blame regarding the awful XXXXXXXX IPO.

Was it the investment bankers (who reduced their sales and profit estimates a few days before the offering) or the Nasdaq (software glitch)?

How about blaming the buyers?

I do.

Frankly, the buyers (both institutional and retail) were greedy, as they thought this was a freebie (a chance for instant profits).

How many buyers actually read the company's prospectus? (I did, and its content is why my surpise for 2012 that the market price for XXXXXXXX would immediately break its offering price came true.)

Secondarily, I blame the business media, including CNBC and Bloomberg; they fueled the fire with nonstop hype over the last year.

Shame on all of them.

At the time of publication, Kass had no position in stocks mentioned.

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Brokedown Palace
Originally published on Wednesday, May 23 at 8:02 a.m. EDT.

Being anticipatory clearly has not paid off this month.

Gonna leave this brokedown palace On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll Make myself a bed by the waterside In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll. -- Grateful Dead, "Brokedown Palace"

A perfect storm of negatives continues to weigh down on equities.

Greece, the disaster known as the XXXXXXX IPO (I promised yesterday not to mention the name!), slowing growth in China, mixed economic signals in the U.S., high-profile profit disappointments, continued commodities deflation, Japan's debt downgrade and a technical breakdown in world stock prices have formed a toxic cocktail for investors.

Nothing makes me happier than to buy weakness when I am convicted.

While I continue to view the economy and markets as better positioned in 2012 than in 2011, I am a realist, and I recognize that investors have been wounded (and demoralized) and are likely to sit on their hands while they monitor the U.S. economy and wait for developments in Europe to stabilize.

Being anticipatory clearly has not paid off this month.

With macroeconomics heavily dictating microeconomics, we will have plenty of data to analyze in the next 24 hours, including (but not excluded to) PMIs in U.S., China and Europe.

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