MacWorld Expo Apple Stock Price Indicator

If you have ever been to one of the MacWorld Expo Conferences, you will see what a huge number of people and vendors that it draws. How many corporations have huge conferences like this that just revolve around them?

One of the things I've noticed about the San Francisco MacExpo is that the stock price of Apple Computer shoots up as the conference approaches. I would call this the MacWorld Expo Apple Stock Price Indicator Trend if it turns out to be true. I finally had the chance to check to see if what I remembered really happened. So what I did was check the prices for Apple Computer stock about a couple months before the conference ended. I chose November 15 for each year to keep it consistant. This is around the time that the conference is heavily promoted to draw attendees. Then I checked the price for the last day of the conference (better than the first day, let's everyone get a chance to get in to see it). I calculated the gain or loss for each conference. The following table shows what I came up with:
11/15/2001 ....... 9.73 ..... 1/11/2002 ..... 10.52 ........ 8%
11/15/2002 ....... 7.97 ..... 1/10/2003 ....... 7.36 ...... -8%
11/15/2003 ..... 10.56 ..... 1/9/2004 ...... 11.50 ........ 9%
11/15/2004 ..... 27.62 ..... 1/14/2005 ..... 35.10 ..... 27%
11/15/2005 ..... 62.28 ..... 1/13/2006 ..... 85.59 ..... 37%

Three things to keep in mind when looking at this.

This just looks at the 'effect' of the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, not New York or Boston.

If a date fell on a weekend, it was moved to the next business day to determine pricing.

All prices were adjusted for splits.

As you can see, the Apple stock price was up for four out of the last five years. The overall average of the returns is 14%. Does this mean that there is a correlation? No, not necessarily. Does this mean that it will happen again in future years. Absolutely not; remember past performance is not a guarantee of future results. However, I still find it very interesting.

Investing in the Stem Cell Industry

Stem cells are being used currently for medical treatments. Look at bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukemia utilizing adult stem cells. Scientists are actively looking at stem cells to treat diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injuries.

There are actually many publicly traded companies involved in stem cell research. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up over 20 stem cell stocks, half of which are currently profitable.

For example, Aastrom Biosciences Inc. is involved in the development of patient-specific products for the repair or regeneration of human tissues, using its own proprietary adult stem cell technology. Because it is a development stage company, the earning have been negative, and the price/sales ratio has been very high (over 250). It currently sells for 2.25 per share and the symbol is ASTM.
StemCells Inc. is involved in the development of stem cell therapeutics to treat damage to or degeneration of major organ systems such as the central nervous system, liver and pancreas. This company also has negative earnings and very low revenues. It sell for about 3.90 per share and the stock symbol is STEM.
Other stem cell stocks can be found at the StemCellsStocks.com website.
As always, I am not recommending these stocks as a buy, hold , sell, or short. Just providing general information on them.

Bull Market? Up for the First Week of the Year!

The NASDAQ stock market was up for the first week of the year, albeit a small increase yet still an increase. Will it continue through the rest of the year? There are a lot of old sayings about the stock market at the beginning of the year:

As goes the first day, so goes the week.

As goes the first week, so goes the month.

As goes the first week, so goes the year.

So if these old sayings are true, then we may be in a nice bull market. By the way, do you know where the terms bull and bear market come from? Check out the information at investmenttrivia.com for more information about how these two animals (the bulls and the bears) came into the every day jargon of Wall Street.

Stocks that Pay their Dividends Monthly

I recently started looking for stocks with monthly dividend payments. Looking for stocks to hold while you are retired? It makes it difficult if you are living on a fixed income and you have to wait every three months for your chunks of money to come in. Afterall, the mortgage bill, the phone bill, the cable bill and the gas and electric bill all come in monthly.

How about your retirement plan? The more often it pays, the more quickly you can reinvest. I was doing just such research for my RothIRA, checking out what stocks pay their dividend monthly. I started by going to Yahoo Finance, doing a filter for high yield stocks, then had to check each one individually to see how often they paid.

Let's take a simple example using Realty Income Corp. with the symbol 'O' and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. I went to Yahoo.com, clicked on Finance, typed in the symbol O, which brought me to the Summary screen. It shows a dividend of $1.60 per year and a Yield of 6.20%. I still couldn't tell yet whether the dividend was paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. Here's the simple trick to find out. On the left hand column, there is a link that says Historical Prices. Click on that link. Then in the center section, it says Set Date Range. On the right hand side of that box it give four choices. Click on the one that says Dividend Only, then click the Get Prices button. You will see the list of all the ex-dividend date (not the payment dates) for the last few years. It clearly shows in this instance that O pays dividends every month, shows the amount paid each month, shows if there is an increasing trend in the payouts and any stock splits.

Let's take another example. American Electric Power, with the symbol AEP. When you check their dividend list the same way, you see that they make payments on February, May, August, and November; therefore, four times a year instead of monthly.

The type of stocks that pay monthly are usually REIT's (Real Estate Investment Trusts), royalty income trusts, oil income trusts, and closed end income funds. Interestingly, most of the monthly payers are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the American stock exchange.
For a list of all the monthly dividend stocks in an Excel format which you can download, sort, add to, delete from, and change, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.
So what monthly dividend paying stocks did I come up with? Here they are, with the name listed first and the stock symbol after the name in parentheses:

Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund Inc. (FAX)

AEW Real Estate Income Fund (RIF)

AIM Select Real Estate Income Fund (RRE)

AmREIT (AMY)

BlackRock California Insured Municipal Income Trust (BCK)

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust II (BCL)

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust (BFZ)

BlackRock Florida Insured Municipal Income Trust (BAF)

BlackRock Florida Municipal Income Trust (BBF)

BlackRock Global Floating Rate Income Trust (BGT)

BlackRock Income Opportunity Trust, Inc. (BNA)

BlackRock Income Trust, Inc. (BKT)

BlackRock Insured Municipal Income Trust (BYM)

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust (BFK)

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II (BLE)

BlackRock New Jersey Municipal Income Trust (BNJ)

BlackRock New York Insured Municipal Income Trust (BSE)

BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust (BNY)

BlackRock New York Municipal Income Trust II (BFY)

BlackRock Limited Duration Income Trust (BLW)

Colonial High Income Municipal Trust (CXE)

Colonial Intermarket Income Trust 1 (CMK)

Colonial Municipal Income Trust (CMU)

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (CRT)

Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust (CEV)

Eaton Vance Floating-Rate Income Trust (EFT)

Eaton Vance Florida Municipal Income Trust (FEV)

Eaton Vance Massachusetts Municipal Income Trust (MMV)

Eaton Vance Michigan Municipal Income Trust (EMI)

Eaton Vance Municipal Income Trust (EVN)

Eaton Vance New Jersey Municipal Income Trust (EVJ)

Eaton Vance New York Municipal Income Trust (EVY)

Eaton Vance Ohio Municipal Income Trust (EVO)

Eaton Vance Pennsylvania Municipal Income Trust (EVP)

Eaton Vance Senior Income Trust (EVF)

Enerplus Resources Fund (ERF)

Franklin Templeton Ltd. Duration Income Trust (FTF)

Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (GDV)

Gabelli Gold,Natural Resources &Income Trust (GGN)

Gabelli Global Utility & Income Trust (GLU)

Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT)

ING Clarion Global Real Estate Income Fund (IGR)

ING Clarion Real Estate Income Fund (IIA)

Inland Real Estate Corp. (IRC)

Lehman Brothers First Trust Income Opportunity Fund (LBC)

Mesa Royalty Trust (MTR)

MFS Charter Income Trust (MCR)

MFS Government Markets Income Trust (MGF)

MFS Intermediate Income Trust (MIN)

MFS Multimarket Income Trust (MMT)

MFS Municipal Income Trust (MFM)

Morgan Stanley California Insured Municipal Income Trust (IIC)

Morgan Stanley Government Income Trust (GVT)

Morgan Stanley Insured Municipal Income Trust (IIM)

Morgan Stanley Municipal Income Opportunities Trust II (OIB)

Morgan Stanley Municipal Income Opportunities Trust III (OIC)

Morgan Stanley Municipal Income Opportunities Trust (OIA)

Morgan Stanley Municipal Premium Income Trust (PIA)

Morgan Stanley Quality Municipal Income Trust (IQI)

Neuberger Berman Real Estate Income Fund Inc. (NRL)

Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund (NRO)

Nuveen Real Estate Income Fund (JRS)

Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PBT)

Pioneer High Income Trust (PHT)

Pioneer Municipal High Income Advantage Trust (MAV)

Pioneer Muncipal High Income Trust (MHI)

Provident Energy Trust (PVX)

Putnam Managed Municipal Income Trust (PMM)

Putnam Master Intermediate Income Trust (PIM)

Putnam Premier Income Trust (PPT)

RMR Hospitality and Real Estate Fund (RHR)

RMR Real Estate Fund (RMR)

Real Estate Income Fund Inc. (RIT)

Realty Income Corp. (O)

Sabine Royalty Trust (SBR)

San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (SJT)

Scudder High Income Trust (KHI)

Scudder Multi-Market Income Trust (KMM)

Scudder Municipal Income Trust (KTF)

Scudder Strategic Income Trust (KST)

Scudder Strategic Municipal Income Trust (KSM)

Scudder RREEF Real Estate Fund II, Inc. (SRO)

Scudder RREEF Real Estate Fund Inc. (SRQ)

Strategic Global Income Fund Inc. (SGL)

United Dominion 8.5 (UDM)

Van Kampen Advantage Municipal Income Trust (VKA)

Van Kampen Advantage Municipal Income Trust II (VKI)

Van Kampen California Value Municipal Income Trust (VCV)

Van Kampen High Income Trust II (VLT)

Van Kampen Income Trust (VIN)

Van Kampen Massachusetts Value Municipal Income Trust (VMV)

Van Kampen Senior Income Trust (VVR)

Van Kampen Value Municipal Income Trust (VKV)

Just a reminder. Just because a company pays dividends monthly, doesn't
mean they will continue to do so, and doesn't mean that it is a good
investment.