J. Michels Uranium Index 5/31/07

+$385.00 +0.81%

Record Short Interest on this Market

According to this article which views this as a Bullish sign.

This bearishness has added up to short interest of 154.8 million shares in
the SPDR Trust Series 1 (SPY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating)
exchange-traded fund, which tracks the S&P 500. Another 237.1 million shares
of the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr
- Rating) are also being shorted. If the market heads higher, these all-time record levels of short-selling may trigger a short squeeze of epic proportions.

This is his Bullish critera:

All of these ETFs meet our standards to be considered technically bullish. This means they have reached new 52-week highs within the past five days. Also, the five-day moving average is above the 10-day moving average. And lastly, the moving average convergence-divergence indicator has given a fresh "buy" signal within the last 10 days.

Red Sox Owner Cursed

Now this is bad news if you were a Red Sox fan. John W. Henry the owner of the Red Sox might not be able to afford the 2nd highest salary in baseball if his fund is on its ass.

Henry's business is now in a deep crisis. Long-standing client
Merrill Lynch (MER - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating)
is yanking $500 million from his commodities and futures trading company,
according to reports published yesterday in The Wall Street Journal.

Merrill, as usual these days, declined to comment. Ken Webster,
president of John W. Henry & Co., did not return calls either.

Can't say I blame them.

The move would send Henry's assets under management plunging to
barely $500 million. That compares with a peak of $3.3 billion at the end of
2004.

They're down 70% this year alone.

They are down 70%! When the Dow is up 17% and breaking all-time records? I wonder if they were trying to short the market, or oil, or maybe gold or something. In any case you have to have a special kind of bad luck to be down 70%.

I wonder if John W. Henry will sell off Big Papi to finance another "No-no Nanette" to make back some of that 70% loss. Are we looking at the "Curse of the Papi" and another 80 year drought for Red Sox fans?

Hillary's Private Flights

It sure is good to have friends in high places when it comes to the Clintons. It would be crazy to think that Hillary would stoop to riding First Class on a regular airplane.

Sen. Clinton, who complained about corporate America's largesse and
skyrocketing executive pay during campaign events Wednesday, said she did not
believe her message was undermined by her acceptance of the private flights. In
line with Senate rules then in effect, Clinton's campaign has said she
reimbursed Gupta at the cost of a first-class flight, typically a significant
discount off the expense of a private jet.

Sounds like something the Senate would be cool with. Upgrade to First Class and get a free bump up to private corporate jet. I wonder why people think that politicians can't see eye to eye with the working man? I wonder if Obama or Rudy are getting these perks as well?

Side-Loading a Big Problem for Wireless Carriers

I guess all of those dreams of revenue streams pouring in from games, ringtones, etc. may be coming to an end according to this article.

The biggest challenger to operators is a practice known as
"side-loading," which is the loading of content in phones via PCs or other
devices. The practice essentially bypasses premium services sold by mobile
communication providers, iSuppli said.

"Side-loading is really coming into its own because of the
proliferation of local interface choices in mobile handsets," iSuppli analyst
Frank Dickson said in a statement.

As soon as I saw that USB port on my phone I knew that the era of buying stuff from your phone was over. Now the only thing that needs to catch up is the ease and convenience of loading outside content onto your phone and its curtains for the V-Cast ringtones store.

The Dangers of Web 2.0

I guess a good idea is always followed by people trying to abuse the system.

Kamkar was looking for a way to circumvent MySpace's content-posting
restrictions to jazz up his profile when he found a bug that essentially allowed
him to control the browser of anyone who visited his MySpace page. "A Chipotle
burrito and a few clicks" later, Kamkar says, he created the fastest-spreading
Web-based worm of all time.

Within 20 hours, the worm had spread to approximately 1 million
MySpace users, forcing them to select Kamkar as their "hero" in their profile
page. News Corporation, the site's owner, had to pull down MySpace to fix the
problem.

So this guy effectively bombed MySpace for 20 hours by accident. Now that sounds like a real bad deal waiting to happen. The problem I am having with MySpace now is that people keep bombing me with fake friend requests. I deny the request and it just causes it to send more. I guess they should start calling it "friend spam."

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/30/07

+$521.99 +1.11%

Eventful.com Used by Candidates

Now it looks like the 2008 Presidential Candidates are going the Web 2.0 route.

Within the last few months, presidential candidates have begun to pop
up on Eventful.com, a site where music fans and others lobby their favorite
performer and writers for local appearances. Some politicians, like Hillary
Clinton have appeared because their supporters have demanded local campaign
stops. Others, like Barack Obama, John Edwards, Ron Paul, and Mike Gravel,
have actively pursued a place on the site and the feedback it offers.

I guess these candidates will use any technological means they can to put their name out there. Too bad eventful.com seems like the Web 2.0 site that will only appeal to people that aren't in Hawaii. It seems that almost all of the events in Hawaii occur at the Honolulu Club. I guess they have a web savvy employee that just blankets their events on the site. I only saw like 5 events that weren't' Honolulu Club events.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/29/07

-$595.99 -1.25%

Gas Prices Aren't that Bad

This person agrees with me that gas prices really aren't such a big deal to the majority of Americans despite the gloom and doomers out there.

But that ignores the wealth effect, namely that even if today’s gas is
more expensive that it was then, almost every one of us has (even in real terms)
a lot more money to spend on gas than we did then. Will people who spend $20 for a music CD, $50 for ticket to the ballgame or $25 for a haircut really drive
less just because a tank of gas costs $45 instead of $35 or $30?

Yeah it is just one less fast food meal or a few days without your morning Starbucks fix. I think that most Americans can absorb an extra $10 a week. If gas does get to like $5 or so a gallon then it will start to become a real problem.

Rosie Won't be Back on the View

It looks like that heated exchange with Elisabeth Hasselbeck was enough for Rosie.

O'Donnell asked for, and received, an early exit from her contract.
She was due to leave "The View" in mid-June.

I would be willing to lay even money that she will pop up on HBO or maybe Showtime to spout more of her "wisdom" uncensored.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/25/07

+$1,857.00 +4.05%

Secret World of Uranium Traders

Now this is a very interesting article on how Spot Prices for Uranium is currently done. I agree with this article's assertion that there needs to be more transparency and visibility in this market.

In mid-town Manhattan, near Grand Central Station, a lesser known
‘commodity exchange,’ run by New York Nuclear, has real-time screen trading
every Wednesday morning between 7:30 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. And the screen trading is for the real thing – the physical delivery of U3O8. The processed uranium is offered for delivery within a 30-day period at a licensed uranium conversion facility. Real product trading in real-time by real professionals, who mine uranium, consume uranium or act as a broker for either side.

No, the public is not invited to this clubby function. One must be
a certified market participant to bid for or sell U3O8 through New York
Nuclear’s Uranium Online. While NYMEX paper trading is open to amateurs and
professional traders, Uranium Online only permits recognized persons to bid or
offer uranium for sale.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/24/07

-$1,856.00 -3.89%

Hillary Aide Says to Skip Iowa

Just as I had hoped Iowa is looking to be less important to Primary Candidates. Hillary's camp is already thinking of spending the money elsewhere

"I believe we need a new approach to winning the Democratic
nomination," Henry wrote. "This approach involves shifting the focus away
from Iowa and running a campaign that is more focused on other early primary
states and winning this new national primary."

So we may not see Hillary eating in the same idiotic Iowa Coffee shop over and over and instead focusing on the rest of America. It is interesting that he is actually calling it a national primary instead of the Iowa/New Hampshire Primary.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/23/07

+$997.00 +2.13%

Heroes for Hire #13: Sickening Cover

Now Marvel is really falling into the Abyss with this mainstream cover that is not appropriate outside of the pages of Heavy Metal. This isn't an adult book or anything like that but a mainstream book that will be right on the shelves if front of everything. Here we again have an on-the-shelf Marvel product showing women bound and about to be violated by tentacles in what I guess is the new "Merry Marvel Tradition."

The really bad thing about this is that Heroes for Hire is another almost totally female book that might have gone right after this neglected demographic that makes up half of the human race. It could have been just like a Birds of Prey for Marvel but instead it panders to the same repressed nerd, power-fantasy demographic that I guess is buying that Mary Jane statue.

Oh well, I guess this new Marvel is just totally bankrupt when it comes to depicting women with any sort of respect. It seems to Marvel that women are just a bunch of body parts that live only to bow down before their Marvel Zombie masters. It is too bad because I used to read almost 85% Marvel in the 90s. However, I won't be sending any more of my comics dollars their way until they clean their managerial house.

Blackstone to Incure Tax Troubles for the Little Guy

Buried in their prospectus we have this little gem that will prevent me from buying into this IPO I think.

Deep in its IPO prospectus, Blackstone warns that it will most likely
require longer than 90 days after the end of its fiscal year to obtain the
information from its lower-tier entities so that K-1s may be prepared.

"Consequently, holders of common units who are U.S. taxpayers should
anticipate the need to file annually with the IRS (and certain states) a request
for an extension past April 15 or the otherwise applicable due date of their
income tax return for the taxable year," according to the firm.

So that means that they won't be able to give you a K-1 in time for you to file your taxes by April 15. This may be good for those procrastinators but I would hate to have to file an extension year after year just to show that I got an extra $50 in dividends from a foreign source or something like that.

Too bad they can't end their fiscal year in an off quarter like Microsoft does. Oh well I guess I'm going to dodge this IPO unless the dividends are especially juicy. Or maybe I'll just nibble in their LEAP options once they become available instead of purchasing their shares directly. In any case their fancy partnership setup is not for the retail investor.

Red Chinese in on the Blackstone IPO

They have their order in for $3 billion worth of this IPO.

For those just catching up on the news, Blackstone revealed this
morning that it is bumping up its IPO from a planned $4-billion to $7.8-billion
after receiving a $3-billion investment from China. This values the 22-year-old
asset manager at $33.6-billion, which would make it larger than all but a
handful of Canadian companies.

This could mean that the Chinese government is finally going to put that $1.2 trillion in foreign reserves to work getting a higher return then the risk free rate. Could be interesting when they start demanding some board seats after throwing that big cash around.

J. Michels Uranium Index 5/22/07

-$450.23 -0.95%