Sunday, March 05, 2006

RIMM Settles

The Dow is struggling to keep up its fight to hold 11,000. Going into Friday afternoon, there were hopes for strong finish to a volatile week but sellers came in before the close and drove prices down from about 80 points higher to finish just under water. Similar things were happening in the broader indexes with the SP500, up nearly ten points during the early afternoon, closing down almost two; and, the NASDAQ Comp, up about 15 in the afternoon, closed down over eight points.

Late Friday, a story broke on RIMM. We have been watching, and you probably have too, the patent dispute over the Blackberry. Apparently, the two opposing parties were able to settle their differences with a little cash, I guess money still talks. In late trading on Friday, RIMM had a nice pop in price after this announcement. Looking at the price of this stock over the past several months, it doesn’t appear that anyone was at all worried that this dispute was not going to be settled for the Blackberry users. The trading in this stock should be fascinating on Monday.

There was a lot of happy (translate that Bullish) talk over the weekend from all kinds of media sources. From our deep contrarian spirit comes a sense of calm after all this rationalizing of the bullish position. We continue to be patient on the market as we know that they, the bulls, might have one last little push in them but it doesn’t really matter. The market is trying so hard to maintain its current status when we all know that the hardest market to buy is a bull market, it just never gives you a chance: You always have to buy at higher prices. This market is definitely not like that.

There are some big numbers coming out this week, the biggest of which is the jobs report due on Friday. We will keep you posted on the developing economic events that may move the markets. Be careful out there, be very careful…

PS Warren Buffet's letter to shareholder's is available and is a must read.

Visit http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2005ltr.pdf for the full text.

Dow Industrials: 11,021.59 -3.92
RYVNX: 18.60
RYAIX: 21.96
TLT: 89.33
BEGBX: 13.12

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