What's Going on!

My partner, Rebecca, and I will be buying more stock in Cinemark. Since the stock has recently decreased in value, and is now $18.7500, while I bought it at $18.9210, one might view this as risky inverstment. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, "RealD, the licensor of 3D technology used in standard-sized screens, filed for a potential $200 million IPO." With this new technology, and IMAX becoming more and more popular each year, I expect stock prices to go way up. In this case, the best time to buy would be now, when prices are low.

It is important to keep track of our investments because if one of our stocks go down significantly, we may want to sell while we can still make either more of a profit, or before we lose more money. On the other hand, we may want to buy more shares if one of our stocks is doing well.

Jenna Weinblatt

What's going on?

I will sell all my Panera Bread stock (PNRA) because we lost $1,295.50. We bought it at $84.76 and it is now selling at $79.58, a loss of $5.18 per stock. Although there is no direct reason for this decline in stock price, success for its competitors is a logical cause. According to MSN.com, "McDonald's, which is stealing share from other fast-food chains and turning up the heat on Starbucks with drinks like its frappes, said its new breakfast Dollar Menu and coffee sales helped drive the quarterly earnings gains." McDonald's is now up $0.12 with an increasing trend with the reasons mentioned above.

We should keep up to date with our investments because changes in stock occur everyday. Events with the invested company and their competitors are unpredictable. We should thus look out for news regarding our stock in order to make sure we don't unnecessarily loose money.

Rebecca Kern

Mutual Fund

We will invest in Reynolds Blue Chip Growth (RBCGX). The mutual fund is currently selling at 50.08, and has increased $1,064 in value over the last year (for a $10,000 investment). We will also be investing because Blue Chip Growth is a very diverse mutual fund, inevesting in large corperations such as Apple, Google, Disney, Best Buy, OfiiceMax, Rordstrom, and McDonalds. Stocks that it invested in that are doing extremely well are Finisar Corporation, Massey Energy Company, and JDS Uniphase Corporation.

Group Decision

Our group has decided to buy stocks in Panera Bread (PNRA). The stock is at an extreme high of 82.99, which is almost double the price it was last year. It has a steadily increasing pattern, and has received high praise among the fast food chain lists. ABC.com even said that Panera Bread has the healthiest choices of salads among fast food restaurants (Katie Cwayna). Since America is in a health food craze, there is a promising future for this already successful chain. It can be supported as "Panera Bread has seen its shares outperform every major restaurant stock over the last 10 years." Though as explained, it is in such a high circumstance and differs from other fast food chain because "it operates in a niche between fast-food and casual dining, which can likely accommodate more capacity." (John Jannarone Wall Street Journal) Reaching out to more peoples food preferences, we predict that this stock will increase and remain high. As such, we will but this stock.


Rebecca Kern & Jenna Weinblatt

Deutsche Telekom (DT) or T-mobile (Cell Phone Blog)

My partner and I will not be investing in T-Mobile. Over the last year, the company has only risen 1.3, and since we're only playing the game for two more months, it makes no sense to invest if there's no good chance at making money over the two month span. According to Douglas A. McIntyre "The firm lost 77,000 subscribers in the third quarter. Most analysts blame the attrition on a poor lineup of handset products and tremendous competition from Verizon Wireless (VZ) and AT&T (T)." Many analysts feel that it would be wise of T-mobile to become part of Sprint, just so that they can be viable again.

With such high competition, like Verizon Wireless with their Droid phones, and AT&T with their iPhones, it is no wonder T-Mobile is falling behind. Even a star actress like Catherine Zeta Jones can't help them now.

by Jenna Weinblatt

Apple Inc. (Spring Break Blog)

My partner and I will be investing in Apple, Inc. Over the past few weeks, there has been huge speculation about the popular iPhone which has sold only through AT&T from the time it was first released (2007) coming to Verizon Wireless. With Apple's stocks already increasing from 124 to 241 over the last year, we feel that this new deal with Verizon will send Apple stocks way above the already high price it is selling at. "If sales of iPhones on Verizon have minimal cannibalization of AT&T iPhone sales, then Apple's global mobile phone market share could increase to 5.9% rather than the expected 4.4% in 2011" (Trefis).

While the phone sales of the iPhone plays a big role in our decision to invest, we are also looking closely at the sales of the recently released iPad, which sold over 300,000 in it's first day. While this is only average compared to the iPhone 3G sales, Apple is already planning on new apps and updates to make the iPad even better. In addition, within the few days it has been out, the iPad has already affected the prices of netbooks "Reitzes links the dipping netbook prices to the iPad's April 3 debut...the iPad costs more than the average netbook, but packs features like a large touch-screen and integration with Apple's iTunes and new iBooks application that could sway consumers away from typical netbooks" (Elizabeth Woyke.)

With it's possible plan with Verizon, and release of the iPad, we feel that Apple sales will increase, and therefore raise stock prices. Many people who have Verizon and don't want to switch plans just to get the iPhone will be overjoyed by this new plan, and even my mother wants to buy an iPad! In addition, I saw 3 people on the train today with iPads!

by Jenna Weinblatt

Spring Break

I will buy Cinemark Holding Inc (CNK) stock because it has great potential. Although the stock is currently selling at a moderate 18.47, it has dramatically increased over the year and shows an increasing pattern. The plan is to buy this stock at its low price and sell it for a much higher price. The reason I expect the price to go up is because of the new popular type of movies being released, 3-D movies. You can wait for those movies to come out on DVD to watch at home but you will not get the 3-D effect; it is a trap that takes advatage of the movie demand. According to MSN.com " The success of 3-D mega hits like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have basically given theaters the green light to charge a few dollars more per ticket" and "effective last weekend, many theater operators will charge up to 26% more per ticket to see the latest film releases." Though, to put Cinemark out of competition with Regal Entertainment Group, Cinemark has opened three new extreme cinema digital auditoriums that offer a complete entertainment environment (MSN.com). My hope is that they will continue to open up new theaters like this one. Also I'm evoked to buy this stock because people never stop watching movies. Even during the worst part of the recession people were still flocking to the movie theater because it is still a cheaper form of entertainment than others such as a Broadway show. Considering the stock a moderate risk, I'm greatly investing in it as I expect it to dramatically increase over the years.

Rebecca Kern