History of Christmas

History of Christmas

Until the time of Julius Caesar the Roman year was organized round the phases of the moon. For many reasons this was hopelessly inaccurate so, on the advice of his astronomers, Julius instituted a calendar centered round the sun. It was decreed that one year was to consist of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days, divided into twelve months; the month of Quirinus was renamed 'July' to commemorate the Julian reform. Unfortunately, despite the introduction of leap years, the Julian calendar overestimated the length of the year by eleven minutes fifteen seconds, which comes to one day every on hundred and twenty-eight years. By the sixteenth century the calendar was ten days out. In 1582 reforms instituted by Pope Gregory XIII lopped the eleven minutes fifteen seconds off the length of a year and deleted the spare ten days. This new Gregorian calendar was adopted throughout Catholic Europe.

Protestant Europe was not going to be told what day it was by the Pope, so it kept to the old Julian calendar. This meant that London was a full ten days ahead of Paris. The English also kept the 25^th of March as New Year's Day rather than the 1^st of January. By the time England came round to adopting the Gregorian calendar, in the middle of the eighteenth century, England was eleven days ahead of the Continent. 

A Calendar Act was passed in 1751 which stated that in order to bring England into line, the day following the 2nd of September 1752 was to be called the 14th, rather than the 3rd of September. Unfortunately, many people were not able to understand this simple manoeuvre and thought that the government had stolen eleven days of their lives. In some parts there were riots and shouts of 'give us back our eleven days!'

Before the calendar was reformed, England celebrated Christmas on the equivalent of the 6th of January by our modern, Gregorian reckoning. That is why in some parts of Great Britain people still call the 6th of January, Old Christmas Day.

Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25–Christmas Day–has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870.

Option Bulls Pile Into PetroChina

PetroChina is not a common target for option traders, but bulls were piling into the name at the end of last week.

About 2,200 December 130 calls were purchased on the Beijing-based energy company on Friday, mostly for $0.90 and $0.95. Volume was almost twice open interest in the strike, according OptionMonster's real-time tracking systems.

These long calls , which give traders the right to buy the stock for $130, will expire worthless at the end of this week if the stock remains below that level. But they can also appreciate by double, triple, or more if PetroChina rallies quickly.

PetroChina rose 0.41 percent on Friday to close at $124.58, and has been slowly working its way higher since the summer. Energy has been one of the stronger sectors in the last two weeks, as investors bet that a resolution to the European sovereign debt crisis will boost commodity prices.

Overall option volume in the name was seven times greater than average on Friday, with calls outnumbering puts by a bullish ratio of 10 to 1.

credit : www.cnbc.com

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With bond interest rates at all-time-low yields to maturity, concerns mounting about a double-dip recession

and baby boomers beginning to retire, the need to generate income from one's investment portfolio has become increasingly important and difficult to attain.

I have written in the past about low-volatility stocks that yield above market dividend rates. Now I want to turn to an entire asset class, real estate investment trusts (REITs).

REITs are companies that invest in real estate and receive special tax treatment.

Provided that a REIT distributes 90 percent of its taxable income to investors, the REIT can avoid taxes at the corporate level, hence removing the double tax quandary that many investors face.

The REIT business has grown tremendously over the last decade. According to the industry group National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, the market capitalization of REITs representing 153 companies at the end of 2010 was $389.3 billion.

Be forewarned that REITs do carry many risks that other stocks face, such as the vagaries of the economy, interest rates and financing availability.

It is necessary to introduce a unique metric for REITs: Funds From Operations (FFO), which measures cash generation by the REIT. FFO equals net income plus depreciation plus amortization and less gains on property sales. FFO can then be equalized on a per-share basis.

In order to compare REITs, one can use the ratio of price-per-share to FFO-per-share (P/FFO), sort of a proxy for price-to-earnings ratio for the industry.

REITs can be divided into many different subsectors. It is the purpose of this article to put together a portfolio of REITs across several of those sectors

American Campus Communities [ACC  37.82    -0.67  (-1.74%)   ]

REIT Subsector: Apartments
Market Cap: $2.7 billion
Dividend Yield: 3.51 percent
P/FFO: 21.6

My wife and I have three children in college or graduate school, with more yet to enroll in the future.

One of the most challenging aspects of going to college is finding housing. Most students live in campus housing their freshman and/or sophomore year. However, the dormitory experience grows old quickly and students seek off-campus housing.

I also know several people who own off-campus residences which they rent out to students. This is a very good business which also tends to be somewhat immune to declining economic conditions.

The same cannot be said for general housing REITs, which tend to focus on apartment buildings and cater to families.

The best pick in this subsector is American Campus Communities, which owns and operates off-campus housing in and around colleges and universities.

American Campus' P/FFO is less than that of the two largest residential REITs, Equity Residential [EQR  59.71    -0.82  (-1.35%)   ] (25.0) and Avalon Bay [AVB  134.36    -0.20  (-0.15%)   ] (28.8).

Furthermore, American Campus' dividend yield is greater than that of Equity Residential (2.23 percent) and Avalon Bay (2.65 percent).

Taken together, American Campus is my top choice in this subsector.

Rayonier [RYN  39.85    -0.93  (-2.28%)   ]

REIT Subsector: Diversified
Market Cap: $5.0 billion
Dividend Yield: 3.92 percent
P/E: 20.7

The diversified subsector is kind of a catch-all for everything does not fit elsewhere in the REIT kingdom. However, a large part of this subsector is the forestry and timber companies.

Unlike most other REITs, the concept of FFO is less important (but not irrelevant) for forestry and timber companies and we can rely at least in part on the more conventional concept of P/E ratios for analytic comparisons.

There are three major forestry and timber REITs to choose from: Plum Creek Timber [PCL  35.82    -1.13  (-3.06%)   ], Rayonier and Weyerhaeuser [WY  17.11    -0.59  (-3.33%)   ].

Immediately I would knock Weyerhaeuser out of contention in this category. The stock has acted poorly over many years and the dividend is less than its peers.

That leaves us with Plum Creek Timber and Rayonier.

I have followed these two companies for a while and can say that Rayonier has generated superior earnings growth to that of Plum Creek. While Rayonier's dividend of 3.92 percent is less than that of Plum Creek's 4.55 percent, I am happy to pick up superior earnings and FFO growth with Rayonier, making Rayonier my choice in the sector.

Senior Housing Property Trust [SNH  22.69    -0.56  (-2.41%)   ]

REIT Subsector: Healthcare
Market Cap: $3.6 billion
Dividend Yield: 6.37 percent
P/FFO: 13.1

I thought long and hard about opportunities in the health-care REIT subsector.

On the one hand I could have easily selected HCP [HCP  35.54    -0.76  (-2.09%)   ], which is one of the largest companies in this sector with extensive holding in senior housing, nursing homes, medical offices, life sciences and hospitals in the nation.

With an estimated P/FFO of 14.23, HCP is rather cheap. That company's FFO is expected to grow nearly 35 percent this year. And a dividend yield of 5.28 percent is certainly welcoming.

However, as our population is ever aging and the baby boomers set to retire, I chose to get more thematic in this sector and focus in on a pure play in Senior Housing Property Trust, which concentrates its investments on retirement communities and nursing homes.

Senior Housing Properties Trust pays a more robust dividend of 6.37 percent and sells for a lower P/FFO of 13.1 than HCP. While FFO growth has been erratic the last few years, I am confident that growth rate will increase in a positive fashion as our population continues to age.

Annaly Capital Management [NLY  17.37    -0.05  (-0.29%)   ]

REIT Subsector: Mortgage
Market Cap: $16.9 billion
Dividend Yield: 14.9 percent
P/E: 6.7

Annaly Capital Management was one of my featured low volatility stocks for a volatile market.

As it also turns out, Annaly is a REIT. I would add that Annaly is the best in its class, led by a world-class mortgage specialist, Michael Farrell.

If Annaly Capital Management is good enough for my low-volatility portfolio, it should no doubt be included in my diversified REIT portfolio.

Sovran Self Storage [SSS  38.40    -1.38  (-3.47%)   ]

REIT Subsector: Storage
Market Cap: $1.1 billion
Dividend Yield: 4.53 percent
P/FFO: 15.5

If you are a fan of the reality TV show "Storage Wars," as we are in the Rothbort household, then you would know that the self-storage business is big.

People will pay to keep valuable items, as well as junk, in storage lockers.

The storage business is growing as more and more people are losing their homes due to the mortgage crisis, and the REIT storage subsector offers interesting opportunities that are worth taking advantage of.

The largest player in this subsector is Public Storage [PSA  118.59    -2.65  (-2.19%)   ], with a $22 billion market capitalization that dominates the industry.

But the stock has a lower yield (3.13 percent), higher P/FFO (20.8) and declining FFO (-15.9 percent) relative to my pick in this sector, Sovran Self Storage [SSS  38.40    -1.38  (-3.47%)   ].

However, I would note that Public Storage has several preferred stock issues that offer superior yield to its common stock, which income-oriented investors may want to consider.

I currently own the Public Storage 6.5 percent Series Q Preferred shares, which yield 6.07 percent.

For my REIT portfolio, I prefer to go with the higher-yielding Sovran Self Storage which also has the potential for greater future growth and as a future takeover target.

source: www.cnbc.com

Bank of America By Buffet

After a $5 billion capital infusion in Bank of America by Warren Buffett, Anthony Polini bank analyst Raymond James reiterated a “strong buy” on the company that was previously “being viewed as one of the weakest banks in the country, if not the world,” he said on CNBC on Thursday.

The fears moving Bank of America [BAC  7.76    0.11  (+1.44%)   ] "down to the depths" of the previous recession have been exaggerated, he said.

Polini noted that the bank was not undercapitalized in an appearance on CNBC on Wednesday, which laterprovoked criticism of the "strong buy" he's kept on the stock since October 13, 2008.

Polini is sticking with a price target of $16 for the stock ahead of a forthcoming foreclosure settlement. Bank of America “can already absorb a $20 billion settlement without an additional nickel,” he said.

Shares closed Wednesday at $6.99, and while they rose in morning trading, they were still below the $9.81 level they were trading at in the beginning of August.

Meanwhile, Jeffery Harte, a managing director of equity research with Sandler O’Neill, said he finds it “hard to think that BAC shouldn’t be a $12 stock if you start looking purely at the fundamentals. It just may not be there tomorrow.”

The key is to “focus on the market psychology impact of this move” said Harte, because the  mortgage issues remain and "there's still a tough operating environment."

Jonathan Finger, a Bank of America shareholder, said the Buffet investment took the fears of necessary capital increase "off the table."

"We think the stock still has a good ways to run in terms of returning to intrinsic value," said Finger. A stock price of "$11 is an intermediate target that investors can focus on," even taking into account a $30 billion loss mortgage loss.

Finger said that a double dip is "somewhat factored into the stock," and those concerns account for part of the drag in the financials sector.

UBS removed Bank of America from its “least preferred” list in a research note out Thursday, that retracts the stock's addition to the list just a day earlier.

“The investment from Berkshire is likely to restore confidence in BAC shares, which was a key component of our expectation for the stock to remain weak,” said the report.

Source by cnbc.com , electric boot dryer