Take on the ticker
What moved markets last week?
"The financial sector was the primary driver of the week. We had UBS and Lehman Brothers make some significant moves that seemed to instill confidence into the market. UBS spun out their mortgage securities into a separate company, isolating the rest of the firm from any difficulties there. And the market seemed to like that. Additionally, Lehman Brothers was able to raise a significant amount of money early in the week to shore up its balance sheet. Both of those things seemed to instill confidence in the market. On Tuesday, the first day of April, we saw the market move up more than 3.5 percent."
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ATA went bankrupt and other airlines made news, too. How is transportation as an investment?
"The transportation, particularly the airline industry, is pretty weak right now. The entire industry is struggling with extremely high energy or fuel costs, which eat into their margins #8230; Both the demand for their services is going down and their costs are going up. That is pretty much the worst possible scenario for the airlines. In the broader transportation industry we saw truckers go on strike because of higher fuel costs. So this is a sector I would stay away from right now."
As an acknowledged expert on McDonald's stocks, how is it doing?
"McDonald's is doing great. It continues to innovate on the food front and -- while it is somewhat cyclical and can be somewhat vulnerable to an economic slowdown -- there is also that economic trade-down benefit to consumers. Instead of eating at that sit down restaurant where the average ticket is two or three times of what McDonald's would be, people do trade down. People have to eat. So far McDonald's seems to be avoiding the problems of the economic slowdown #8230; They also have big international exposure. And internationally things are much stronger than they are in the Midwest."
What sector fascinates you the most right now?
"We're beginning to analyze the financial stocks and asking when is the right time to get back in. For those without a strong stomach, it may be a smidge early to get back in finance but I think we're seeing some glimmer that finance may be close to bottoming. And some selective investment in finance in the next month or two might be the place where you can really see some big returns."