Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Ah, if we could go back in time... We all would have done things differently. Maybe some of us would have played the stock market differently. Any stock stand out to you as one that would make you a millionaire overnight?
A friend and I like to play this game. All it does is drive us nuts. TASR went nuts from Oct. 2003 through this past June. My friend owned shares in Sirius Satellite radio, which languished until today, when Howard Stern announced he would begin broadcasting on satellite next year.
I wonder if any of you are kicking yourselves for not buying up as many Halliburton shares as you could get your hands on once it became apparent former CEO Dick Cheney was going to become our Vice President. We'd all be rich, right? According to guys like John Edwards, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore and just about any anti-Bushie, Halliburton profited while American soldiers died. Right?
Wrong! First, check out this story from National Review Online today.
Here's a 5-year chart of Halliburton, and you can see that the stock has lost a bit since 2001, most of its losses coming between Sept. 11, 2001 and mid-2002.
Historical prices show that the stock closed at $37.12 on Jan. 19, 2001, the day before Cheney took office. Halliburton closed at $28.16 Sept. 10, and closed a little lower at $26.52 (the next day the markets were open after the attacks.)
War in Afghanistan loomed, but the stock bottomed at $19.35 on Sept. 26. Well, at least you'd think it bottomed out. On Jan. 4, 2002, Halliburton traded at a low of $8.60 a share. By March 19, 2003, the U.S. had begun its attack on Iraq, and some on the left asserted that Cheney's pals at Halliburton stood to reap a major windfall. Didn't happen. Halliburton closed at $20.50, or just $1.15 more than its post-9/11 correction low.
Today, Halliburton closed at $34.79 on the NYSE, up 82 cents for the day, but down $2.33, or 6.6 percent from its close on the eve of Cheney's inauguration.
Here's a 22-year chart of Halliburton, and you'll see that the most dramatic increase in stock price came during Cheney's tenure as CEO, when he was out of the public sector. You'll also see volume spike dramatically since Cheney has been Bush's VP, but the stock price slip.
A friend and I like to play this game. All it does is drive us nuts. TASR went nuts from Oct. 2003 through this past June. My friend owned shares in Sirius Satellite radio, which languished until today, when Howard Stern announced he would begin broadcasting on satellite next year.
I wonder if any of you are kicking yourselves for not buying up as many Halliburton shares as you could get your hands on once it became apparent former CEO Dick Cheney was going to become our Vice President. We'd all be rich, right? According to guys like John Edwards, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore and just about any anti-Bushie, Halliburton profited while American soldiers died. Right?
Wrong! First, check out this story from National Review Online today.
Here's a 5-year chart of Halliburton, and you can see that the stock has lost a bit since 2001, most of its losses coming between Sept. 11, 2001 and mid-2002.
Historical prices show that the stock closed at $37.12 on Jan. 19, 2001, the day before Cheney took office. Halliburton closed at $28.16 Sept. 10, and closed a little lower at $26.52 (the next day the markets were open after the attacks.)
War in Afghanistan loomed, but the stock bottomed at $19.35 on Sept. 26. Well, at least you'd think it bottomed out. On Jan. 4, 2002, Halliburton traded at a low of $8.60 a share. By March 19, 2003, the U.S. had begun its attack on Iraq, and some on the left asserted that Cheney's pals at Halliburton stood to reap a major windfall. Didn't happen. Halliburton closed at $20.50, or just $1.15 more than its post-9/11 correction low.
Today, Halliburton closed at $34.79 on the NYSE, up 82 cents for the day, but down $2.33, or 6.6 percent from its close on the eve of Cheney's inauguration.
Here's a 22-year chart of Halliburton, and you'll see that the most dramatic increase in stock price came during Cheney's tenure as CEO, when he was out of the public sector. You'll also see volume spike dramatically since Cheney has been Bush's VP, but the stock price slip.
