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Broadleaf Partners' Blog

Broadleaf Partners' Blog

blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

When Bad News is Good News

It’s been a slower week for data but one thing did strike us as interesting over the past few days -- stocks reacting positively to presumably bad news as we saw with retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s. Both stocks re... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Commodities, Oil and the Reflation Trade

Throughout the day yesterday commodity prices soared as did the stocks of many companies who track in such goods, including the materials and energy sectors. Later in the day, the rest of the market fell apart as t... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

Banking, Fidel Castro, and the Eighth Grade

The well publicized problems in financial land may be seeping into newer areas according to today's Wall Street Journal. Lehman Brothers may have to write down some loans associated with commercial real estate and ... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Laughing out Loud (LOL)

Today's economic news continued on the negative side, with the New York State Empire Index of manufacturing activity and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey both signaling a weak economy. While both of these mea... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Growth on the Rails - Really!

During the summer of 2006, I reluctantly attended a lunch in Cleveland with the CFO of major U.S. railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Historically, railroads had been left out of discussions pertaining ... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

Quote of the Day

“I don’t want to lend money to someone who needs to come to me to borrow it.” -- Diary of an Unknown Banker, 2/11/08. Isn't it amazing how fast sentiment changes? Almost one year ago, banks were jumping over themse... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Wow, Bear Markets, and the Craziness of Datapoint Trading

In bear markets -- and I'm willing to call this a bear market given that many indices are close to 20% from their highs -- the swings in stock prices become emotionally charged. Yesterday, the stock of the Chicago ... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

The ISM, Super Tuesday, Pro Choice and Cisco. Buy Growth Now.

The new non-manufacturing ISM survey was released a bit earlier than expected today, indicating that services activities were at their lowest levels since the datapoint was first released. I really don't think this... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

The Legend of January

The performance of the markets this January has been among the worst on record. Almost everything has been down sharply, with the exception of the beaten down homebuilding and financial services sectors which actua... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Durable Goods, Earnings & The Fed

Durable goods orders surged 5.2% in December. While this economic release is notoriously volatile on a month to month basis, the magnitude of the current results supports the view that the recession in the housing ... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Breaking A Fever

The markets rallied an amazing 4.9% off their intra day lows yesterday to close up on the day. The action was so intense, that my wife Lisa got in on the commentary, sending me the following words of wisdom after t... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

The Day After

Everyone knows by now that the Fed lowered rates in a surprise cut yesterday of 75 basis points before the markets opened. This is certainly a good start and shows that the Fed isn't asleep at the wheel, which was ... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Congresswoman mistakes Bernanke for Paulson

Thanks to our friend Jason Trennert, Chief Investment Strategist and CEO at Strategas Research Partners, for passing along this You Tube clip of Marcy Kaptur, Congresswoman from our beloved Ohio, in yesterday's Con... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Blah Blah Blah

Bernanke's testimony to Congress this morning, and in fact most testimonies to Congress, often have the quality of an old fashioned sideshow act at the circus. Come see the world's fattest woman! Feast your eyes on... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

Crazy Days

The intra day volatility in the markets continues on the extreme side. Near the end of the trading day, we're roughly flat. At one point, the markets were down between one and two percent and up as much as a percen... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

Ugly Ducklings and Beautiful Swans

The markets have played the role of ugly duckling so far in 2008. The Fed's statement last week that they would take swift action to prevent further economic weakness suggests that the economy may be more fragile t... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Bending without Breaking

This is our first entry in a little over a week. We're usually pretty busy with quarter and year end reporting activities, but a travel commitment late last week made things a bit tighter than usual. As the dust be... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Thanks and Happy New Year

Jeff and I want to wish all of you a healthy and prosperous New Year. We ventured into the world of blogging in 2007 and will be looking for ways to improve our content and make it more useful to you, our readers, ... read more
blog Wealth
Management
 /  Admin

Less Was More in 2007

Each year at this time, Jeff and I review the trades we made in the portfolio during the year. While we know every idea won't work out, we still want to know if we'd have been better off by setting the portfolio in... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Over the Hill

I thought our readers would like to know that Doug is out of the office today "celebrating" his 40th birthday. How's that for a Christmas present? I think I'd rather get coal (especially given where coal stocks are... read more
blog Institutional
Investment
Management
 /  Admin

Quiet

It will likely be a quiet day on Wall Street, as is usually the case. Other than some news from Target this morning, the headlines have been pretty quiet. Target indicated that its same store sales results for Dece... read more