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October 2009, Issue #41
Cash for Clunkers, the Aftermath
US car sales were boosted 11 percent after the month-long cash for clunkers program, which offered consumers up to $4,500 discount toward the purchase of fuel efficient new cars if they traded in an old one. This was the biggest leap in car sales since October 2001, when car dealers offered 0% interest rate to stimulate the economy after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. These increases however are not a surprise to people, especially considering all the statistics were put online by the ever tech-savvy Obama administration.
What people really wanted to know was how auto sales would fare the month after the program is over, and the news was just released recently. Surprisingly, not all is doom and gloom. Some auto makers reported year-over-year gains during the first month after the Cash for Clunkers program, and many others only suffered single digit declines, ending a troubling trend of double digit losses. The biggest disappointment though was again GM and Chrysler, each suffering 40+% declines as they continue to downsize and become more competitive. Hopefully the two post-bankruptcy automakers can accelerate their rebound and come up with the products that will draw customers into showrooms.
An Update on FirstradeNEXT
Development is going at a brisk pace, with a lot of focus on customizability and ease of use. With a lot of internal testing in the last month (one of the reasons we missed last month's issue of the newsletter), we have gotten the hard part out of the way. Now we need to assemble the key components of the front end, and put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Want more information and frequent updates? Become a fan of FirstradeNEXT on Facebook.
On the Roadmap
A mobile version of the new site is nearing completion, and the entirely new Firstrade.com trading platform is making a ton of progress.
Firstrade's Favorites
Check out the stocks held by the largest number of Firstrade accounts currently. This list does not take into consideration the number of shares or the share price.
- C - Citigroup Inc.
- GE - General Electric Co.
- BAC - Bank of America Corp.
- MSFT - Microsoft Corp.
- SIRI - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (up from 7)
- F - Ford Motor Company
- AAPL - Apple Inc. (up from 8)
- AIG - American International Group (down from 5)
- FNM - Fannie Mae
- CSCO - Cisco Systems Inc.
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A Quick Look @ Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU)
In every issue we take a quick look at a stock that has been in the news. Feel free to make suggestions as to what stock you would like to see covered next by sending an email to editor@firstrade.com, or the editor will pull a random symbol out of a hat.
This month we take a look at Baidu, Inc. a Chinese-language Internet search provider for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services to locate information, products and services using Chinese-language search terms, including Baidu Map, Baidu Post Bar, Baidu News, Baidu Knows, Baidu Image search, Baidu MP3 search, Baidu Baike etc. According to Analysys International, Baidu is the leading search engine in China with 61.6 percent of China's market share as of June 2009. Let's take a look at some key events.
Key Events:
- 1999: Baidu was founded by Li Yan Hong and Xu Yong.
- 2001: Released Baidu search engine, focused on Chinese-Language search services.
- 2002: Released Baidu MP3 search, which quickly became controversial as a way to download pirated music.
- 2003: Released Baidu Image & News search. In the same year, it released Baidu Post Bar.
- June, 2004: Search leader Google Inc. invested an undisclosed amount in Baidu, putting the Chinese search engine in the spotlight of Western media.
- 2005: Released Baidu Knows, a question and answer service.
- 2005: Baidu Inc. went public on the Nasdaq.
- 2006: An encyclopedia service, Baidu Baike, was launched.
- June, 2006: Google unloads its holdings in Baidu, as the two companies compete in the Chinese market.
- March, 2007: Released Baidu Japanese, extended its business to the Japanese market.
- 2007: Former Sony CEO Idei Nobuyuki was appointed by Baidu as its independent director.
- 2008: Released its first instant massaging software: Baidu Hi.
- July, 2009: Baidu announced a 44.6% increase of its net income for its second quarter compared to the previous year.
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