Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirtz analyze Dow’s Rohm & Haas Acquisition. Published on Seeking Alpha

Facing fierce domestic opposition, the Kuwaiti government this weekend scuttled a deal, first unveiled a year ago, between state-owned Petrochemical Industries and Dow Chemical (DOW) to create K-Dow Petrochemicals. Wall Street reacted on Monday by sending not only DOW down 20%, but expressed a great deal of pessimism about another DOW deal. In July, it announced that it would purchase specialty chemicals producer Rohm & Haas (ROH) for $78 per share. This acquisition is essential to DOW’s long-term strategy as it incorporates a new and diverse product pipeline. ROH itself tumbled more than 16%, sending a clear message to investors: Kuwait has killed the Dow-Rohm merger. A closer look, however, suggests a very different account.
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January 20, 2009 at 4:00 PM EST (2:00 PM MST)Upcoming
CNBC “Closing Bell” Appearance for Lee Eugene Munson
Daily Market Commentary

Lee Munson on “Closing Bell” December 26, 2008

From the CNBC’s Closing Bell
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Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup Preferred stock. Published on Seeking Alpha

As active conservative money managers, we at Portfolio Asset Management sought a way to capture appreciation from devastated financial stocks and yet have an increased chance of dependable high yields. With a focus on cash flow, an outgrowth of the demographics of our core retired investor, we began buying financial preferred stock this summer.

The common stock of large financial firms dropped dramatically in 2008. The environment of deleveraging and uncertain future earnings, not to mention the continuing risk of bank failure, tempers the allure of buying into this market plunge. Swapping common stock for debt that trades on an exchange with a daily quote versus the problematic bond pricing systems, makes financial preferred stocks a viable alternative-but not just any preferreds.
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Lee Eugene Munson comments on the economy. Published on Seeking Alpha

Last week I spent two days in Boston engaging the best minds on Wall Street. Most of them, however, don’t live anywhere near Wall Street or the studios of CNBC. This may explain why there was a coherent consensus among bulls, bears, and everyone in between. I was able to talk one on one with incredible minds like Burton Malkiel author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” and professor of economics at Princeton; Andrew Lo, finance professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and Chairman of AlphaSimplex Group; and Dan Fuss, Vice Chairman of Loomis, Sayles & Company managing over $58 billion. While the money managers and academics I met came from diverse backgrounds, there were three main themes all of them shared.

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Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell provide independent fund research on the Oppenheimer Rochester National Municipal Fund (ORNAX, ORMBX, ORNCX).

At the most basic level, most analysts simply lack an understanding of the Oppenheimer Rochester National Municipal Fund (ORNAX, ORMBX, ORNCX) managed by Ronald Fielding. Most analysis of ORNAX highlights parts of the portfolio without context and paints the fund as risky, not suitable for a core municipal bond portfolio. Although the short-term volatility of ORNAX is higher than the average AAA rated muni fund, over time it has produced outstanding results. To paraphrase Buffet, we would rather take a lumpy 14% than a smooth 12%, or in the case of munis, a smooth 3%.
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