Looking for Clues in Q2 Earnings Calls
After a rough second quarter, corporate financial results will be weak. Investors will be listening closely to executives for signs of hope in the future

By Ben Steverman  July 9, 2009

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jul2009/pi2009079_487206.htm

Investing
Entering the crucial midyear earnings season, investors are a befuddled bunch.
Financial markets—much improved from four months ago—suggest the economy is stabilizing and could recover soon. But corporate profits continue to fall, and more and more Americans are losing their jobs.

That’s why, investors say, they’ll be listening very closely as companies unveil second-quarter results—and not just to the results themselves, but to what executives say about the future. […]

Market Snapshot May 23, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EST Wavering rally faces GM failure, slew of housing data By Laura Mandaro , MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A nearly three-month rally in stocks will square off against a possible General Motors Corp. bankruptcy and a round of new housing data during the holiday-shortened trading week.

How this tussle turns out will help shape the ongoing debate about whether the stock market’s 33% gains since its March low represent a sustainable rally or just a bounce in a bear market.

Though they ended last week higher, the benchmark indexes fell back for four of the five sessions, weighed down by a growing sense that investors had overbid for shares given what’s likely to be a slow, jagged economic recovery.

“The market’s had a big run-up, now it’s running out of steam,” said William Rutherford, president of Rutherford Investment Management in Portland, Ore., and the state’s former treasurer.

He noted that even though the stock market has continued to rise, it’s done so on lighter volume. “That shows it’s getting a bit tired.”

U.S. markets are closed Monday for Memorial Day.

Investors may return from the beach to witness the bankruptcy of General Motors (GM […]

Hello friends:

As promised last week, attached please find a PDF reprint of our Forbes feature, with my compliments. If you would like to receive a hard copy, please “reply” with your name and address and we’ll mail you a glossy reprint immediately.

Enjoy the read and please share it with your friends and colleagues. Let us know your thoughts.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you,

William Rutherford

RUTHERFORD INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC

503.452.1210 | wrutherford@rutherfordinvestment.com | www.rutherfordinvestment.com

Rutherford Investment Management, LLC.

The Serious Investor’s Personal Investment Manager

Forbes-Feature

Hello friends:

As the market tries to rebuild investor confidence, a logical place to start is through investment management services that demonstrate

* individualized client attention with separately managed accounts, * transparency in fee and investment processes, and * audited performance.

Those are the qualities that you have come to expect from Rutherford Investment Management.

Rutherford Investment Management will be featured in the May 25 issue of ForbesR magazine, in a special section called Oregon Financial. If you are a current Forbes subscriber, please watch for our profile. We will be sending you a reprint of the feature on or around May 12, directly to your email inbox. We will also be featuring this profile on our website. www.rutherfordinvestment.com.

Please watch for it, share it with your friends and colleagues, and let us know your thoughts.

Thank you,

William Rutherford

RUTHERFORD INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC.

503.452.1210 | wrutherford@rutherfordinvestment.com

Bill Rutherford is featured in the upcoming print edition of BusinessWeek – “Inside Wall Street” column.

May 4, 2009 Issue (posted online April 22, 2009)

Article link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_18/c4129insidewal190116.htm? chan=magazine+channel_personal+business

In mid-2007, holding stock in financial outfits became taboo at Rutherford Investment Management, whose composite growth portfolio has snagged a five-star rating from Morningstar (MORN ) for the past five years. But a year later, Rutherford hopped back into financials. It bought shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM ), the global banking giant with assets of $3.2 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. JPMorgan now offers what a long-term growth investor like Rutherford requires for its portfolio: a cheap, “best in class” bank and a “fortress” company with huge potential, says the firm’s president, William Rutherford. JPM’s global franchise will help it “come out stronger” from the financial crisis, he adds. Like most other banks, JPM shares have been battered-falling to 14.96 on Mar. 6, down from a 52-week high of 50.63 last Oct. 3. Its strong investment banking unit helped it post better-than-forecast first- quarter profits, and it had climbed to 31.90 by Apr. 22.

As JPMorgan “continues to take market share in most of its businesses, […]