It is very interesting to analyze the companies’ performance for the first quarter.  It is not random as most would see it but rather a very fixed pattern had evolved that showed the seriousness of the sub prime crisis.

Among the companies that do extremely well

• Budget or essential stores that cater to the necessities needed by customers
• Companies that had a great exposure on the International market and can benefit from the huge rise in the currencies which they are trading in versus the US dollars.  Changing the foreign currencies back to US dollars meant a huge increase in profits although the business may not be that good
• Banks are making the most losses due to the sub prime crisis

I would expect such results and trends to continue for the next few years, it will take a long time 3-5 years or more to absorb the losses caused by the sub prime crisis.  Until then banks will take the majority of the beatings.