On 7/23/2008, I sold 2 IR Aug08 40 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $50.50 in an IRA account.  My basis for IR, including option premiums and excluding dividends, is now 50.86.  IR is trading just over 36 today so I am still underwater.  IR is currently paying an .18 per share per quarter dividend for a return of 1.99% at its current valuation.

I think IR is, or should be, part of the infrastructure building and rebuilding in the US and world wide.  I wrote in a post recently about all of the road construction and reconstruction that I saw while on vacation.  I noticed IR equipment at several of the job sites.

I am not sure why IR has suffered in the past months.  I see at least one comment that it may be related to general fears about the economy and the price of oil.  Of course, everybody is pointing to oil as the root of all evil.  I suspect that sometimes oil is just a scape goat.  Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the rising price of oil is detrimental but it is not the reason for everything to be going bad.