"""You have to consider this----why are the PC stocks going up along with the semis--it could be that they have bottomed out."""
Daily Market Rap with Bill Fleckenstein
Bellwether of the ball?. . . There are a couple of tidbits in the news to pass along. First, on page C25 of The Wall Street Journal, there is a reprise of Bob Stansky's semiannual report for Fidelity's Magellan Fund. It turns out he's bearish on the whole PC area, even Microsoft, which Magellan's managers have dramatically cut from the fund's holdings.
In the report, Mr. Stansky observed that technology companies normally see strong earnings at the end of the third quarter, but also noted that, "'If they are cutting back at that time, they may not rush back in and spend heavily at the end of the year.'" To that I would only add, Amen. Mr. Stansky also expressed "concern about 'old-line' tech names whose fortunes are tied to the personal computer market, where growth is slowing." As regular readers know, he has every reason to be concerned.
The second item is from Jim "The New New Thing" Clark (or should it be "The New New Scam"?) of Netscape, who was quoted by the folks at ISI Group. According to ISI, Clark calls the stock market "manic," with tech stocks far overvalued. He's also reportedly "liquidating all his stocks, including Microsoft (MSFT), America Online (AOL) and Cisco (CSCO), except for his 12 million shares of WebMD (HLTH)" [which he probably couldn't sell if he wanted to]. I don't know where ISI got this, but you can be sure it's legit. |
