More insider info...
MONDAY JULY 09 2001
Share selling by US directors reaches record
BY CARL MORTISHED, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EDITOR
SHARE selling by directors of US companies has reached record levels and the malaise among company insiders reveals a severe lack of confidence that the American economy will recover this autumn.
On the high-tech Nasdaq stock exchange, selling directors now exceed buyers by a factor of five to one, the highest ratio recorded by Argus Vickers, publisher of the Vickers Weekly Insider, a closely watched survey of directors’ dealings.
The New York Stock Exchange is showing signs of a rout with selling directors outnumbering buyers by six to one, the highest level in 12 years, and evidence that boardroom gloom is spreading from high-tech companies to the wider industrial sector.
According to Bijal Shah, markets analyst at SG, the investment bank, the selling is widespread and in high volumes. “There has been a belief that the downturn in spending would be temporary. But directors are seeing no improvement in order books and they are dumping their own shares even though the share prices are already low.”
The Vickers statistics show some 1,800 directors and insiders were sellers in the past week. According to Mr Shah, the sellers over the past three months have included insiders among big high-tech companies such as AOL, AMD and Microsoft. However, the rout is extending to the wider industrial and financial sectors with insider sales at Ford, Bank of New York and MBNA.
Mr Shah worries that the world could be facing a repeat of the early 1990s, when signs of a US recovery were extinguished by weakness in Japan and Europe. “US companies have a problem. The Fed has slowed down its rate-cutting and the European Central Bank is proving reluctant to cut rates at all. We need some easing of interest rate policy in Europe. The Japanese are not in a position to help.”
thetimes.co.uk
Message 15382968
Obviously still a ways to go.
Regards,
JM |
