briefing... SELL SELL SELL
PANIC SELLING: So what do you do when you see the Nasdaq down more than 40 points and all the stocks that have made you money over the past few months are starting to crash? Well, hell, you get out before those impressive gains that you bragged to all your friends about are completely wiped out. Obviously, the situation is more serious than that, because this is real money we're talking about, which is considerably more precious than any sort of bragging rights. At present, the Nasdaq is down 54 (-3%) to 1646, which on a point basis is wider than the one day loss of 46 points (-11%) suffered on Black Monday. If invested in the chip sector, you're pretty much taking a bath today. As one of the hottest groups over the past six months, it has been one of the first areas that investors have looked to take profits. Sentiment has not been helped by a report yesterday of a decline in the international book-to-bill ratio. Point declines of more than 5 points are being experienced by such fabrication equipment names as KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Teradyne Inc (TER), Veeco Instruments (VECO), PRI Automation (PRIA)... ASMLF... ASYT... the list goes on. One of the few stocks making a non-earnings related stand is Ascend Communications (ASND), as the stock trades 1 1/2 points higher on rumors Lucent is preparing a bid for the networker. Once this madness does come to an end (and it is madness, largely created by the endless reminders of '87 that have been present on every financial network over the past week), the places to look for value will include the chip equipment sector, the oil drillers, and a small area within the Internet stocks. If anyone attended the Market Crash of '87 party (at Harry's Bar in downtown Manhattan) write in and let us know how it was. I'm sure the turnout was large, after all, its all CNBC has been talking about all morning. |
