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Tuesday, August 25, 1998
Boardwatch
More bears than bulls in the Internet chat rooms
these days
By Chris Marti and Tripp Reynolds
moneydaily.com
Editor's note: This is the first in an occasional series of
columns based on the buzz in the Internet stock chat
rooms.
The stock market may be bouncing off lows, as it did
modestly on Monday, but that doesn't mean investors are
optimistic about a quick return to happier days. In fact, the
sentiment among individual investors remains positively
bearish, at least according to a survey of comments on the
major financial bulletin boards.
Most postings indicate people remain very nervous about
the market, though they're enthusiastic about individual
stocks, including Dell and Cisco. Apple was getting good
reviews for its new iMac. And a few investors even saw
hope in the perilous situation in Russia.
Our survey covered the stock chat boards at America
Online, Motley Fool, Silicon Investor and Yahoo Finance,
among others.
On a day when the Dow and S&P 500 had small gains
(the Dow Industrials were up 32.96 to 8566.61), postings
to the Fool's "Bears Communion" still outnumbered those
to the "Bulls Communion" by more than 5-to-1.
Typical was this comment from AngryCandy in a message
slugged Yuck: "The market had every reason to rally
today, and it still stinks. I've lost count of how many
short-term buy signals haven't panned out in this
correction." Added Donv on the same board, "What is it
they say, 'Pigs get slaughtered?' I've done very well this
year. No need to get greedy." And those were both Bulls
Communion postings!
The negative sentiment doesn't extend to every stock,
naturally. Among those held up as possible safe havens:
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Dell (NASDAQ:
DELL), which reported earnings well above estimates last
week. "Don't bogart that DELL, my friend. Pass it on over
to me," Steven Call told other posters on Silicon Investor.
"Unlike a certain Willy, I will admit to inhaling all the DELL
I can get." Granted, Dell could be an expensive hit: it's
trading at 58 times trailing earnings.
The new iMac from Apple Computer (NASDAQ: AAPL)
was also getting favorable comment. "This appears to be
the beginning of a 'new roll' for Apple," said Gary FM on
AOL's Personal Finance boards, who said he had once
worked for an Apple education dealer. "I'm buying in at
every chance with every dollar I can. ... I think we'll see
$50 within 3-6 months, and possibly better than that
beyond." The stock closed off 1.8125 at 41.1875 on
Monday.
Others were more skeptical. "Apple might not be Safeway
brand cola trying to beat out Coke, but it's in the same
ballpark ... Apple hasn't convinced me, and I'm rooting for
them," said Bdavids1 on Motley Fool.
Of course, some investors see a bright lining in even the
darkest news -- like the financial chaos in Russia, where
President Boris Yeltsin fired his cabinet and re-appointed
Victor Chernomyrdin as prime minister. "If you'd rather
invest in Dell or Intel, go ahead," said Finance_guy on the
Yahoo message board. "But ... Russia is the most
unbelievable opportunity to come along since the USA in
the middle of the Great Depression."
Other Russian bulls pointed out that the last time
Chernomyrdin was prime minister the Russian actually
grew -- albeit by only 0.7%. Others argued the situation
looks bleak. "While there was hope Kiriyenko and Co [the
former Russian government] would reform the corrupt
system Russia had, there is no hope now (for the nearest
future)," said Vi on the SI boards.
One poster even saw opportunity of a different sort: "Just
interviewing with Yeltsin," asserted Treetopflier on SI. "I
hear there are a few openings, and he throws great
parties."
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