Lynn. Gotta admit I don't agree with you. First of all, I may be wrong, but ML was Neutral intermediate term, so I doubt they were pushing clients into CPQ. However, we've now discerned that CPQ let the cat out of the bag about January sales late Wednesday. I believe it was El who commented that CPQ fell dramatically in the last hour of trading Wednesday and we were down 1 1/2. No-one knew why. Then Thursday we dropped another 1 1/2 points on no apparent bad news. It seems to me, there is a reasonable assumption that the brokerage houses, aware of the warning since late Wednesday, were getting their clients out. By Friday morning, it was safe to issue the downgrades. Once the carnage is over, they can put their clients back in knowing the response wii be overboard as usual. Especially when the downgrades are issued on a Friday. Everyone knows, in light of today's volatility, nobody wants to hold a stock over the weekend if its earnings are called into question. Just MHO, but I personally have no doubt that's what happened.
Russ |
