April 2, 1999
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WEEKDAY TRADER: Report Card: A's, B's And A Couple Of D's
Dow Jones Newswires
This story was originally published on Thursday
By Barron's Online Staff
Editor's Note: In our February 22nd Editor's Note, "Getting the Most Out of Weekday Trader," we said we'd be updating readers more frequently on how the stocks and industries we've written about have done. The first quarter has ended, so we thought it was a good time to issue our first report card, which we'll do quarterly from now on. Here are our winners and losers.
The Winners
After sky-high gains last year, the technology sector sold off last month: Prices of bellwethers like Intel Corp. (INTC), Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) and Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) slipped well below their 52-week highs. On March 2, in the midst of worries about slowing PC sales and earnings growth, some gutsy fund managers told Weekday Trader that the problems were seasonal and that tech stocks would rebound ("Tech Managers Say it's Buying Time Again, March 2). Some of them have. At 120 7/8, Intel, for example, has risen by around 10%. Compaq and Dell, however, haven't bounced back as recent reports about sub-$600 and giveaway PCs continue to worry investors.
Fund manager Chip Morris at T. Rowe Price's Science and Technology Fund remains cautious on Compaq and Dell, but continues to be bullish on Intel. And Bill Schaff, a portfolio manager of the Information Technology 100 Fund, still thinks it's buying time. "You're talking about the gorillas in the industry," he said. "I continue to buy [Compaq]."
Overall, investors seem to be leaning much more heavily towards non-PC areas, like telecommunications equipment, something Weekday Trader suggested ("Bulls Say Qualcomm is Poised for More Gains," Feb. 9). The focus of our story, Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), has doubled since then, closing at 137 Thursday.
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