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Strategies & Market Trends : MDA - Market Direction Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (36222)	12/29/1999 7:30:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 99985

D&B: US BUS. CONFIDENCE UP FOR 1Q 2000; MORE PRICE RISES SEEN NEW YORK (MktNews) - U.S. businesses expect strong gains in sales, profits, employment and pricing power for the first quarter, according to Dun & Bradstreet's quarterly survey of 3,000 business executives. "According to U.S. business executives, the economy will continue on a solid growth path rather than take a breather in the first quarter of the new millennium," said D&B. "Businesses expect continuing strong domestic consumer demand, combined with increased opportunities to sell their goods and services abroad. Fifty percent of all exporting survey respondents report they expect to increase their export volume in the first quarter of 2000." "The strong economy is, however, also raising concerns about inflationary pressures. In the D&B survey, 43% of respondents -- up from 33% last quarter -- expect to increase prices in the first quarter. The economy appears to be approaching a situation where further increases in production may push up prices more than we have observed in the past year." "Labor markets may tighten further -- 43% of U.S executives plan to add jobs next quarter. Employers are going to have to increase wages to attract new workers. While good news for the work force, this is bound to ultimately put even more pressure on prices if it can not be fully compensated by production productivity increases." By industry, all sectors showed a distinctly more optimistic outlook for the first quarter of the new millennium compared to last quarter. The retail, service, and wholesale sectors' optimism increased for sales, profits, prices, and employment. The Inventories Index decreased for the retail and services industry, which is a positive indication and not unexpected after the holiday season and Y2K, D&B said. But the Inventories Index increased for the wholesale and manufacturing industries. The manufacturing sector also had an improved outlook over last quarter for most indexes, but overall was weaker than the other sectors. The Sales and Prices Indexes increased in the sector, but the Profits Index only held steady. The new orders and export outlook also improved for manufacturers. U.S. Optimism Makes Significant Headway for Second Consecutive Quarter The overall optimism indexes, which cover all firms in the survey, posted healthy gains from the previous quarter. The Profits Index for all firms added five points in the first-quarter survey, rising to 54, while the overall Sales Index posted a more modest quarterly gain, rising only three points to 62. The Prices Index for all firms increased ten points to 37, which is also ten points above the year-ago level, suggesting that the outlook for stronger profits in the first quarter may be driven by increasing price expectations, rather than increasing sales. The Exports Index, which surged 19 points in the last quarterly survey, jumped another nine points to 40. The Employment Index for all firms rose four points, to 35, in the first-quarter survey and the Inventories Index also rose four points, to 23, which is considered a negative indication. All six indexes covering all firms surveyed were up notably from the year-ago period as well. The Sales and Profits Indexes were both 16 points higher than where they stood a year ago. The Inventories Index was up 8 points from the first-quarter 1999, the Prices Index was up 10 points, the Employment Index was up 15 points and the Exports Index was up 21 points.

To: Les H who wrote (36222)	12/29/1999 7:32:00 PM
From: Benkea	Respond to of 99985

Les, 6.5 mil insider shares were released from lock up today. The insiders know that POS wasn't worth anywhere near $18 bil.