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Pastimes : The Justa & Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (14393)	6/12/2000 7:07:00 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15132

Justa, all of my "old economy" investments are still intact. I have taken care to drastically pare down my tech stocks and mutual funds. I didn't act on Brinker's signal. Instead, I gradually sold into the rise during February and March, as well as during April and May. As a result, I am now sitting on a decent pile of cash. I'm still not at 60% cash though. I think the coming months will see tremendous declines in all those overvalued tech stocks that everybody is in love with right now. The fall-out may or may not affect even the undervalued old economy stocks. I'm not sure about that. But I'm fairly sure that they will recover from any onslaught. That is why I stay invested. I am still of the opinion that it is almost impossible to time the markets but Brinker has been astonishing me all this year.

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (14393)	6/12/2000 7:33:00 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Respond to of 15132

Refiners wash hands of 'unfair' Midwest gasoline prices NEW YORK (Reuters) - Under fire from environmental regulators and consumers alike, U.S. oil refiners on Monday refused to take the blame for soaring prices of clean-burning gasoline in the U.S. Midwest. Oil firms rejected Monday's claim from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the record-high prices they are charging U.S. motorists, especially in Illinois and Wisconsin are ``unfair and inappropriate.'' ``We told them (EPA) very clearly that prices would be higher,'' said the American Petroleum Institute's (API) President Red Cavaney told Reuters on the sidelines of oil conference in Calgary. Refiners have said the new anti-smog reformulated gasoline (RFG) which the EPA mandated be sold at roughly a third of the nation's pumps by June 1, is more difficult to produce than conventional blends and cannot be produced in the same amounts, causing supply shortages and high prices. The EPA met Monday with refiners that supply the Midwest to demand an explanation for why prices in the region are so high. ``We think the prices that are being charged are unfair and inappropriate,'' said Robert Perciasepe, an assistant EPA administrator. ``Our analysis shows adequate supplies and the cost of producing fuel isn't anywhere the the prices we're seeing at the pump.'' ``Our companies have nothing to gain from (unfair pricing),'' said API spokesman Juan Palomo. ``Our companies are doing the best they can to get the gasoline out to consumers, despite all the regulations that make it so difficult.'' Retail prices for gasoline have broken $2 a gallon in a number of Midwest cities where the anti-smog gasoline is required, roughly 40 cents higher than the national price for gasoline. The Midwest region has been further blighted by a series of pipeline disruptions since late winter, which have reportedly put suppliers behind on their inventories. Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee gasoline marketers asked for waivers from the EPA that would have allowed them an extension on the June 1 RFG deadline, but only St. Louis was granted one. Among the refining companies asked to , Phillips Petroleum , Tosco Corp. , Marathon Ashland Petroleum , Citgo and Koch Petroleum. Exxon Mobil declined comment on the EPA's statement, while Phillips said they didn't attend the meeting. Tosco said Monday that it couldn't be responsible for unfair pricing as all of the gasoline it produces at its Illinois refinery is sold directly to the Equiva Trading Company, a downstream venture owned by affiliates of Royal Dutch/Shell Texaco and Saudi Aramco. ``We're completely out of the market, so we have nothing to do with this,'' said a Tosco spokesman. Other refining companies were not immediately available for comment. 18:11 06-12