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To: Dealer who wrote (6576)	10/8/2000 6:15:57 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

Investors Expect No Bombshells, No Rally By Emma-Kate Symons NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are not expecting any more bombshells on Wall Street this week when corporate earnings season begins in earnest -- but they aren't predicting a rally either. ``The companies that will be reporting won't have anything negative to say but by the same token we're not expecting to have major positive surprises either,'' said Howard Kornblue, money manager with ING Pilgrim Inc., which has $12 billion in funds. ``The reports will be pretty much neutral but not enough to spark the market into an uptrend.'' Some of America's top high-tech companies are set to report quarterly earnings next week, including Internet media firm Yahoo Inc. (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news), wireless giant Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news), Web infrastructure provider Juniper Networks (NasdaqNM:JNPR - news) and computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE:AMD - news). Among old-line companies, car maker General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) and credit card company MBNA Corp. (NYSE:KRB - news) will release results. ``If we see the bad news is out and earnings are coming through in line with expectations, the market will start to feel better,'' said Michelle Clayman, chief investment officer with New Amsterdam Partners LLC, which oversees $1.1 billion. ''For the most part, companies who were going to drop bombs have already done so though it's not over until it's over.'' The stock market last week was shaken by another series of warnings on sales and profits. Lowered forecasts by computer makers Apple Computer Inc. (NasdaqNM:AAPL - news) and Dell Computes Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) sparked a sell-off that helped drive the Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) down to its lowest close since late May. And the consensus is that the markets are going to have a tough time bouncing back. The reason: Continued worries the U.S. Federal Reserve may yet again raise interest rates and soft corporate profits because of high energy prices and a weak European currency. U.S. jobless figures released on Friday unexpectedly showed the tightest job market in 30 years, prompting fears of a rise in inflation and a consequent rate hike. ``The market was expecting the Fed to lower rates (down the road) but that quickly got snapped out of the market,'' said Patrick Adams, president and portfolio manager at Choice Funds in Colorado. New economic data to be released this week include retail sales and the producer price index, both widely watched as important indicators of the state of consumer spending and inflation. Earnings Growth Slowing So far, 26 of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings have beaten the average analyst estimate, while seven matched. Two missed estimates, according to market research firm First Call/Thomson Financial. After earnings warnings from companies like Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX - news), Gillette Co. (NYSE:G - news) and Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), the average profit growth for the companies in the index is expected to be 15.9 percent. That's down from a forecast of 18.7 percent when the quarter ended June 30, First Call said. ``Earnings growth has been ratcheting down and that always makes people uneasy,'' New Amsterdam's Clayman said. That's why the market won't rally next week, she said, adding only lower oil prices could send it higher. Some market participants remain optimistic, at least for the longer term. ``We are kind of hitting a climactic low, the earnings coming out next week are going to look pretty strong and so I think we are due for a short bounce back,'' said Patrick Adams, portfolio manager at Choice Funds. ``As we go through the next couple of months, the consensus will build again that the Fed needs to at some point next year lower rates; they are really tight.''