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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Voltaire who wrote (18240)	11/20/2000 7:20:03 PM
From: BRANDYBGOOD	Respond to of 65232

Thank you mam!

To: Voltaire who wrote (18240)	11/20/2000 7:24:00 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

US stock index futures slump, bruised by downgrades CHICAGO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures got the wind knocked out of them Monday, with December Nasdaq 100 index, Standard & Poor's 500 index and Dow Jones industrial average futures all ending sharply lower. All three stock index futures contracts hit their lowest levels in a week after failing to recover from a slew of downgrades in the technology sector that sent investors scrambling during the opening hour of trade. December Nasdaq 100s slumped to a session low of 2,790.00, getting dangerously close to the contract low of 2,755.00 in the wake of news that Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was trimming its price target on Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO). The firm also cut its ratings on fellow networking equipment makers Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Redback Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: RBAK). In addition, Lehman Bros. analyst Holly Becker lowered her rating on shares of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Monday morning. Shares in software giant Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) also slumped Monday morning after a top executive left the company. "The networking downgrades really kind of tanked psychology at the open," said Terence Gabriel, equity strategist at IDEAglobal. "We tried to rally when the (election) arguments in the court in Florida started, but things quickly evaporated toward the close." With little else to trade on, brokers at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said participants remained glued to the screens Monday afternoon, waiting for any fresh news on the U.S. presidential election as Florida's highest court heard arguments from each side over the state's recount of votes. "They're just trading on tales of the election," one broker said in the final hour of trade. Floor technicians said the S&P contract was at a critical point from which it could rescue itself or do significant technical damage. December S&Ps hit a session low of 1,345.00. "If the market takes out 1,335.00 to 1,325.00, there's a lot of pretty big trendlines coming in. If they take those trendlines out, 1,250.00 is on its way," the broker said. Traders said the light volume during holiday weeks usually helps stock index futures head higher, but some players could use the wariness surrounding the presidential election as a chance to push contracts lower before Thanksgiving. "Traditionally, this is a buy time," the broker said. "The uncertainty is letting people get away with a lot of stuff that normally wouldn't happen, and they're disguising it under the guise that it's the election." Gabriel pegged support in December S&Ps at 1,339.50 and 1,324.80. Support in Nasdaq 100s lies at the contract low of 2,755.00, he said. "The market's ripe for some kind of bounce here, but my view is that rallies are likely to fade. The prevailing trend is still down," Gabriel said, noting the S&P and Nasdaq contracts' oversold conditions. "Trade might get slower toward the end of the week." At settlement, December S&Ps were 23.00 points lower at 1,365.50, Dow futures dropped 153 points to 10,505, Nasdaq 100s sank 122.50 to 2,817.00, Russell 2000s fell 12.25 to 471.50, Midcap 400s were off 12.50 at 494.00 and Nikkeis dipped 140.0 to 14,440.0.

To: Voltaire who wrote (18240)	11/20/2000 7:42:04 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

V: What are your thoughts on this post?.... Message 14851871 <<The Entire Investment Industry Should Be Found Guilty of Fraud They created an incredible number of equities that were worthless. They represented that they were valuable. They sold the their own shares and those of key insiders at the "companies" to the public at extremely high prices. After they sold these shares they told the public they were worth less than they originally thought. When the public went to sell the shares they found that they were practically worthless. This must rank as one of the largest frauds even committed. Will anyone be found guilty of this crime. Doubtful. And if people are, they will probably be scapegoats, and not the individuals who enriched themselves with 100's of billions of dollars of the American people.>> MWD Execs Charged with Fraud.... biz.yahoo.com Monday November 20, 4:48 pm Eastern Time NASD charges Dean Witter, 2 execs with fraud <<WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. and two executives who worked for the investment firm in the 1990s were charged by authorities on Monday with misrepresenting the risk levels of certain bond funds, leading investors to lose about $65 million. The charges against the firm, which merged to create Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE:MWD - news) in 1997, were filed by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). The NASD alleges that the firm and executives John Kemp and Lawrence Solari are guilty of securities fraud related to their marketing and sale of bond funds, known as Term Trusts, in the early 1990s. Dean Witter pulled in more than $119 million in underwriting fees and about $7 million annually in management fees from the bond funds, the complaint alleges. Kemp, who served as president of Dean Witter Distributors and director of sales for Dean Witter InterCapital, was charged with approving presentations for the Term Trusts which inaccurately portrayed the investments as low-risk. Solari was the regional director of Dean Witter's Northeast region, which contained about 1,000 salespeople. He was charged with sending interoffice correspondence to branch managers encouraging the sale of the funds through inaccurate sales presentations. The marketing campaign for the funds inaccurately portrayed them as safe, low-risk investments, the NASD said. Dean Witter and its brokers did not disclose information about the risky borrowing strategy of the funds and their dependence on low interest rates to achieve their projected returns, the complaint alleges. The funds were sold between October 1992 and September 1993 in three offerings to over 100,000 accounts. The Term Trusts lost more than 30 percent of their net asset value in 1994 when interest rates rose, a drop of more than $500 million. About 30,000 investors who sold out of the funds lost some $65 million, the NASD said. ``Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is disappointed that the NASD...has decided to pursue this action,'' said a Morgan Stanley spokesman, calling the charges ``unfounded.'' He noted that a class action brought against the firm regarding Term Trusts was dismissed by a U.S. District Court. ``The funds have performed consistently with their stated objective,'' he added. The NASD said more than $500 million of the funds were sold to investors who were over 70 years old. Possible penalties arising from the charges include fines, payment of restitution, suspension or even expulsion from the NASD, it said. >>

To: Voltaire who wrote (18240)	11/20/2000 10:35:56 PM
From: lindelgs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

We are Borg, er, Rambus (picked up from Yahoo thread) By: Andrew Thomas Posted: 20/11/2000 at 11:24 GMT How to win friends and influence people is patently (sic) a book one is unlikely to find on the shelves of Rambus Inc. Not content with threatening every memory maker on the planet with the wrath of its monstro legal department, the outfit is now warning chipset makers that they're next. Once Rambus has assimilated the last remaining memory makers resisting its campaign to collect royalties on SDRAM and DDR memory, its drones will turn their attention to chipset makers, including occasional best pal Intel. The Rambus collective now wants everyone to pay royalties on any device that interfaces with an SDRAM, DDR or direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) chip. Avo Kanadjian, vice president of worldwide marketing at Rambus, expounded on the latest plans for world domination at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas last week. "We still have to license other controller manufacturers," he told Electronic News. "We are hoping that over time our category of licensees will grow bigger. All controller manufacturers also need to be licensed." Rambus is currently exchanging phaser blasts with Micron, Hyundai Electronics and Infineon, who don't want to pay royalties on SDRAM and DDR. Rambus is accused of keeping its patents on SDRAM secret whilst attending meetings intended to establish an open industry standard. Samsung and Elpida gave up the struggle recently and were assimilated. Rambus' voracious appetite for royalties could extend to ASICS, programmable logic and graphics chips, observed Jim Handy, chief analyst at Dataquest. "If Rambus' patents hold, then they are going to have a reason to collect royalties not only from anybody who manufactures SDRAM, DDR or RDRAM, but also anybody who makes a controller or ASIC that talks to one of those chips," Handy said. "That's a pretty big part of the semiconductor market. There are an awful lot of people that need to look at what Rambus has got and what they want to do about it. Rambus has warned everybody that everybody is within their reach." But Bert McComas, principal analyst at InQuest Market Research, warns that Rambus could stumble in its haste to sue the butts off world+dog: "The more lawsuits they take on, the higher the probability that somebody will fight it successfully," McComas said. "They are looking at every conceivable context for a lawsuit. In doing so they are going to test every conceivable argument, and if four or five arguments are lined up, it's highly possible that they will lose one." "I think that a lot of comments we have read in the press recently may have got 'Rambus' and 'RDRAM' mixed up," whinged Kanadjian. "Some people are using them interchangeably." Remember: RDRAM is a type of memory, Rambus Inc is just a bunch of lawyers - got that? ® More legal craziness Rambus dropped Hyundai case to avoid tough judge Intel slams Rambus toll collecting tactics There is no 'F' in Rambus Rambus piles pressure on Infineon Rambus asks feds to stop Hyundai Rambus takes aim at AMD and Transmeta Rambus, Intel, Dramurai reach end game Naughty Dramurai back DDR to hilt Rambus threatens non-compliant Dramurai theregister.co.uk