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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (68793)	3/23/2001 11:54:49 AM
From: 200ma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

prudential did an upgrade this morning, i shorted a little if it goes to 30 good...what is the gripe?

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (68793)	3/23/2001 1:17:09 PM
From: Jim Spitz	Respond to of 122087

Here's one of the stories I posted on WSS this morning. Internet stock fraud hits close to home. First Minnesota Internet stock fraud charges filed David Phelps Star Tribune Friday, March 23, 2001 Charges of Internet stock fraud were filed Thursday against an Elk River businessman and an Illinois Internet stock promoter as part of a $17 million securities fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors said Internet hype, including misleading financial information, pushed shares of Keystone Energy Services Inc., a California energy utility, from $5 to $12 in 1997, giving insider shareholders substantial profits. Named in the indictment, which adds new charges to a previous securities fraud indictment, are William Nordvik, 49, of Elk River, and Jeffrey Bruss, 34, of Batavia, Ill. This is the first Internet stock fraud charge filed by federal authorities in Minnesota, and among the first in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Investor losses in the case rose from $7 million to more than $17 million as a result of the new indictment, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Larsen. According to the indictment, Nordvik owned a company called New Environmental Technologies Inc., which he merged with Keystone in early 1997. Five others were previously indicted in the case, which includes allegations of hidden ownership and false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers. The new indictment contends that Bruss was brought into the picture to paint a flattering picture of Keystone on his Web site -- futuresuperstock.com -- in return for 800,000 shares of Keystone stock that were transferred to brokerage accounts in Canada and sold at a $6.9 million profit. Today Keystone is a corporation in name only. At the time of the alleged securities fraud, it sold low-cost electricity. The government contends that misleading financial information was used to pump up its value in investors' eyes. The SEC put Bruss out of business about a year later with a civil injunction that stopped him from posting "false and misleading" stock information. The charges against Nordvik and Bruss include securities fraud, money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud. David Phelps can be contacted at dphelps@startribune.com . © Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. Stay in the Black! jimS

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (68793)	3/23/2001 1:35:52 PM
From: SEAN007	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

Templeton Warns of Market 'Insanity' Christopher Ruddy Wednesday, March 21, 2001 NASSAU, Bahamas Sir John Templeton, one of the world's most respected investment advisers, says that the downfall in the stock market over the past year is bigger than the crash of 1929, and he doesn't expect a recovery anytime soon. In an interview last weekend with NewsMax.com, Templeton said the run-up in market was "the biggest financial insanity ever in any nation in history" and suggested that President Bush's tax cut may be a remedy for the downturn. Templeton is no ordinary stock picker. The founder of the Templeton Funds, at 88 he brings almost seven decades of experience to his investment philosophy. In the early 1990s the New York Times called him the "dean of international investing." Since he sold his mutual funds in 1992, Templeton has focused on philanthropy, the awarding each year of his Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, and his quest for learning more about spirituality. He continues to manage more than $800 million in his foundation endowments, and is still widely sought out for his keen market insights. Templeton recalls his uncanny forecasting through the years on PBSs "Wall Street Week" with Louis Rukeyser. "I was invited to appear on Louis Rukeysers program in 1982 when the Dow Jones was below 1,000. I said chances were good that within 10 years the Dow Jones might march above 3,000. "So then when that happened, he called me and said, 'What next?' "I said, 'Well now, in the next 10 years the Dow is going to rise above 6,000.' "Then when that happened, he called me back and said, 'What now?' "I said, 'Well, in the next 10 years the Dow is going to rise above 10,000.' Which it did. Then I stopped." Templeton said he is warning investors that the recent "technology bubble ... was far bigger than any previous bubble of any nation ever. Now is not the time to buy common stocks." In fact, Templeton says, he is encouraging those who will listen to stay out of the stock market almost completely and invest in long-term uncallable bonds. "I really remember 1929. It was fascinating. ... I like to keep it straight to arithmetic. How high were the prices [in 1929] in relation to earnings? The maximum was 29 times earnings. Now, in the recent bubble, the Nasdaq went up to 300 times earnings and is still over 100 times earnings, even now." Though he believes the market will eventually recover and the Dow may hit more than 1,000,000 by the end of this century it may take years. Using an old rule of thumb employed by professional investors, Templeton said bear markets often last half as long as the preceding bull market. He counts the bull market as having begun in 1982 and having ended last year an 18-year run and wonders out loud if we may be witnessing "maybe a nine-year bear market." Templeton is quick to say with a smile that he has "never been that smart" to predict the duration of a bear market. He believes the Bush tax cut could provide significant help to the economy and the market. "Cutting taxes is always magic to stimulate an economy," he said, adding that Bush's reduction is too small. "It should be more," he said. Templeton also likes Bush's idea to invest some Social Security funds in the stock market. Had the system begun with that idea, he suggests, the money in Social Security trust funds would be "enormous." He believes such a change would dramatically change the "human mentality about business." "If human beings thought their future had been dependent upon businesses, they would then vote in favor of business."