SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Voltaire who wrote (35369)4/5/2001 9:15:11 PM
From: Dealer  Respond to of 65232
 
To:H G Eichorst who wrote (559)
From: Crystal ball Monday, Apr 2, 2001 2:19 PM
Respond to of 561

Markets don't bottom, individual stocks bottom. A Tradeable Rally is a fallacy, it means that people on margin or indexed funds control a particular set of stocks, to the extent that they and buyers can be lured in, and then short sellers can continuously again and again force a sell off of the rally, the so called selling into strength. When you analyze the standard long term buyer, they do not trade, they invest, and they invest for the long term. The long term investor can only be made to panic and sell if enough stocks, that is "the whole market" as it is loosely defined, is down significantly, or if their own particular stock having been up or stayed even then drops radically back to break even and appears, that is, gives the appearance that it is in free fall, such as occurs after well orchestrated (imho) sequential downgrades by separate analysts, what I call the PENGUIN ANALysts. Otherwise only margined traders can be forced to sell, but they can only be force to sell up to a point, the so called bottoms. Then they are out, and gone. Below that all that remains are the long term buyers, who do not sell, that is support or support levels. Short sellers try to break those support levels with scare tactics. It is easy when the company has no earnings and thus no P/E, or like the dot com dot bombs no real profitable business model or MBA management to start with. Well run Companies with earnings are harder to break down. Occasionally you get poor management, those run by sales forces, or bean counters (financial CFOs that become CEOs) or the engineers/nerds/founders who lack proper corporate management training in dealing with the press and analysts, and make poor forward looking statements that disrespect the company's future prospects. They have not learned to leave expert work to the experts, to the CEOs who have been trained in six sigma type GE Jack Welch MBA rich corporate career tracks with lots of corporate experience under their belts (and resume') Well trained management accentuates the positive, Mother's golden rule: if you don't have something nice to say, do not say anything at all. Instead, poor managers talk improperly and out of the correct time frame. Timing is everything, and poor timing of announcements or execution of the business model, lead inevitably to poor performance on earnings, poorer corporate image, loss of talented workers, and the lack of the ability of the company to provide its goods and services in the future as a stable reliable trading partner in the eyes of its customers and consumers, and thus poorer earnings become a reality even in a good company with good products and business models, due to the wrong thing being said by poor managers. The companies that escape these problems, that have good earnings, good management, and good growing products and services, they bottom quickly and they become immune from sell offs sooner than other companies, they rally and continue to rise. They break out to the upside. They suceed. Markets do not bottom, individual stocks bottom, some stay at the bottom in a trading range, but the good companies break out of the trading range. Now you know why. In an improving economy most companies can break out of the trading range, since earnings improve even with fools running the place. We are living in a world that needs goods and services, we live in a world of shortages. In the Short Term there may be inventory gluts and back orders and delayed purchasing, but long term we live in a hungry world. More so for high technology companies with higher technology and constantly innovating products. Hot products sell fast. What should and will the future look like? That is where the smart money will be. I can tell you, as I have in the past, that the world will not long tolerate the military and political infiltration of communist chinese slave labor at 12 cents per hour and the cheaper slave goods they can deliver whether or not it creates higher earnings in the very very short term. In the long term, slave labor goods are not sustainable. Slaves do not buy products. Slaves do not trade. Slaves do not invent, although they may dream. There is no added value with slavery. Free men and women earning decent wages and salaries are more productive and can trade among themselves more freely, more often, creating more wealth. That is why all these companies that traded with the enemy, Communist China, such as QCOM and FDX and the like, are in for a big surprise. Absent an international minimum wage, totally free trade with communist slave labor and other like countries is a poor business model or investment model and is doomed to failure. Remember the investment changes in Apartheid nations, it failed too. Cuba's economy is in shambles also, sugar at Russian prices is not attractive, and Cuba will either move away from Communism or pay the price for slavery, with continued embargoes, whether politically mandated or ultimately imposed by the free markets they covet and despise at the same time. A Free Market requires Free People. The taking of the US EP3 electronic surveillance plane this weekend is just the beginning of the long overdue chinese cold war. Trading with Japan, and Europe on the other hand or India, is where the technology, talent, and truly value added free trade is and will be. That is where the smart money will be also. That is why companies like PALM and NTAP that I currently own and even the down beaten: CSCO, COMS, AMD. INTC, SUNW, NT, DELL, IBM, ORCL etc that I used to own will also do well. They trade where the money is, and the money is where democracy and decentralization thrives. The US Economy will recover, is in recovery and will thrive without centralized control of monetary policy, as democratic and decentralized fiscal and market control forces take its place. Moscow Center failed, and so will Peking (Beijing) Centre fail.
Money goes where it is well treated and well respected. Alan Greenspan and the Asian Corrupt Bankers have disrespected the US Dollar for well over 18 months now. The Chinese Communist Cold War will straighten things out as I predicted over 18 months ago.
I am,
Truly your$,
-Crystal Ball



To: Voltaire who wrote (35369)4/5/2001 11:18:05 PM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 65232
 
V: DELL is NOT Fooling Around =)....
___________________________________________________

Dell Pledges to Gain Market Share

Thursday April 5, 5:07 pm Eastern Time

By Nicole Volpe

<<NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) Chairman Michael Dell on Thursday said the No. 2 personal computer maker would keep the heat on in a price war, in a bid to grab more market share from rivals.

Dell, which recently overtook market leader Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) in the U.S. PC market, helped to spark a stock market rally when it reaffirmed earlier financial guidance for the current first quarter ahead of an analyst meeting here.

Michael Dell, who is also chief executive, said his outlook was sunnier than most of the gloomy projections tech investors have grown used to during a historic decline in the tech-heavy Nasdaq market over the past year.

``I wouldn't characterize it as ominously as some others have,'' he said in an interview. ``When we talk to our customers we see a continuing use for technology and plans for spending on our products.''

In addition, Dell executives said European and other non-U.S. businesses were performing as expected.

Dell shares closed up $3, or nearly 14 percent, at $25-3/16 on the Nasdaq.

While Dell said he would stay aggressive on pricing, he also told analysts he would not rule out other means, such as acquisitions, to gain even greater market share. But Dell, whose company has executed just one acquisition in its history, said he would only consider acquisitions that make sense.

ACQUIRING RIVALS ONE CUSTOMER AT A TIME

Asked about consolidation in the PC sector, the company founder said Dell had already been consolidating the market by offering low prices and stealing customers from its rivals.

``That continues to work very well and we'll continue to do that,'' Dell said, adding, ``We wouldn't rule out the possibility of partnerships or other more significant alliances with other companies.''

Dell added, however, that his rival PC makers' higher operating costs gave him pause regarding any takeovers. Certain assets, such as competitors' factories, might be interesting, he said, but only if it would cost less to buy them than to build them.

``It would not be necessarily a wonderful thing for us to acquire these organizations because I am not sure there is a lot to be gained,'' Dell said.

Dell's lone acquisition, the 1999 purchase of storage systems maker ConvergeNet has been seen by analysts as a disappointment.

The Austin, Texas-based company's claim to fame is its ability to keep costs down by selling directly to customers, rather than through distributors or retail stores.

It especially benefits when the prices of components that make up computers, such as memory chips and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, fall as they have in recent months. Dell can buy those components at the latest, lowest price, and then sell the finished computer for less.

``There was a lot of discussion about how memory prices dropped very rapidly, and that maybe they are not dropping now,'' said Dell. ``Well now LCD (liquid crystal display) pricing is now dropping so it moves around from component to component.''

EXPANSION INTO HIGHER MARGIN MARKETS

Jim Vanderslice, president and chief operating officer, said that there were signs that inventories held by Dell's rivals that sell indirectly were rising, and that component prices would fall.

``We are expecting channel inventories to go up at our competitors, and that components prices will come down again,'' he said.

``We were projecting the industry had something like eight weeks of inventory prior to exiting the quarter,'' he added. ``We noticed that some components suppliers said that there was increased demand in the last month of the quarter. So we might expect channel inventories to climb.''

The company will continue its expansion into the higher margin markets for computer servers, which are the backbone for Web sites and other networks, as well as data storage systems, the company said.

Dell executives pointed to moves to sell servers with 4 and 8 processors, with a 32-processor machine available in about a month through a reseller agreement with Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS - news).

Dell said it was also dedicating more research and development resources to the enterprise, or business, market.

``They are asserting in no uncertain terms that they can attack the enterprise and infrastructure markets, and now they have some proof points,'' said SG Cowen analyst Richard Chu.

Dell's business in Europe, an area closely watched by investors fearful that it could succumb to the kind of slowdown in technology spending that has hit the U.S. market, is about as strong now as it was in the fourth quarter, Dell executives said.

Paul Bell, president of Dell's European business said the region's operating costs had been lowered as well. ``At this point, our cost structure is completely in parity with the U.S.'' Bell said.>>



To: Voltaire who wrote (35369)4/8/2001 12:11:47 AM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 65232
 
It's All About Earnings
_________________________________________________

Friday April 6, 8:53 pm Eastern Time
SmartMoney.com - Weekend Report
By Igor Greenwald

<<NO ONE REALLY knows what will happen next week, but here's one scenario that's probably not in the cards.

Monday: General Electric's (NYSE:GE - news) quarterly earnings report arrives early, sparing investors the usual suspense of knowing the week but not the date of the release. It makes ironclad projections of revenues for the rest of the year and retracts last week's prediction by Chairman Jack Welch that the economy won't rebound this year.

Tuesday: Motorola's (NYSE:MOT - news) earnings report does not show the company's first quarterly loss in more than 15 years but does lay to rest rumors of a liquidity problem that surfaced Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission drops its probe of the company's earlier attempt to avoid yet another earnings warning by hinting to selected analysts that they should lower their estimates.

Wednesday: Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO - news) pops again after reporting surprisingly strong Internet advertising revenues. Investors cheer as Chairman Tim Koogle rescinds plans to relinquish day-to-day control to a new chief executive.

Thursday: The Nasdaq is buoyed by cheerful financial forecasts from the likes of Biogen (NASDAQ:BGEN - news), Genentech (NYSE:DNA - news), Foundry Networks (NASDAQ:FDRY - news), Handspring (NASDAQ:HAND - news), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR - news) and Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS - news). Surprisingly strong retail sales lift the Dow.

Friday: Markets closed for Good Friday. Traders in their SoHo lofts toast Michael Dell for single-handedly ending this bear market by courageously sticking to an earnings forecast last lowered six weeks ago.

Only in a bear market could Dell's comments be credited with sparking a massive relief rally. Never mind that the company refuses to update forecasts beyond the quarter ending in April. ``The whole visibility issue is real for us,'' Dell Chief Operating Officer Kevin Rollins told CNBC on Thursday.

It's also real to some analysts unimpressed by the company's upbeat tone. ``Management's sticking to the latest guidance for 1Q, while more of a novelty in the tech sector right now, doesn't offset its reluctance to forecast the rest of the year,'' wrote James Poyner of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin on Friday.

And since this inability to peer into the near future is seen as the main reason why the markets aren't able to discount the current spate of bad news, it's probably too early to call this bottom. In fact, Brown Brothers Harriman Chief Equity Strategist Ronald Hill suggests the outlook for the reporting season getting underway next week is downright bleak. ``You're looking at probably the worst quarter for year-over-year comparisons, [and] you're likely at or near the nadir for economic growth, which is hitting revenues and earnings,'' he says.

According to Hill, something like two-thirds of S&P 500 companies are in ``negative revision trends,'' meaning analysts are busy slashing their earnings forecasts. But while that lowers the bar for this reporting period, Hill's research suggests more companies than ever may miss even these lowered targets, since analysts' forecasts tend to lag behind events.

And investors will be in no mood to forgive such misses until they know when the economy will get better. Hill's view of this earnings season: not enough Dells, entirely too many Sycamores (NASDAQ:SCMR - news). ``To make any sort of a bottom, the market must be able to rally on bad news, and we obviously are not there yet.''

A bad-news rally could take shape if more grim economic data raises the likelihood of quicker interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Friday's surprisingly weak jobs report didn't help the indexes, but perhaps poor retail numbers on Thursday or a weaker preliminary reading of the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index on Friday will do the trick. Calls for Fed action soared like a Greek chorus on Friday and will, if anything, build next week as the earnings and economic data trickle in.

Will the Fed listen? Will the market tank if it doesn't? That's a visibility issue.>>