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Strategies & Market Trends : Sharck Soup -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frederick Langford who wrote (21263)	5/8/2001 12:38:08 PM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 37746

Short Sellers Build Interest In Stk Futures Edited by Thomas Granahan Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES (Call Us: 201 938-5299; All Times Eastern) MARKET TALK can be found using code N/DJMT 12:36 (Dow Jones) Short sellers built positions in stock futures after wholesales data. If market starts to trade sideways, shorts could run for cover causing a rally in afternoon, reason floor traders. "In this market you don't want to carry positions overnight," said one trader. Near term, S&Ps seen headed lower with support at 1250. (ZHS) 12:32 (Dow Jones) The market may not like Williams' (WMB) costly acquisition of Barrett Resources (BRR) but Prudential doesn't think it's so bad. "We think Wall Street's negative reaction to the deal appears overdone in the WMB shares. Buy WMB on recent weakness as we believe the ownership of gas reserves is a viable alternative to signing long-term 10-year gas supply contracts." The firm, though, does think the transaction will be slightly dilutive to 2001 and 2002 EPS. (GS) 12:21 (Dow Jones) Whoa! Slow down your overseas growth, McDonald's (MCD), urges Raymond James' restaurant analyst Damon Brundage in a lengthy report Tuesday. He contends that Big Mac's EPS growth goal of 10%-15% is unrealistic, as is the pace of its overseas new restaurant openings. "That the financial performance of McDonald's international business has deteriorated during the last five years is beyond dispute," Brundage writes. He also notes that McDonald's EPS target is more aggressive than Coke's (KO), which "does not seem right." (RLG) 12:11 (Dow Jones) It's time to take some more chips off the table in credit-card stocks, says analyst Kenneth Posner of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "We think the recent rally in the group, combined with deteriorating employment and accelerating bankruptcies, makes this a good time to exercise prudence," Posner says. Portfolio managers, he adds, should aim for market weight or slightly below. He feels relatively more comfortable with MBNA (KRB) and Household Intl (HI). (TAS) 11:57 (Dow Jones) GAO commits to doing follow-up report to its online trading study of last year, promising report by July 20. (JC) 11:47 (Dow Jones) Gruntal's Joe Battipaglia still bullish, and suggests investors take a close look at small caps. While he's not calling for a recession, he notes the group tends to outperform following rapid slowdown in the economy followed by a recovery. Also says forward P/E on Russell 2000 is 16 times earnings, vs. 20 times for Russell 1000. And, the median forecasted long-term growth rate in Russell 2000 earnings is greater than that of Russell 1000. (TG) 11:38 (Dow Jones) Another reasoned and reasonable view that says Fed can and will still cut another 50 BP - and maybe more after that - despite drop in 1Q productivity. UBS economist Maury Harris says Fed will see the productivity decline as cyclical rather than a deterioration of trend productivity growth. However, one has to at least assume further risk to productivity if people keep losing jobs at the rate they did last month. But Fed has bigger recession fears on its hands. (GC) 11:31 (Dow Jones) Genesis Microchip (GNSS) reported a narrower-than-expected loss of 15 cents a share for the 4Q and sweetened the pot by reporting it expects revenue to increase 10% sequentially every quarter through the calendar year. The company's CFO cited a boom in sales of flat panel monitors, for which Genesis supplies the image-processor chip. The shares rose over 20%. (SPJ) 11:23 (Dow Jones) Fast-growing businesses should ease up a bit in order to turn up profits, a study by the Kauffman Center For Entrepreneurial Leadership and Ernst & Young LLP. The study looked at 1,100 "entrepreneurial" firms across nine industries and 17 countries and concluded growing market share isn't enough to prevent extinction. Makes sense. Luckily, with what tech and other firms have been saying about 2H, shouldn't be too tough for a lot of companies to ease up on growth. (GC) 11:17 (Dow Jones) Only on Wall Street does garbage have such appeal. Investors continue to bid up shares of Waste Management (WMI) ahead of the solid-waste concern's 1Q earnings report, which is due Wednesday morning. Analysts aren't expecting a great report, but solid numbers would show the waste giant continues to put a lot of distance between itself and a troubled past. Other waste stocks, such as Allied Waste Industries (AW), are joining the rally. (CCW) 11:12 (Dow Jones) Jim Moore of Deutsche Banc says he's concerned about Oracle's (ORCL) ability to meet his 4Q estimates of $3.4B in sales and EPS of 14 cents. With three weeks left in the quarter, there are pockets of weakness in its business, he says, and Oracle may have to take a charge to write off receivables from dot-coms and startups. Although a 4Q shortfall is baked into the stock, a big miss or further lowering of estimates could pressure stock, Moore notes. Oracle shares little changed at $16.85. (MLP) 11:05 (Dow Jones) More on that Carter-Wallace (CAR) transaction. Pretty much everything you need to know about this one in the share price, which has actually dropped since the deal was announced before the opening bell. The disposal of the company valued its per-share below Monday's close, and now the stock is down nearly 13% from that level. One wonders if Mario Gabelli, who controls around 23% of CAR through his Gabelli Asset Management (GBL), will have something to say. Gabelli has been a very vocal opponent of a two-part transaction that he says undervalues Carter-Wallace. (GC) 10:54 (Dow Jones) Amazon.com's (AMZN) customer loyalty is the latest concern for Prudential analyst Mark Rowen, who is reiterating his sell rating on the Seattle e-tailer's stock. Rowen says, "What management understandably leaves out of its press releases is that (Amazon) is losing customers almost as fast as it adds them." Amazon said it added 3M new customers in the 1Q, but Rowen estimates the company lost 2.3M active customers during the same period. The analyst also estimates that out of the 15.9M active customers Amazon had in the 1Q of 2000, a "whopping" 50% have not returned to make a purchase since. (RS)