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Strategies & Market Trends : Group Therapy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. Graphs who wrote (3592)	10/16/2001 12:17:46 PM
From: E. Graphs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4564

Moody's Sees 284 Defaults in Next Year NEW YORK (Reuters) - About 284 U.S. and Canadian companies will miss payments on loans, bonds and other debt between now and the start of 2002, a leading credit rating agency said, as the countries' economies worsen. ``Default risk is continuing to rise as firms remain pressured by high indebtedness, poor earnings prospects and volatile equity markets,'' wrote David Hamilton, Moody's head of default research. ``The improvements we were expecting to occur later this year and early next may be delayed by an exacerbated economic slowdown.'' Moody's said the average chance of a debt default by a North American company rose to 4 percent last month from 2.9 percent a year earlier. That's down from a record high of 7.9 percent in March, but above the 3.9 percent peak during the last U.S. recession, in December 1990. The 4 percent figure covers ``junk,'' or speculative-grade, companies, as well as companies with investment-grade ratings, which rarely default. Moody's has said the global junk bond default rate, now about 9 percent, should reach 11 percent by the middle of next year. Moody's issued its new default report after earlier noting a marked deterioration in U.S. corporate credit quality since the Sept. 11 air attacks on the United States. Since that date, Moody's has downgraded 32 U.S. ``junk'' rated companies and upgraded just three, and downgraded 22 U.S. investment-grade companies, and upgraded only eight. Corporate credit quality has sunk for 14 straight quarters, five fewer than the record of 19 quarters set between 1988 and 1993. Among weaker companies, which generally carry ``junk'' ratings, Moody's said the chance of default in the next year is highest for communications companies, at 13.3 percent, followed by high-tech companies, retailers and manufacturing companies. The risk is lowest, in descending order, it said, for the utility, mining and food products sectors. Moody's North American Credit Quality Index tracks more than 7,000 non-financial companies with outstanding equity shares in the United States and Canada. dailynews.yahoo.com (from GPM)

To: E. Graphs who wrote (3592)	11/10/2001 4:05:07 PM
From: E. Graphs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4564

Investors have been pulling their money out. >>In September, they pulled a record $29.51 billion from U.S. stock mutual funds, eclipsing the old high of $20.67 billion in March. A net $35.6 billion flew out of stock funds in the third quarter, according to the Investment Company Institute, a mutual fund trade group.... The survey's findings are significant because they fit with the view of one of the sharpest market strategists that the curtain may be going down on the ``Greatest Financial Story Ever Told.''...<< biz.yahoo.com