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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (56773)	12/1/2001 10:13:10 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Wall St wraps up tough year, with hopes for 2002 Reuters, 11.30.01, 9:52 AM ET forbes.com By Brian Kelleher NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four of Wall Street's biggest firms wrapped up a tough fiscal year marked by declining profits and thousands of layoffs, and while analysts expect things to improve in 2002, there is no catalyst in sight. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , Morgan Stanley , Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. have struggled to cope with a U.S. recession, which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research started in March. The slumping economic conditions -- combined with the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks -- have cut into Wall Street's traditional cash cows of merger advisory and stock underwriting services. Ailing stock markets have kept investors on the sidelines, cutting into brokerage commissions. "Business has been slow," Mark Sutton, who runs UBS PaineWebber's broker force, said at an industry conference earlier this month. "We're looking at our cost structure." The fiscal fourth quarter for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Lehman and Bear Stearns came to a close this week. Yearly earnings are expected to drop as much as 35 percent from a year ago, according to market research firm Thomson Financial/First Call. "As 2001 comes to a close, it will undoubtedly be a year most investment banks would like to forget," analyst Michael Freudenstein said in a research note this week. Analysts expect a rebound in 2002, but market-watchers stress the outlook is murky. "A primary risk is that the industry is headed for a post-bubble period of sluggishness similar to the fourth quarter 1987 to first quarter 1991 period," said Dave Trone, an analyst at Prudential Securities. "Late-2002 is perhaps the earliest we could see a meaningful pickup in activities."