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To: Chris McConnel who wrote (214)	12/4/2001 11:53:10 AM
From: Jon Khymn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 795

Interesting, we have a bearish guy at bullish Merrill Lynch ======= Tuesday December 4, 11:31 am Eastern Time New chief U.S. strategist at Merrill more bearish By Nick Olivari NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co.'s (NYSE:MER - news) new chief U.S. strategist, Richard Bernstein, is notably more bearish than his predecessor, Christine Callies, who held the post for just 18 months. ADVERTISEMENT Merrill announced that Callies had left the firm on Monday after taking up the post in June 2000. It was the same role she had performed at Credit Suisse First Boston. Bernstein, 43, the firm's quantitative strategist at Merrill's global securities research and economics group since 1988, will now perform a dual function. The change comes after the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^SPX - news) declined as much as 35 percent from it's record high and endured its first bear market since 1990. Bernstein is much more cautious on the outlook for stocks. His current asset allocation in a model portfolio is 60 percent stocks, 20 percent bonds and 20 percent in cash. Callies was still recommending investors hold 74 percent of their financial assets in stocks, 25 percent in bonds, and 1 percent in cash as late as last week. She also forecast the Standard & Poor's 500 index would close this year at 1,200, and close next year at 1,450. Bernstein does not yet have index targets, his office said. Bernstein will work closely with David Bowers, the firm's chief global investment strategist, according to a note sent by Robert McCann, head of Merrill's Global Securities Research and Economics Group. LATEST SHUFFLE Callies decision marks the latest move in a string of high-profile shuffles at the No. 1 U.S. full-service brokerage in the last two years. Bowers came to the United States from the firm's European operations in January last year to replace 12-year Merrill veteran Charles Clough, who retired. Clough was noted for advising clients to put more money into bonds and cash than stocks in a period when equities generally made impressive gains. Prior to joining Merrill, Callies had spent four years at CSFB, and had also served as senior market strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, SG Cowen and Company and Dean Witter Reynolds. She could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Bernstein was an investment strategist/quantitative analyst at E.F. Hutton and at Tucker Anthony, according to Merrill Lynch. He has been voted to the Institutional Investor All-America Research team for the past 10 years, and was a member of the ``First Team'' for the past six. Bernstein also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, and is on the committee that oversees the College's Endowment Fund. He holds an economics degree from Hamilton College, as well as, a masters in business administration in finance, with honors, from New York University. Merrill has cut thousands of jobs this year to cope with declining profits as it grapples with a U.S. recession. The company offered buyout packages to many of its employees, and some 2,600 employees, or 4 percent of staff, took Merrill up on the offer. biz.yahoo.com