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To: Boplicity who wrote (5391)	1/8/2002 5:44:41 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 13815

Motorola layoffs hit executives January 08, 2002 Crain's Chicago Business by Ellen Almer In a move to reduce what many analysts call a bloated executive suite, Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. confirmed Tuesday it will cut 20% of its top 600 executives across the board as part of a previously announced layoff. The cuts come amid the electronic giant's much-publicized struggles to compete in its cellular phone and semiconductor divisions, and just after the company posted its first annual loss since the Great Depression. Since it began faltering about 18 months ago, Motorola has cut about 48,000 workers, but this represents the first cut of executives. Analysts, calling the company top-heavy, had predicted the executive cuts for some time. They said cutting top managers would be at least a symbolic gesture to the company's rank-and-file workers (ChicagoBusiness.com, Dec. 19). A company spokeswoman on Tuesday said executives losing their jobs—those with the title of vice-president or higher—are now being identified and will be laid off by the end of March; the cuts are part of the 9,400-employee layoff announced last month. On Monday, the company said 700 to 800 workers at a Hong Kong semiconductor-chip making plant were also being cut as part of its previously announced layoff plans. When Motorola announced the cuts in December, it said it could save $865 million. However, financial information on the company's Web site at the time showed that it needs to eliminate up to $1.36 billion in costs next year in order to meet a profit target of 15 cents per share (Crain's, Dec. 24, 2001). How Motorola intends to trim the extra costs is unclear, as officials have not yet outlined their strategy. But, given the company's forecast of a 5%-to-10% drop in revenue next year and its history of having higher-than-industry-average manufacturing costs, analysts say Motorola will have little choice but to lay off more workers to achieve at least part of the costs savings.

To: Boplicity who wrote (5391)	1/8/2002 11:37:02 PM
From: Bandit19	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13815

Greg, Well, so far so good... From John Murphy 1/8/02 JANUARY EARLY WARNING SIGNAL IS POSITIVE... Market direction over the first five trading days of a new year constitute an "early warning" version of the January Barometer -- which is based on the idea that market direction at the start of the year helps to determine market direction for the entire year. The first five days for this year have been up for all the major averages. According to the Stock Traders Almanac, since 1950 early January gains were followed by yearly gains in all but four years. Three of those exceptions were war-related years -- 1966, 1973, and 1990. Nineteen Januarys that got off to bad starts resulted in nine down years. That means that positive readings have been more reliable than negative readings, which is a good sign for this year. One caveat, however, is that this year qualifies as a "war year" when the positive signals have been less reliable. The three charts below show the gains in each average over the last five days. The S&P 500 (which is the index the signals are based on) gained 12.41 points (+1%); the Dow Industrials gained 122.38 points (+1.2%); the Nasdaq Composite gained 105.31 points (+5.4%). We caution, however, that the first five days aren't as reliable a signal as the results for the entire month of January. But it is encouraging.