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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fedhead who wrote (10567)	2/19/2002 12:06:36 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

SSB's Levkovich turns bullish By Julie Rannazzisi CBS MarketWatch 11:18am 02/19/02 Tobias Levkovich, Salomon Smith Barney's chief U.S. equity institutional strategist, has turned bullish on stocks. In a note entitled "The stars are beginning to line up -- go long!" the strategist has unveiled a bullish stance on equities after almost three months of being generally neutral. He believes business trends are about to improve and support macroeconomic forecasts for recovery. Levkovich stressed that valuation won't be the trigger as earnings visibility is more critical. He notes that upward revisions have indeed turned much more positive. Levkovich noted that gains in the equity market have been restrained by a lack of confirmation on a company level of a turnaround in fundamentals. But he claims a turn will be "imminent" and "provide investors with the needed visibility for renewed equity appreciation potential." As production begins to climb, gains in manufacturing employment should ensue -- inciting a rebound in the stock market and keeping the consumer resilient. The Salomon strategist also told clients that widespread fears generated by the Enron scandal should taper off. He said a market retest of the September 2001 low isn't needed since it was triggered by the aberrational nature of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Levkovich maintains a year-end S&P 500 ($SPX: news, chart, profile) target of 1,300 to 1,350, which corresponds to a 15 to 20 percent upside from current levels. The strategist made numerous sector weight shifts: he raised his weighting on the industrials sector from a "market weight" to an "overweight;" his weight on information technology was upped from a "slight underweight" to a "market weight" on the wings of turning trends in the broad chip and chip equipment industries while remaining cautious on telecom equipment and Internet infrastructure stocks; and consumer staples were lowered from a "market weight" posture to a "slight underweight." He recognizes that risks arise from the potential of an energy shock given current tensions in the Middle East but feels that investors will be rewarded by buying now. "We contend that if someone handed us the ball at the line of scrimmage, we could tell our receivers to go long," the strategist concluded.

To: fedhead who wrote (10567)	2/19/2002 1:02:23 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57684

See I'm thinking the semi's have the same problem we have in software, some sectors rebounding and others not. Its amazing how many analysts I see on cnbc say "don't buy enterprise software"... they lump the whole mkt together and thats not the way things are working themselves out. Comm, maybe the whole business is awful but chips have some bright spots I think? L

To: fedhead who wrote (10567)	2/19/2002 7:26:17 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

18:42 ET Semi Equipment book/bill rises to 0.81 in January : The North American semiconductor book/bill ratio rose to 0.81 in January from 0.77 in December. Though an increase is better than a decrease, two factors argue against excessive optimism: some had expected a bigger increase (Salomon's estimate was 0.85-0.90), and the increase was due more to falling shipments than rising orders; orders only ticked up slightly and have been bouncing along the bottom since September.