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To: XBrit who wrote (14231)	10/8/2002 12:26:11 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Wachovia Cuts View Of Tech Service Stocks, Cites Weak Spending Tuesday October 8, 10:50 am ET NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Technology spending continues to deteriorate, and may not rebound until 2004, Wachovia Securities said Tuesday. The gloomy outlook led Wachovia analyst Edward Caso to downgrade two computer services stocks, Accenture Ltd. (NYSE:ACN - News) and BearingPoint Inc. (NYSE:BE - News) . He also reduced his estimates of earnings and revenue for these companies, as well as AnswerThink Inc. (NasdaqNM:ANSR - News) , DiamondCluster International Inc. (NasdaqNM:DTPI - News) and Keane Inc. (AMEX:KEA - News) . Caso said there are signs that information-technology spending has "slipped further in the U.S., while taking a turn for the worse in Europe," particularly in Germany and the Benelux countries. Even as IT services firms trim their work forces, industry capacity remains relatively high, Caso said. This has caused some firms to offer price discounts, which hurts industry revenue. Caso downgraded ratings for both Accenture and BearingPoint to hold from buy. "We feel it is now appropriate to have no buy rated names for commercial-focused IT consultants ..." Caso wrote. He remains upbeat about the long-term prospects for companies like Accenture and BearingPoint, the latter of which recently changed its name from KPMG Consulting. Wachovia has had, or expects to have in the future, investment-banking relationships with Accenture, BearingPoint, AnswerThink, DiamondCluster and Keane. It couldn't immediately be determined whether Caso has a position in these stocks. In morning trading, Accenture shares rose 46 cents to $12.82; BearingPoint fell 10 cents to $5.84; AnswerThink rose 2 cents to $1.95; DiamondCluster was up 4 cents at $3.05; and Keane rose 19 cents to $5.83. -Peter Loftus, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5267; peter.loftus@dowjones.com