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Technology Stocks : Jabil Circuit (JBL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Asymmetric who wrote (6175)	2/21/2003 4:04:50 AM
From: Asymmetric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6317

Bears drive stocks below bonds By Philip Coggan in London / Financial Times Published: February 16 2003 The bear market in equities that began in 2000 has become so severe that investors would have been better off owning government bonds over the last 16 years. From the start of 1987, the JP Morgan global government bond index has returned 234.4 per cent compared with a 188.2 per cent return from the MSCI World equity index. This long-term outperformance of bonds over equities runs counter to financial theory, which states that investors in shares should be rewarded for taking risk. It has also upset the calculations of pension funds and insurance companies, which have had heavy weightings in equities in the belief that shares would outperform. Their finances have sharply deteriorated, with many pension funds forced into deficit and some UK funds abandoning final salary schemes for new employees. The bear market, which has seen share prices fall since their peaks in 2000, has also diminished the enthusiasm of retail investors for equities. As popular capitalism grew in the 1990s, European investors were enticed into privatised stocks, such as France Telecom. UK investors were encouraged to buy shares through personal equity plans or individual savings accounts and US investors were drawn into buying stocks through 401(k) personal pension plans. Many of those investors will have lost money and will be rueing the day they moved into the stock market. The bear market has been the longest since the second world war, although it is not yet as severe as the 1973-74 downturn or the 1929-1932 Wall Street crash. Share prices have plunged in response to falling corporate profits, a slowing global economy and geopolitical tensions.