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To: Logain Ablar who wrote (40236)	9/17/2003 11:43:38 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69967

5:06PM "Bubble is back," TrimTabs warns by Jonathan Burton SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- A fivefold increase in margin debt at Nasdaq member firms prompted market data provider TrimTabs.com to warn Wednesday that "the bubble is back" in U.S. stocks. Margin debt rose to $26 billion at July 31 from $5.1 billion at Dec. 31 -- adding $19 billion in June and July alone. That figure represents 15 percent of the total outstanding, compared to 7.1 percent in March 2000. TrimTabs' warning follows regulatory agency NASD's investor alert Monday that trading "on margin" is up 25 percent year-to-date and many investors may underestimate the risks. The NASD alert suggests that Nasdaq members are being required to tighten margin rules after a period of relaxation, TrimTabs said. "When a loosening becomes a tightening, the affected stocks collapse. That is in part what happened in early 2000 when the Nasdaq tightened margin requirements on some of the more aggressive stocks." 1

To: Logain Ablar who wrote (40236)	9/26/2003 10:47:30 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69967

Investor's Business Daily Firsthand Fund Rebounds After Years Of Losing Ground Thursday September 25, 10:34 am ET By Ken Hoover The Firsthand Funds family of technology mutual funds run by Kevin Landis has given investors the roller coaster ride of their lives the past few years. His flagship Firsthand Technology Value Fund rose 190% in 1999, then lost 90% in the past three years' bear market, according to Morningstar Inc. Landis' other four tech funds provided a similar ride. ADVERTISEMENT Firsthand's assets rose from $1 billion in the late 1990s to $8 billion at the market top. Then assets dropped back to $1.2 billion. But tech stocks are on the mend, and Landis is back. The Technology Value fund is up 71% year to date. Despite the stomach-churning ups and downs, the fund has a five-year annualized return of 10.12%, about one percentage point better than the S&P 500. Landis recently spoke with IBD about tech stocks. IBD: You like to say you're trying to buy the stocks that people will want to own five years from now. What are some examples? Landis: There's a changing of the guard going on all the time in tech. What you want to do is get in front and not own the stale names, own the up-and-comers. One fairly obvious one is (video game maker) Electronic Arts. We have shied away from the game industry because it's so discretionary, it's almost capricious. But the amount of money spent on games just passed what's spent at the movie box office. It's a real business. The position Electronic Arts has carved out for itself is pretty darn commanding. And the stock's not that expensive. It doesn't have a Microsoft or Cisco type of valuation. IBD: You mention the box office. Electronics Arts is opening an office in Los Angeles so the company can be closer to the movie industry. Landis: That's part of a general convergence between computers, games and movies. Another stock that is also that kind of play is Pixar. When it comes to taking technology and adapting it to making movies, Pixar is miles ahead of anybody else. "Finding Nemo" is fairly obvious computer animation, but there are other examples that are a little more subtle. Take the last "Matrix" movie, where a lot of what you see is computer generated, not just actors delivering lines. In marketing, the blurry line between movies and games is something to watch. And movies that use computers in production, that's something to watch closely. IBD: You are heavily invested in storage companies such as SanDisk and Western Digital. What's going on with storage? Landis: The SanDisk play, that's part digital photography. These flash memory devices (made by SanDisk and others) enable you to have the equivalent of a hard drive in a flash disk. Have you seen these things? You can put them in your pocket and take your work home. They're the size of a key chain. That's a great market. It's replacing the floppy with flash memory. That's a big deal. Dell has already started selling computers without floppy drives. Of course, digital cameras are huge. The flash (memory chips) that will go into camera phones is huge. So you have three different markets, and SanDisk is the middle of all of them. By the way, cell phones are a 450 million unit market. It doesn't take too many phones equipped with MP3 or cameras (for flash) to be a big market. IBD: Speaking of cell phones, you're also heavily invested in telecom. Landis: The telecom sector isn't coming back as fast as some other areas of tech because the carriers still have issues to work through. But the handset business is coming back pretty quickly. We have a decent amount of investment in handset companies. IBD: Such as? Landis: Skyworks. They make RF (radio frequency) modules that fit into cell phones. Our thought is that the handset makers like Ericcson and Nokia may see some market share erosion. So they might not see the uptick as strongly as the component makers. Because of that, it's probably safer to play the components. IBD: One of the reasons given for the bear market in tech stocks is that businesses weren't spending on capital goods. What do you see? Landis: Everyone is moderating their tight-fisted stance and getting ready to spend more money again. Maybe they're not going out on a drunken binge, but at least they're trending in the right direction. IBD: What else are you excited about? Landis: A telecom equipment company that's mostly selling offshore into developing countries like China and India. It's called UTStarcom. When we first owned UTStarcom, nobody had heard of them. Now, they're getting some recognition. They sell a lot of wireless local technology into China. And they're just getting into India. IBD: Does the phenomenal growth potential in China play into your stock selection? Landis: Yes, certainly it does enter into it. I think Skyworks will sell a lot in China. Certainly UTStarcom will sell a lot in China.

To: Logain Ablar who wrote (40236)	9/29/2003 4:32:46 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Respond to of 69967

Jabil CC sept 19,2003 jabil.com

To: Logain Ablar who wrote (40236)	9/29/2003 10:48:09 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Respond to of 69967

Reuters Safeco to Cut Jobs, Exit Life Insurance Monday September 29, 7:44 pm ET By Philip Klein NEW YORK (Reuters) - Safeco Corp (NasdaqNM:SAFC - News) on Monday said it plans to sell its life insurance and investments business to focus on property and casualty coverage and that it would cut at least 500 jobs to reduce costs. ADVERTISEMENT The company also said that as a result of ballooning medical costs and an increase in lawsuits, it would have to boost its reserves covering workers compensation claims by $205 million, reducing its third-quarter results by 96 cents. Wall Street analysts had expected earnings of 73 cents for the period, according to Reuters Research. The job cuts, which will affect at least 4.5 percent of its 11,000 workers, would occur mostly in the Seattle area where it is based. While the sale of its life and investments business is likely to be viewed as a positive, investors will be dismayed at the size of the reserve addition, according to Banc of America Securities (News - Websites) analyst Brian Meredith. "People knew that the workers compensation charge was coming, but I think the magnitude was larger than people expected," Meredith said. "The life insurance announcement wasn't expected and I think it will be viewed favorably. Shares of Safeco were trading at $34.50 after hours on light volume, down from its Monday closing price of $34.74. The news was announced after the close of regular trading. The life business accounted for more than half of Safeco's after-tax earnings in 2002, according to a company spokesman. In addition to life insurance, the business offers annuities, mutual funds, and employee benefits. It had revenues of nearly $2 billion in 2002. "We might have been able to cruise along at this level, producing average results quarter after quarter," Safeco chairman and chief executive Mike McGavick said. "But we aspire to be much better than average." Most of the proceeds of the sale will go toward a special dividend, a stock repurchase plan, or a combination of the two, McGavick said. He said the company also will use a portion to reduce Safeco's debt. The company's remaining divisions would primarily focus on home, auto and small business insurance. The company said it targeted $75 million in cost cuts by the end of 2004 and said it expected a fourth-quarter restructuring charge as a result. Safeco also said it expects $15 million in pretax, customer losses from Hurricane Isabel, in line with what is typical for the third quarter. The announcement of its intention to sell its life and investments unit comes a day after Canadian insurer Manulife said it agreed to buy Boston-based John Hancock Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:JHF - News) for about $10 billion in stock, in a deal that would create the second largest life insurer in North America. Analysts have said that consolidation in the life insurance industry is inevitable because it will be necessary for companies to operate on a large scale to compete.