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Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (40340)	11/11/2003 4:55:28 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71088

Appliances: Down the drain Even as Morgan Stanley's Shah saw the tide turning for the wireline networkers, Banc of America saw prospects dimming for appliance makers. A "slowing housing market, retail supply/demand imbalance, shipment deceleration, and fierce Asian competition do not bode well for secular growth rate of the appliance industry going forward," Banc of America analyst Nicole Parent told clients. She also noted that a likely move higher in interest rates is also a clear negative for appliance stocks as home sales are the primary drivers of appliance purchases. Against that backdrop, Parent downgraded shares of Whirlpool (WHR: news, chart, profile) to "sell" from "neutral" and sliced her price target on the stock to $62 from $71. "Our downgrade of Whirlpool could be a quarter early, but the dismal performance in Q3 prompted us to take a long, hard look at our investment thesis and valuation," said Parent. "We have concluded that Q3 was probably as good as it gets, particularly as the economy picks up and interest rates are likely to move higher." Looking at some of the other appliance makers, Parent left her rating on Maytag (MYG: news, chart, profile) at "neutral" and said appliances weren't a big enough part of General Electric's (GE: news, chart, profile) business "to move the needle." Whirlpool shares slumped 4 percent to $66.95 in recent dealings, while Maytag dipped 0.3 percent to $25.44. GE shares added 6 cents to $28.18. Susan Lerner is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com.