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To: Ron McKinnon who wrote (52321)	10/29/2004 1:05:47 PM
From: Ron McKinnon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53068

Bill Miller -- still an optimist on stocks 10/29/04 12:53 PM ET Bill Miller's 13-year streak beating the S&P 500 is coming down to the wire this year. At the end of the third quarter, the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX) was down 2.7%, trailing the S&P 500 return by over 4%. As of the close yesterday, Miller had closed the performance gap to under 2%. His 2 million share position in Google (GOOG) is surely helping. It's up 53% this month. The fund's September commentary is out today and Miller sounds like he's sticking with the horses that got him this far. Among the stocks he owned that have hurt performance the most, including Amazon (AMZN) and IAC/Interactive (IACI), he's still bullish. About 6% of the $10 billion fund was in Amazon and almost 5% in IAC at the end of September. "We continue to see strong secular growth prospects for both companies and believe the expectations embedded in their current stock prices are overly cautious," the commentary notes. On the overall market, the commentary observes that the average fourth quarter gain in the S&P 500 over the past 20 years is 5.29% and 9.95% for the past six years. That implies a year-end gain of between 6.9% and 11.6%. "We think the latter makes more sense, but of course we can promise neither." Positive factors include the 15% expected gains in corporate profits for Q4, the market's rally off its August 12 bottom and the lessening damage wrought by higher oil prices.