To: ajtj99 who wrote (9661 ) 7/14/2008 4:51:20 PM From: John Pitera Read Replies (1) | Respond to Avoid Financials as `Fires' Continue, Birinyi Says (Update2) Investors should avoid most financial companies because their shares will probably keep declining, said Laszlo Birinyi , president of Birinyi Associates Inc. I'm concerned about how we get them all out.'' Birinyi's October warning that bank shares would fall preceded a 48 percent plunge in the Standard & Poor's 500 Financials Index . The index tumbled this year as asset writedowns and credit losses stemming from the subprime-mortgage market's collapse climbed to $415 billion worldwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Financial stocks declined 6.1 percent today to the lowest since October 1998. The market ``is not happy'' with the government's plan for Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, Birinyi said. Birinyi worked for about 12 years on the trading desk at Salomon Brothers before starting his research and money management firm in 1989. He is known for pioneering money flow analysis, which compares the dollar amounts moving into or out of a stock or index to establish whether it is being more aggressively bought or sold. ``There's certainly blood in the streets with the housing markets, and I don't see people taking advantage of it.''
