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Technology Stocks : Brightpoint - CELL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mauser96 who wrote (713)	8/6/1998 11:22:00 AM
From: Paul Shread	Respond to of 1999

Wow. That is fascinating. I've been starting to think higher PEs are justified not only because of low inflation and interest rates, but also because of changes in the U.S. economy (caveat: this is probably a bad sign that I'm thinking this way). If you look at the S&P 15 years ago, the biggest companies were old-line firms like T and IBM. Four of the top 10 stocks were oils, which deserve lower multiples. Now we've moved toward a more high-tech, consumer-oriented economy, and hence names like KO and MSFT top the list and there's only one oil company in the top 10. I also don't think it is surprising that this bull market began not only with lower interest rates, but also with the rise of the PC, which has totally changed productivity and efficiency in this country (in addition to the ubiquitous downsizing). 401(k)s and the decline of social security haven't hurt either. And now that I'm sounding new-agey I should probably shut up and get back to work.