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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jan Crawley who wrote (14816)	8/27/1998 3:10:00 PM
From: Peter Church	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

>>>Amzn. It's almost addictive...>>> I know the feeling. I couldn't resist the urge to go long ANMZN today. Call that Mundo Bizarro! Maybe I need help. Anyone want to start an AMZN anonymous thread?

To: Jan Crawley who wrote (14816)	8/27/1998 9:07:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

FOCUS-U.S. economy solid now, but clouds linger Reuters Story - August 27, 1998 19:34 %US %WASH %ECI %MUNI %FED %INT %MTG %GVD %DBT %STX %FRX GM V%REUTER P%RTR By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy held up well under the strain of Asia's financial crisis and a major auto strike in the second quarter, but fresh turmoil abroad and a slide in stocks on Thursday stirred jitters about the future. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy's health, rose by 1.6 percent in the April-to-June quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. It revised GDP upward from a previous estimate of a 1.4 percent increase. The growth rate, while modest, was viewed as a solid performance because it came on the heels of a torrid 5.5 percent pace in the first quarter. Indeed, only a month or two ago many analysts had thought the crushing blow to exports from a severe downturn in Asia and a lengthy strike at General Motors Corp. might have caused the economy to contract in the second quarter. But as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged on Thursday -- at one stage dropping by more than 300 points amid deepening problems in Russia -- economists said it was less clear the U.S. economy would continue to sail through the next year unscathed by the global turmoil. "It is very important the U.S. economy remain healthy and it is right now," said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Norwest Corp. in Minneapolis. However, he added, "I think economic growth in the United States will not only slow, but it will slow significantly into 1999." The stakes are higher for the United States now that Asia's contagion has been spreading around the world to Russia and other emerging economies. For several months, the crisis abroad has mainly hurt the U.S. economy through the trade sector, but strong consumer spending has more than offset that weakness. If the shakiness in the global picture were to prompt a longer-term slide in the stock market, the U.S. economy could be vulnerable to a more severe slowdown as consumers pull back on their spending. For now, though, very little negative news has emerged about the U.S. economy. Indeed, as the GDP data were released, a separate report from the Labor Department on weekly jobless claims filings signaled the already buoyant U.S. job market has grown stronger. New claims for unemployment insurance fell by 6,000 in the week ended Aug. 22 to 297,000, the lowest since April. As of July, the nation's overall unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent, close to a 30-year low. Surprisingly, the healthy job market has not been accompanied by much inflation. The GDP report showed that modest second-quarter expansion was accompanied by weak growth in prices. The department's GDP price index, a gauge of price changes for the goods and services produced by the U.S. economy, rose an unrevised 0.8 percent in the second quarter, down from the 0.9 percent increase in the first. The trade picture deteriorated markedly as Asia's crisis slashed demand for U.S. exports, but the international sector's weakening was not as sharp as it initially appeared to be. That was the main reason for the upward revision to overall GDP. According to the Commerce Department, total exports plummeted 7.4 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis in the April-June period following a 2.8 percent drop in January-March. Meanwhile, a flood of cheapened goods from the crisis-torn region caused a surge in imports, up 10 percent last quarter after a 15.7 percent spike in the first quarter. Offsetting some of the boost from trade was a slower pace of inventory building by companies than the earlier figures had shown.