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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (15529)	9/1/1998 9:07:00 AM
From: Narotham Reddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Glenn, AMZN cut to near term reduce This AM. Hence the stock's upside move has been curtailed effectively. Narotham Reddy

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (15529)	9/1/1998 9:32:00 AM
From: majormember	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

Here is the text of this mornings "reduce" rating by Merrill. This eliminates any question of an upside move, IMO. GO AMZN......D-O-W-N....... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 09:10 ET **** AMAZON.COM (AMZN) 83 3/4. There are very few brokers making ratings changes on individual stocks today. That is prudent given that macro moves the next few days are likely to swamp trends in individual stocks. That makes Merrill Lynch's move this morning on Amazon.com (AMZN) stand out even more. Today, that top broker initiated coverage of AMZN with a "reduce" rating. That is one notch above Merrill's rarely used "sell" rating and even "reduce" is not often used itself. "Neutral" is about as bearish as most firms like to get. AMZN has been a trading vehicle stock for individual investors looking for a momentum play in the Internet sector. It has traded on pure hopes, soaring from a low of 13 7/8 with the past 52 week period to 147 recently despite losses which continue to grow. In fact, some analysts believe that it will be years before AMZN ever turns a profit. Briefing believes that AMZN will have persistent trouble long term, simply because they sell commodity items (books) over an efficient distribution system (the Internet). That typically leads to severe price pressures and low margins. Until now, such fundamental analysis has had no relevance in the face of momentum players pushing the stock as a major Internet brand name. With yesterday's 22 1/8 point plunge in AMZN, however, the momentum play may be over. It might even be a momentum play on the down side. Merrill Lynch is in essence saying the bubble has burst, and the fundamentals aren't there to turn this stock around. Or, put another way, it is now clear that the emperor has no clothes. This "reduce" rating is a fairly significant call at a time of extreme market turbulence and will probably give AMZN more problems than the overall market. 08:40 ET ****