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To: posthumousone who wrote (7569)	10/4/1998 2:59:00 PM
From: Monty Lenard	Respond to of 86076

Well you didn't ask me but I would take it now. Not for the same reasons you co-workers did but because I would be afraid the payor might default. :-) They might decide to invest it in something like LTCM. Monty

To: posthumousone who wrote (7569)	10/4/1998 6:22:00 PM
From: Joseph G.	Respond to of 86076

<<WALL ST WEEK AHEAD/Shaky markets get no G7 help NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wobbly global equity markets face a new test of will this week after a disappointing meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers failed to produce decisive action to deal with the turmoil in the world economy. The inability of the G7 ministers to agree on a more aggressive plan of action -- after receiving a pre-meeting exhortation from President Clinton -- means market lows set in August are likely to face a stiff retest. "We had rallied some on Friday on expectations of some kind of positive outcome (to the G7)," said Guy Truicko, portfolio manager at Unity Management. "If all we're getting out of this is talk, that's certainly not going to help." On Wall Street, the timing could not be worse: Twin market sell-offs totaling more than 450 points last Wednesday and Thursday drove the Dow Jones industrial average back near its year low. Analysts said markets were ill-prepared to deal with the lack of good news heading out of the week. "The market looked very tenuous," said Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist at Prime Charter Ltd. "Fear and uncertainty is at a fevered pitch." Clinton's proposal, delivered in vague terms Friday just ahead of the meeting, would have given the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the flexibility to offer assistance faster to crisis-afflicted nations. That proposal received a tepid endorsement from the G7, which agreed to explore the idea. Such a plan would be especially important for nations like Brazil, whose heavy debt load has made it a focal point for economists tracking the spread of the global financial crisis. Jim O'Neill, chief currency economist at Goldman Sachs in London, said that in the absence of new initiatives by the G7, the need for decisive action to resolve Brazil's financial crisis was more pressing than ever. "We're in for more turmoil. This weekend hasn't lived up to expectations, so there's disappointment there. But the key to stop it turning into a bloodbath is Brazil," he said. While Brazil has maintained it sees no near-term need for emergency help, Finance Minister Pedro Malan said Sunday a plan along the lines of the one proposed by Clinton could be of help just by restoring confidence in financial markets even without a disbursal of funds. "We are not talking of a rescue operation. We are talking about an exercise in preventing contagion," Malan said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund annual meeting in Washington. "If this contingency mechanism comes about, we might not even need to access it." Markets in Europe, which last week suffered even steeper declines than those in the United States, were expected to start this week on a similar note, with analysts predicting Monday would see heavy selling on major European exchanges. Another likely outcome of the meeting is a weaker dollar, in part because both the United States and Japan expressed concerns about the weakness of the yen, dealers said. With little to cheer on the economic front and a relatively light economic calendar, investors in the United States can look forward to more earnings news, where the near-term outlook is the bleakest in years, or more hedge fund developments. Late Friday, J.P. Morgan & Co Inc became the latest of the major U.S. financials to detail its hedge fund exposure, which it put at about $1 billion in debt owed to the company under derivatives and foreign exchange contracts. Substantially all was secured by cash and U.S. Treasuries, J.P. Morgan said. As for earnings, the preseason warnings continue to pour in at a higher than average rate and expectations are for a decline in quarterly earnings for the first time the third quarter of 1991, when the U.S. economy was in recession. Late Friday, textile company Crown Crafts Inc. and digital audio and video technology company Avid Technology Inc. both warned their results in the current quarter would fall short of expectations. For last week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 244.08 points or 3 percent. The Dow ended the week at 7,784.69, about 1.6 percent below where it started the year.>>