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

To: Night Writer who wrote (36591)	11/15/1998 12:53:00 AM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

World Wide Wackiness Iraq is back, Chrysler's gone and EarthWeb's out of this world. Meanwhile, from the bear den: Pakistan and Russia look good By Pablo Galarza moneydaily.com Fears of rising tensions in the Middle East scared money to the sidelines. Investors also figure that since Greenspan's FedRes won't shave rates next week, there's no reason to bid up stocks anymore. The Dow Jones industrial average gained about 6 (that's not a typo) and more stocks went down (1,662) than up (1,336). The Nasdaq did worse, as Internet stocks, sans the newbies, dragged down it down for the second day in a row. The broad market average fell 11.05 points to 1,851.06 The S&P 500 index lost (just) 3 points (again, not a typo) to 1,118.17. So where did the money go? The bond market rallied as investors sought safe havens for their dough. The 30-year Treasury issue gained 19/32 in price for a yield of 5.25%. GUSHER? Have people finally come to their senses about oil consumption (gas guzzler, anyone)? Nah, its just another Middle East scare. (Funny isn't it, I thought that we didn't buy anything from Iraq.) S&P Energies were up 3.1% today because of trouble in Iraq. The oil business looks like it will have a crummy '99 as all the big oil and exploration guys -- Mobil, Chevron, Exxon -- are cutting cap expenditures. Meanwhile, Texaco announced that it's laying off 1,000 employees. Low oil prices have forced them to cut costs. Shares were up 2.9% DELL RINGS THE BELL, AGAIN: Dell beat expected 3Q profits by a penny, up 55 percent to $384 million, or 28 cents a share. A year ago, Dell earned $248 million, or 17 cents per share. For you E-Commerce types: For the first time, Dell sales over the Internet topped $10 million A DAY, making up a fifth of total sales. Investors, though, weren't that impressed. Dell fell 2 3/4 to 69 1/4 at the bell, and fell another 3 in aftermarket trading. It's not enough to squeak out an extra penny when you are trading at 78 times last 12 months earnings. DOES THIS MEAN I CAN'T GET THAT WITH CORINTHIAN LEATHER? Today was Chrysler's last trading day. In a bon voyage as it morphs into DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX), shares were down 1/2 a point. Now that one of the big three has been gobbled up by the Germans, Safeway replaced it in the S&P. And all the Index funds had to buy the supermarket giant's stock. SWY's shares were up 2.7%. WEB WACKINESS: On EarthWeb's second day of trading since it IPOed, shares were up 42 percent and it was the seventh most actively traded stock. TheGlobe.com starts trading tomorrow... people think it could be another e-bay SAMPLES: Since all the bears were at the Jim Grant's (a perma bear and Money columnist who runs a very successful newsletter) yearly conference, you can't point to them for today's so-bearing stock market performance. A who's who of money managers come to Grant's gathering to hear about contrarian investment opportunities -- anyone ready to throw cash at Pakistan? Then what about Russia? You get the drift. But how about dropping some cash in commodity-based companies like copper producer Asarco? This one might be worth looking at, since Walter Schloss, a value guru ala Buffett and Ben Graham and a 40+ year Wall St. Vet, talked about it at lunch. Also the U.S. is the proud owner of the second most expensive stock market in the world (yes, someone does rank this, and yes people do take it seriously. List is topped by Switzerland -- have you seen the P/E on Swiss based stocks? It would make Microsoft blush. But one thing I did take away with me, along with copious notes -- 90 percent chance the fed cuts rates (that's right-- cuts rates, folks) because it's interested in "global sanguinity". One guy was predicting that the Dow will hit 10K in the 1Q 99, and then we will go lower. Bumper sticker seen in Minn., Ms. McLean's home state: "My Governor can beat the hell out of your Governor."