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Strategies & Market Trends : Mr. Pink's Picks: selected event-driven value investments -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Pink who wrote (5140)	12/15/1998 11:47:00 PM
From: Bear Down	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18998

I bring Thee not only a stock but possibly the next sector to take a beating. something definately worth looking at. I traded EMN today for a very nice gain although completely out currently. The chemical sector seems to be faultering. Here's a piece from reuters.... Your Thoughts Oh Great Pink One By Dan Burns Reuters KINGSPORT, Tenn. (Dec. 15) - Eastman Chemical Co. on Tuesday warned that its fourth quarter income would fall well short of Wall Street expectations -- the latest specialty chemical maker to do so -- and Wall Street pummeled its stock. Eastman shares plummeted as much $7.875, or 14 percent, to $49 after a warning that the tepid global economic environment would lead to a fourth quarter profit of just 10 to 15 cents per share, nowhere close to the 82 cents that Wall Street had been expecting. A year ago, Eastman earned 35 cents per share in the fourth quarter, although ahead of special charges it earned 87 cents in the period. The warning also means that Eastman, whose products include the plastics used widely in food and beverage containers, will fall short of analysts' target of $4.10 per share on the year. Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman went on to warn that its trouble would not end with the fourth quarter. It expects the pressure on prices and volumes resulting from world economic conditions to continue into the first quarter of 1999. ''The global economic conditions impacting the chemical industry that were noted by the company in its third quarter earnings release...are having a greater-than-anticipated impact on fourth quarter operating results for several of the company's businesses,'' the company said in a statement. Eastman is not alone among U.S. chemical manufacturers suffering due to a slowdown in the global chemicals market. To date, Witco Corp. and Union Carbide Corp. are among those to have said their fourth quarter profits would fall short of previous expectations. Wall Street's chemical analysts said the severity of the Eastman shortfall was unexpected, even though most had expected several companies in the sector to warn that profits would be weaker than earlier anticipated. The companies are falling victim to a highly competitive pricing environment in the market for specialty plastics, especially polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a plastic used in recyclable bottles. ''This is all being driven by PET prices,'' Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Leslie Ravitz said. He expects to see others in the sector issue warnings in coming weeks, although he could not speculate about the identities of the next victims. Others said the problems go beyond prices, however. ''This announcement once again underscores a key problem at Eastman -- the company has little ability to grasp the competitive situation that exists outside of Kingsport, Tenn.'' HSBC Securities chemicals analyst Paul Leming wrote in a blistering research note following the Eastman warning. Eastman chairman and chief executive Earnest Deavenport said the company was taking immediate action to curtail spending and control costs. ''We will focus our entire organization on deferring capital spending, further reducing expenses and generating additional sales volume from the new capacity that we added in 1998 in all regions of the world,'' Deavenport said in a statement. But the analysts said the cost control efforts would be of only marginal assistance until PET prices recover next year. ''The competitive situation that exists today is not going to go away quickly,'' HSBC's Leming wrote. Leming, who cut his outlook for next year's Eastman profit to $2.75 per share from $3.85 per share, lowered his rating on the stock to a sell. ''This will continue into next year, certainly through at least the first quarter,'' Morgan Stanley's Ravitz said. ''We may see a seasonal price recovery in the March-April time frame.'' REUTERS Reut12:46 12-15-98

To: Mr. Pink who wrote (5140)	12/16/1998 10:35:00 AM
From: Joe Hoek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18998

Mr. Pink - what do you think of SME (Service Merchandise) if it goes to $0.25 - now trading at 3/8 x 7/16 - can't believe it went from $1 to $2 a week or so ago Looking to get back into FHT under $13 - getting close now - going down on light volume