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To: xcr600 who wrote (18909)	12/16/1998 9:05:00 PM
From: Gerald Walls	Respond to of 69761

Also, why is it that all news for AMZN occurs the week of option expirations? Last week (or the week before) Briefing.Com noted that Amazon was not hyping their new mall yet and predicted that, based upon their past options-week manipulation (not their words) that they would start hyping it this week.

To: xcr600 who wrote (18909)	12/17/1998 12:56:00 AM
From: Clint E.	Respond to of 69761

Hi X. CMGI could go higher if earnings was decent enough to receive upgrade(s) in earnings forecast and price target by analysts in the next few days. I haven't checked to see if it received any today. I wasn't too impressed with ten-fifteen unknown companies in CMGI's portfolio when I visited their home page a few months ago. I don't know how many shares of lcos & gcty are left in their portfolio but I wonder what happens once they are finished liquidating those shares. I know they invest the money back into new ventures(that's why they keep showing losses) so perhaps they can have a few more home runs next year but by then they may have liquidated all the shares in companies that they have already taken public....You see the dilemma? Perhaps, no sales & eps growth. >>>why is it that all news for AMAZON occurs the week of option expirations? Are they out to massacre every short/put buyer? I think AMAZON shareholders were lucky today because too many things were wrong everywhere else and AMZN happened to receive a very bullish upgrade plus the news from AOL that visits to its shopping channel surged 350 percent over last year. As I said last week, AMAZON was locked in a trading range between 180-208(just like how yahoo was and still is) for a while but last week's CyberMall(Shop the Web) news gave it new wings. The news of being added to NDX this past Monday was also a big boost. Suresh and I, have been talking about Amazon's PSR being the lowest of all the high PE net companies with the exception of AOL. Analysts like explosive sales growth and they are assuming that at some point the company will turn hefty profit. Clint ===================== Wednesday December 16, 8:20 pm Eastern Time Amazon.com jumps after analyst sets $400 target (Adds analyst comments, closing stock prices) NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc. stock soared on Wednesday after one Wall Street analyst set an astronomic $400 price target for the shares of the fast-growing but money-losing Internet bookseller. But in a later ''clarification'' of his position, the analyst, CIBC Oppenheimer & Co.'s Henry Blodget, stressed he was looking at potential gains over a one-year horizon, not a near-term explosion in the price of the stock. His expectations were not built on optimism about the online retailer's fourth-quarter results, he said. Amazon.com exploded nearly $60 in heavy trading on Nasdaq Wednesday, hitting a record high of $301.75, before settling back to close at $289, up $46.25 from the close on Tuesday. In his original report issued earlier in the day, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, Blodget also kept a ''buy'' rating on the stock for ''strong-stomached, long-term investors,'' admitting the shares were ''scary to buy'' and ''incredibly expensive'' based on expected results in the short run. Blodget's previous price target was $150, which Amazon stock had rocketed past less than a month ago. Seattle-based Amazon.com, which also sells music, videos and other gifts online, could have sales of $10 billion and earnings of $10 a share within five years, Blodget projected. The company lost money last year on sales of $148 million, and is expected to lose money this year and in 1999. But Internet stocks are about sales growth, not earnings. According to the report, Blodget's new target price of $400 was based on several models using sales as well as expected earnings five years down the line. ''As with all Internet stocks, an (Amazon.com) valuation is clearly more art than science,'' Blodget wrote, adding the stock's rise is being driven by the company's ''astounding'' sales growth. Amazon.com's sales are expected to reach $1.5 billion in 2000 but could be substantially higher, Blodget wrote. In his later clarification, he said that expected strong holiday sales at Amazon.com this quarter could be followed by a slower first quarter next year. That might disappoint investors and trigger a sell-off in the stock, he said. ''We would not therefore, go hog-wild with the stock at current levels in the expectation that it will go straight up from here,'' Blodget wrote after the market reacted to his first report. His aggressive approach raised eyebrows among some traders but few expressed real surprise given the meteoric rise of Internet stocks this year. ''The report makes a lot of assumptions and, if this were another company, it might be viewed with a grain of salt,'' one trader said of the first report. ''But in this case, it doesn't matter.'' Other Internet stocks also surged, including America Online Inc., the world's biggest online service provider, which jumped $3.44 to $96.19 on the New York Stock Exchange. AOL said holiday traffic on its shopping channel has been 3-1/2 times higher than last year, with shoppers spending 50 percent more on average than they did last year. Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. jumped $29.50 to $223.50, online media company Yahoo! Inc. rose $7.125 to $205.125 and newly reborn Internet bookseller Books-a-Million jumped $8.06 to $18.125. =========================