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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/22/1999 7:36:00 PM
From: cellhigh  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 164684
 
bill,i cant agree, we have had a breakout on the dow and nasd.
the amzn breakout in oct when you sold may yield some advise.
good luck



To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/22/1999 9:04:00 PM
From: GST  Respond to of 164684
 
William <I wouldn't be surprised to see the NASDAQ test its October low.>

I have been agonizing over whether or not to hold or even increase my 'short' positions (puts) in a number of tech stocks -- right now I am about 50 50, but getting shorter by the day. I have been looking for moral support to bolster my conviction that it is not only the nets that are set to fall. This helps. The trend is down and may be spreading.



To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/22/1999 9:19:00 PM
From: GST  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164684
 
William -- This article captures the spirit of the gathering clouds.

Wall St.'s risky bet that Fed will come to rescue

(Updates to close)

By Pierre Belec

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are making a risky bet that Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan will come to the market's rescue when the next crisis
threatens the global economy.

But the experts say those Range Rover-driving Wall Streeters could be in for a rough ride if the Fed stays on the sidelines
and lets the market deal with a new economic storm.

Dark clouds are already forming over Latin America after Brazil, the region's biggest economy, devalued its currency, a
move that pushed the country into recession.

The contagion could hit Mexico, Argentina and even spread to Asia as they all scramble to devalue their own currencies to
compete in the export market.

Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald in Darien, Conn., said Wall Street is wrong in thinking the Fed will
again come to the aid of financial markets in a bid to insulate the United States from the global economic fallout.

''The interest-rate-cutting game will not be replayed again,'' he said. ''It's a mistake for Wall Street to believe that if
another shoe drops outside of our borders, the crisis will be met automatically with rate cuts.''

In the rush to build a fire wall around the American economy and rebuild confidence in financial markets, the Fed reduced
interest rates three times between September and November by a total of three-quarters of a percentage point.

But the rate chopping lit up the stock market, and the Fed is now worried that it may have created a speculative bubble
that is waiting to burst.

''Last fall, the concern was about protecting the U.S. financial system,'' said Meehan. ''Now, Greenspan is very chagrined
at the unavoidable consequences of the three rate reductions, which caused a raging move (up) in the stock market.''

This week, Greenspan hinted in a speech on Capitol Hill that the Fed would leave rates unchanged for some time to come
and he also sounded a cautious note on the near-record level of U.S. stocks.

''The three cuts were tied to crises -- the Asian problems, the Russian devaluation and stock market plunge in the summer
-- and the irony is that every foreign crisis has led the Fed to lower interest rates and this has benefited the U.S. stock
market,'' said Richard Salsman, senior economist for H.C. Wainwright & Co., a Boston-based investment research firm.

Brazil, the world's eighth-largest economy, is now in trouble. And, the U.S. stock market still thinks that Greenspan will
again reload the slot machines to defuse the next emerging-market crisis.

''It is extraordinarily dangerous for the stock market,'' Meehan said. ''People have to change their mindset that the 'Fed is
our friend' and if anything goes wrong, then rate reductions will just follow and we can continue to bid stocks higher.''

He said the market could fall sharply on disappointment at the lack of a Fed easing.

''The market will take a big hit and the Standard & Poor's index could take out last summer's low and test 770,'' Meehan
said.

On Friday, the S&P closed at 1,225 points. During its summer swoon, the Dow Jones industrial average slumped to
7,500 points.

The experts said Brazil's economic woes are far from over and they warned that investors should consider that there is a
lot more risk in Latin America than people are allowing for.

Weakness in Latin America would have a more direct impact on the U.S. economy than Asia, whose problems have
zapped American corporate earnings during the past year.

''Brazil, by itself, is a relatively small portion of U.S. exports, accounting for just 3 percent of our sales, but Latin America
is a much bigger deal, taking 20 percent of U.S. goods,'' said Pierre Ellis, managing director and senior international
economist for Primark Decision Economics.

''So, it boils down to a question of whether the Brazilian situation propagates and pulls down all of Latin America,'' he
said.

Ellis said investors will start to loose sleep over Latin America if the contagion spreads to Mexico, the second largest
buyer of U.S. products.

For the week, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 219.88 points to 9,120.67. The Nasdaq Composite lost 9.32
at 2,338.88. And the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 118.07 at 1,225.19.



To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/22/1999 11:35:00 PM
From: dennis michael patterson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164684
 
What do you base this on? Tech has been strong since 8 October and lost virtually nothing this week. The nutz have bottomed. I expect 3-6 percent next week in the Naz. This week's correction was great. Earnings in tech continue to be strong. even IBM will bounce back. What do you think Cisco will do?



To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/23/1999 11:12:00 AM
From: 16yearcycle  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164684
 
The October low!?

Good lord, what is it that you think is going on that makes you think that is possible? That would be 1000 nasdaq points, and would absolutely throttle the amateurs for a looong time.


I really want to know what you are thinking or looking at. I could imagine a drop soon to 8500 on the dow, which would be a 12% correction, and a slide for the nasdaq to 1900, and then a rally into the summer. I would think if we are going to have a brutal wash out like you think is possible it would start in the mid summer, as several corrections have the past few years, and get serious by October as everyone fears the y2k situation and a tech spending bulge.

Thanks for your thoughts as always.

gene



To: Bill Harmond who wrote (36153)1/23/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: Mark Fowler  Respond to of 164684
 
wouldn't be surprised to see the
NASDAQ test its October low. <<

Willaim a correction to the 50 MA's, at the most 70 MA's on most indexes after a this dead cat bounce, but Oct lows?