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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Teflon who wrote (21795)	4/28/1999 12:53:00 PM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74651

Why has MSFT been so weak the last few weeks? The stock has sold off sharply from its highs of 95+. Now every time it makes a positive move, it soon gives up all its gains. The most heavily traded MSFT options yesterday were puts. 1. MSFT May 85 puts 4776 contracts Open Interest 10,550 2. MSFT May 70 puts 3165 contracts Open Interest 2002 3. MSFT May 90 calls 3127 contracts Open Interest 24,990 As one can see from the volumes, and especially as a ratio of trading volume to open interest, the focus has been on the puts. Does this mean that traders are expecting bad news from MSFT ? On another topic of interest to MSFT I've heard of people buying entire MSFT Office packages for under $20 at auction sites. Apparently many of these packages were sold to OEMS and are now making their way to the auction block. Is there a chance that MSFT is going to lose substantial revenue from this action? And finally, MSFT's revenues for the 3rd quarter were 4.33 billion compared to 3.774 billion a year ago. Of course, 400 million was moved from the quarter to the future because of the Office upgrade coupons. In the first quarter, PC shipments were up 19%, instead of the 14% that were being predicted a month or so earlier. With such a strong increase in PC sales, the move towards Windows NT (and the higher revenue that brings) and the upgrade revenue from Windows 95 to 98, was the 4.33 billion number a positive surprise? And by how much? Any explanations will be greatly appreciated.