Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- S&P Mitte 02 bei 1300??? - XERXES, 13.02.2002, 10:18
- wie hätten sies denn gerne Herr Elliott......... - R1, 13.02.2002, 10:28
S&P Mitte 02 bei 1300???
STREET LIFE
It Ain't Over Yet
The recession creeps on, market jitters creep back, and the Enron keeps giving us creeps.
FORTUNE.COM
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
By Bethany McLean
Dribble, dribble. Not a big rupture, but a slow leak. The pins that are popping our bubble include Enron, earnings worries, economic fears, and renewed fears of another terrorist attack. The Dow fell 21.04 to 9863.74, while the Nasdaq lost 12.45 to 1834.21. So, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbiter of the recession (translation: once they say it's a recession, the recession is almost over), says that we're still in a recession. Of course, as the Bureau admits,"the committee waits until a substantial period of expansion has elapsed before declaring that a turning point is a true trough." Translation: Don't wait for an official recovery to buy stocks. Not that I'm hinting we even have an unofficial recovery, mind you. More dribbling tomorrow?
STOCK STUFF: Remember I asked yesterday what Nortel's analyst meeting would bring? Nothing fun. Nortel [NT], which said yesterday that its CFO is resigning over improper trading activity, said today that weak demand will make it hard for the company to match Wall Street's estimates. Investors just love double whammies: The stock fell 42 cents to $6.42."In the last 25 days it's more evident that customers are not going to spend any capital that they don't have to," said CEO Frank Dunn. Where's that bottom? Has it gone missing again?
GE [GE] was down 30 cents to $37.50 after announcing that it's buying Hercules' water treatment business for almost $2 billion. Acquisitions are good! Acquisitions grow earnings! (These days, not much else does.) But remember, water was Enron's Waterloo. (OK, one of Enron's many Waterloos.)
Speaking of Enron, JP Morgan [JPM], which has dropped some 40% in the past year -- Citi is down about half that amount -- shed another 35 cents to $31.49 today on worries about the amount of risk the company is bearing. A lot, I think. A problem? We'll see.
More numbers! Harley-Davidson [HDI], another stock that has been controversial for about as long as I can remember, dropped 3.04 to $50.99 after a Journal article raised questions about the company's accounting. Blockbuster [BBI] gained 1.70 to $21.01 on news that it beat the Street thanks to huge growth in DVD rentals, which have higher profit margins than tapes. Wellpoint [WLP], which also beat earnings, saw its stock gain 2.73 to $130.02. Do you realize this stock is up some 60% since late May? Is this company that perfect?
A RANT!: Warning: It's personal, albeit Enron-related. So last week at the Congressional hearings on Enron, I stepped out of the room (Snickers break!) just as Henry Waxman brought up my name and a story I'd written last spring on Enron. Today, I finally read Skilling's testimony. If his description of our interaction is indicative of his truth-telling -- well. Although he said"I can't recall" to other pointed questions more times than I can recall, Skilling had amazing -- almost clairvoyant -- recall of our dealings. Somehow, he"knew" that I'd spent one week working on the story. Actually, that was his"understanding," so I suppose it doesn't matter that it's not true -- which it's not. (Try about a month.) He also said that my questions were too accounting-oriented for him."I am not an accountant, and I could not answer them," he said. Hmmm. Skilling is the one who put the time limit on our conversation by slamming down the phone. And if my basic accounting questions stump any CEOs, heaven help us all. Last but not least, according to Skilling, the team that flew to New York to respond to my questions were there to sit down"not with the editors, but...with the reporter." (Me!) I guess the two editors present at the meeting must have been invisible to the Enron folks. After all, if Skilling's testimony is true, anything is possible these days.
LOOSE CHANGE
Who woulda thunk it? An airline going public? JetBlue filed to raise up to $125 million in an IPO.... Reuters reports that Gap [GPS] is already discounting spring clothing. Reminder: It's February. Conclusion: Gap's problems aren't getting better. The stock slipped 20 cents to $12.95. What do you think? Is Gap going to make it?... Is a little excess weight actually a good thing nowadays? Krispy Kreme [KKD], which was planning to shift debt for a new facility in Illinois off-balance sheet, announced that it will use conventional financing. Keep it on! Krispy lost 87 cents to $36.11.... Oh, Andersen. Yesterday, two companies with strong ties to Enron, Northern Border [NBP] and EOTT Energy Partners [EOTT], announced that Andersen had resigned as their auditor. Today, SunTrust Banks [STI] announced that it would switch from Andersen, which has been its auditor for 60 years, to PriceWaterhouse Coopers. SunTrust says its decision has nothing to do with Enron. OK
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