Weekly Wrap

Thank God it's Friday. To tell you the truth, I had no idea the market was even open on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Don't these people have a life? They did close the market three hours earlier than normal, but they still had to get up in the morning! Anyway, thank goodness they did because all the indexes bounced back a bit after a Monday thru Wednesday beating.

Don't get too excited though. It was still a down week, and a down year. This is a real bear folks, and the first in my investing career. Everyone warned me about these little buggers. One has arrived, making we wish I had I bought a hunting license before the deadline. The Nasdaq composite is now down 29% for the year (off 42% from its March 10 high), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 9% for the year (down 11% from its Jan. 14 high).

Friday had a couple of Nasdaq biggies bouncing back. Both Cisco Systems and Intel rose. Cisco shares (CSCO) have fallen 23% in the past three months, and Intel (INTC) shares have dropped 44%. Hewlett-Packard (HWP), down 35% since August, also made a gain on Friday. I'm seeing a pretty good Thanksgiving Day sale here with these three. bear or no bear.

This being the biggest shopping day of the year, many retailing stocks were also stronger. Home Depot (HD), Toys R Us (TOY) and Amazon.com (AMZN) all posted gains. However, Amazon's website wasn't accessible for 30 minutes of the day. Woops.

I think I am the only one in the world who hasn't had a Krispy Kreme (KREM) donut. They came out with their sweet earnings (had to do it) this past week, and their net income more than doubled and their revenues grew by 37%. My only question, how many pant sizes have their customers grown during the same time period? (Believe me, this is NOT the reason I haven't tried a Krispy Kreme, I just have never SEEN one. From what I hear, it's worth the extra weight.)

Nortel (NT) which Chick Megan wrote about earlier this month, is making a little comeback. The stock is still off it's yearly high by 55%, made up almost 3% in the past week. They held their annual investors conference and seemed to have calmed investors down by their announcement that they expect 40% growth in revenues and earnings per share for 2000, and 30-35% for 2001.

A couple of websites also had a rough week. Both Yahoo (YHOO) and eBay (EBAY) were downgraded by analysts causing their stock to tumble. Or should I say tumble further?

Maybe eBay should put Quaker Oats up for sale on their site. Quaker (OAT) had its third buyer back out on them this week, causing their stock also to fall. I guess my making three packages of Rice-a-Roni for Thanksgiving wasn't enough to please Coca-cola, Pepsi-Cola or Danone Group. They all declined to buy.

Gotta run. I'm going on a bear hunt. (Start the hand slap-clapping routine now.)

Chick Karin

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