• Technology stocks staged a strong comeback despite an economic report (see below) that seems to suggest more rate hikes are needed to cool this economy off.
• It is official. AT&T is investing about $1.4 billion in its Internet rival Net2Phone; Net2Phone rose, while AT&T lost.
• A Dry Weather forecast in the U.S. Midwest pushed up prices of Corn, Soybeans, and winter Wheat.
• Arrowpoint had a hot IPO today. Trader.Com N.V., a Dutch online advertisement company, closed 30% lower than its IPO price, while ValueClick, another online advertisement company, barely gained above its IPO price.
• Storage Technology is spinning off its Storage Solutions (services) unit from its core business.
• Prudential Securities caused a panic in B2B circles today by downgrading the three leading firms in the group: i2 Technologies, Ariba, and Commerce One.
• US Consumer Spending grew a higher-than-anticipated 1%, Personal Consumption Index grew by 0.4%, while US Savings Rate dropped to 0.8%, as consumers continue to spend unabated, while little is saved. What does it mean? inflation pressures continue to build.
• Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) grew slightly in March to 57.4%. What does this mean? Chicago (and possibly national) manufacturing sector is still strong.
• drkoop.com lost about 41% of its value today after auditors questioned its accounting practices.
• E Spire Communications, the cash strapped ISP, continued its free fall today.
• AFTER HOURS: Seagate and Veritas announced myriads of complicated deals today that sent the stocks tumbling to close lower. However, it seems investors needed time to catch up to the deals, since both stocks are gaining on Instinet in after hours trading.  

• It is time for the sectors listed below (and our picks on top) to gain aggressively, as investors continue to look for bargains. Tell us your views by posting them at our  Discussion Forum.
• Ariba and CommerceOne are very good buys as the price continues to slide. These two companies have very valuable contracts and relationships with industrial giants like GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, etc. who spend a fortune procuring materials. If there is a holy grail for B2B eMarketplaces, these two have it. We want to hear your views at Discussion Forum.
• Blue Chips like consumer products manufacturers, financials, and retailing will do well as the market continues to rotate.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Technology stocks took a beating as the rotation called for by "influential analysts" continue. Internet and Biotechnology issues took the most hit. It was also a bad day for a "Dot Com" company to announce a merger or acquisition, as Neoforma and Healtheon/WebMD found out; Neoforma lost nearly 60% of its value today after the company announced a major acquisition.
• Bed, Bath, and Beyond reported fiscal Q4 earnings that beat estimates; Bed, Bath, and Beyond was upgraded by ING Barings and First Union.
• What a day to debut an IPO. However, Luminex pulled it off by closing higher than the offering price.
• AT&T is negotiating to buy a stake in Net2Phone, a leading via internet long distance phone service provider; sources close to the negotiation value it at about $1 billion.
• Carl Icahn is interested in buying 100 million shares of Nabisco. This will give him a 40% stake in the company.
• CMGI and Liberty Media are investing about $400 million into Primedia.
• A German Technology and Software firm is reported to be in talks to acquire Israel's TVG Technology.
• US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index, a good measure of inflation, rose a stronger-than-anticipated 7.3% in Q4 of 1999. The GDP Deflator, a broader measure of inflation in the economy, rose a lower-than-anticipated 1.9% in the same period. Many analysts are now forecasting a very strong GDP in Q1 of 2000; it now looks like the Federal Reserve has a long way to go in slowing the economy down.
• AMD was upgraded and its price target raised by Robertson Stephens. The brokerage house is forecasting a strong second half for AMD.
• Yahoo! reported that it is under a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe for its data collection practices. Yahoo! also made it known that it is a standard practice of the FTC to insure privacy. When it rain's, it pours!  

• This herd mentality is creating good bargains in Biotechnology, Technology, and Internets (yes, Internets, like the ones selected below). Companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Yahoo!, etc. will be here when faceless Dot Coms fold up, but the market don't seem to be differentiating right now. Tell us your views by posting them at our  Discussion Forum.
• Blue Chips like consumer products manufacturers, financials, and retailing will do well as the market continues to rotate.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Technology stocks continued their downward spiral after another analyst and Fund Manager Mark Mobius warned that bloated internet stocks could crash; consumer products and food related stocks gained as funds fled to so-called "safety".
• AT&T, in agreement with partner Comcast, is to increase its stakes in Excite@Home to 74%; under the terms, excite will drop plans of issuing a tracking stock for its media units.
• Oil and energy stocks did well after OPEC agreed to increase production by 1.45 million barrels a day in other to push oil prices down.
• Telocity and Hanaro Telecom debuted their IPOs today. Though the stocks closed above their opening prices, the gains weren't substantial due to a general NASDAQ sell off.
• eMusic.Com is launching and co-branding a web site with AOL's ICQ, Winamp, and Spinner.Com.
• Advanced Marketing Services board has approved an additional 350,000 shares buyback plan. An earlier plan for 300,000 shares buyback was announced in October 1999.
• BellSouth announced that it is creating a tracking stock for its Latin America wireless units.
• Dole Food Co. is not up for sale, the company reported. Dole also announced that it expects its fiscal Q1 earnings to be around 60 to 65 cents per share; First Call/Thomson Financial consensus estimated 49 cents a share, thus Dole will beat estimates by at least 11 cents a share. 
• Carl Icahn, the famous financial and his associates now control a 5.2% stake in Federal Mogul, the huge auto parts supplier; speculation is that the investment group will takeover the company, break it up, and sell piece by piece.
• TV Aztec, the second largest broadcaster in Mexico, made it known that it is in talks with telecommunication companies, including Spain's Telefonica, on a deal involving Aztec's Phone and Internet units. Telefonica has made it clear its intention to use Aztec's Internet unit to reach the lucrative Hispanic market in the US.
• US New Home sales dropped 1.0% in February to a seasonally adjusted 919,000 units. Analysts were expecting a larger drop, especially since the January figures were revised upward to an actual gain of 5.0%. At this current rate, the Federal Reserve might have to take more aggressive interest rake hike policy to sufficiently cool the market.
• Cisco Systems, the world's largest networking equipment manufacturer, is paying $800 million for privately held SightPath inc., which makes software that manages and speeds up web content. Cisco has been moving aggressively in the web content management and e-learning arena by strategic acquisitions (55 so far); Cisco closed lower. 

• It is true some Internet companies are over valued. However, the recent pronouncements by "respected analysts" might be an overkill, especially now that the major players in the sector are undergoing changes through mergers, alliances etc. Tell us your views by posting them at our  Discussion Forum. We will have more on this topic on April 2nd. at our Quarterly Forecast of the World Economy page.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• The markets closed lower due to technology stocks, after Abby Joseph Cohen, the influential (and bullish) Chief Market Strategist for Goldman Sachs recommended investors shift funds from stocks to cash; the Yahoo! - ebay merger talks lack of progress didn't help either.
• US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave Microsoft and the parties involved in the anti-trust lawsuit a one week extension to see if further progress could be made in a possible settlement. Do you think Microsoft deserve an extension, or even a settlement that doesn't call for its break up? post your opinions at BusinessJeeves.Com Discussion Forum 
• Juniper Networks introduced a new Internet backbone router called M160, which will be the fastest backbone router to date.
• OPEC seem likely to raise production, and that was good news to airline stocks.
• The Conference Board reported that, the US Consumer Confidence dropped for the second straight month in March to a lower-than-anticipated 136.7. February's figure was 140.8, down from the record 144 plus points in January.
• Linear Technology is to join the S&P 500 index, the elite of the 500 largest publicly traded US companies.
• The IPO market was hot today as Websense, Anaren Microwave, and CompleTel Europe NV debuted.
• A market research shows that, AudioCodes Ltd., an Israeli provider of IP (Internet Protocol) telephony and Voice over (Vo) packet technologies (voice networks), dominates this industry sector with a 42% market share. The VoIP communications market is the hottest telecommunications market now.
• AT&T announced plans to create a tracking stock for its wireless operations. AT&T is planning a 360 million share IPO that is expected to net $10.13 billion, the largest IPO in US history.
• AFTER HOURS: Palm Computing reported fiscal Q1 earnings of 3 cents a share, 2 cents a share better than FirstCall's consensus estimates; Palm Computing is gaining in after hours trading. 

• We expect technology stocks to revive before the week is over. Many investors are over reacting to the comments made by Abby Cohen. We feel the economy is showing signs of a slow down, but many sectors like Biotechnology and Technology (especially storage, Internet hosting and networking) stocks are undervalued - thus a time to buy. What do you think? Post your opinions at BusinessJeeves.Com Discussion Forums.
• Microsoft will be a good buy despite the anti-trust dilemma. If the company is broken up, investors will gain; if it is left intact, investors still win. give us your view at BusinessJeeves.Com Discussion Forums.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Some profit taking in financial stocks pushed the markets lower, despite a strong showing in Technology stocks; the Dow closed lower primarily due to the uncertainty surrounding Microsoft (see below).
• AutoWeb.Com announced that its fiscal Q1 losses will be less than anticipated; AutoWeb also announced a strategic alliance with CarsDirect.Com, a privately held competitor.
• Wave Systems Corporation and AMD are to integrate new security functions for commercial and consumer computers, so as to give users a stronger control over their privacy.
• IBM and Qwest communications have signed a range of agreements to deliver e-commerce services using Qwest's Internet Data Centers; separately, IBM was upgraded by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, while Qwest was upgraded by AG Edwards.
• Titan is to acquire privately held Averstar in a deal valued at $154 million.
• TD Waterhouse was upgraded by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
• Incara Pharmaceuticals received a "notice of allowance" from the US patent and Trademark office for a patent to treat some inherited metabolic and liver diseases.
• Eastman Chemical was upgraded by Merrill Lynch.
• Banc One named James Dimon of the Citigroup fame, as its new CEO.
• Iberdrola SA, a Spanish power company, is in talks to acquire Florida Power & Light (FPL).
• Deutsche Telecom is interested in acquiring Unisys, so reports a German Magazine.
• IManage was upgraded by CE Unterberg Towbin.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Broadbase Software and Niku.
• CS First Boston upgraded Verisign and Rare Medium; CS First Boston also raised the price target for Rare Medium.
• SpyGlass is to be acquired for $2.5 billion by OpenTV.
• Paine Webber upgraded Intel.
• Nike was upgraded by Banc of America Securities.
• Talk.Com is paying $200 million for Access One Communications.
• US Existing home sales rose a slightly lower-than-anticipated 7% in February to a seasonally adjusted 4.75 million units. This was a modest recovery from January's sales drop of 13.4%.
• MICROSOFT CASE: Microsoft's new proposal in its anti-trust trial includes plans to imbed competitor's products into its own. The new 10 page proposal is been discussed among the 19 State Attorney Generals and the US Justice Department. Due to this proposal, many parties involved are speculating a delay in the Judge's decision. Separately, the presiding Judge, US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson made it known to some lawyers involved that he intends to announce his decision on Tuesday. A decision most believe will be tough on Microsoft. What do you think? give us your opinions at BusinessJeeves.Com Discussion Forum  

• Microsoft will be a good buy despite the anti-trust ruling. If the company is broken up, investors will gain; if it is left intact, investors still win. give us your view at BusinessJeeves.Com Discussion Forums.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• The markets closed mixed due primarily to profit taking and Biotechnology stocks. The Dow gave back over 7 points, while the NASDAQ gained over 22 points, despite a disappointing Biotechnology sector; the S&P 500 gained only a fraction, and to yet another record after yesterday's.
• Semiconductor stocks were hot.
• Piper Jaffray issued positive comments on AmeriTrade and E*Trade; online brokerage companies have seen tremendous traffic growth, and most analysts are issuing good comments about the sector.
• Speculation is that Mitel Corp. of Canada might sell off its telecommunications units to either Alcatel or Cisco Systems, and concentrate on its booming semiconductor business; CIBC and RBC Dominion Securities, two very large Canadian brokerage houses, upgraded Mitel.
• US Durable goods orders for February dropped 2.3%.
• Microsoft selected Multiple Zones International as its premier products distributor.
• Silicon Labs'  IPO debuted today and closed hot, while Viasystems Group IPO was a flop.
• IBM announced that it will start making chips for TV top boxes.
• The Judge in Microsoft's anti-trust trial is set to make his ruling this Tuesday, if the mediator or both parties (Microsoft and Justice Dept.) have nothing further to add. This prompted Microsoft to present a new proposal that outlines ways to curb its trade practices, in hopes of avoiding a breakup.
• Bear Sterns upgraded Tyco International.
• Yahoo! and ebay have resumed their merger talks.
• HomeStore.Com and GMAC, the financing arm of GM, have signed a 2-year agreement; First Union upgraded HomeStore.Com.
• Morgan Stanley Dean Witter had positive comments about 3M.
• CS First Boston upgraded Jabil Circuit.
• Lehman Brothers upgraded Epcos AG and SCI Systems; Lehman also raised the price target for SCI Systems.
• Cisco Systems announced it has completed the acquisition of Growth Networks and Compatible Systems. As of today's market close, Cisco Systems overtook Microsoft as the company with the highest market capitalization at $579.12 billion (Microsoft is $578.21 billion).

• Here we go again. When good news start coming out of a sector, some investors start selling the sector. For the past Three weeks, Biotechnology companies have been announcing important new breakthroughs that are going to pay up very handsomely in the future. Rather, some investors are dumping Biotechnology stocks because of the comments made by president Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, thus creating a perfect opportunity for bargain hunters to buy. The Biotechnology sector could actually benefit from the suggested "information sharing" plan.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Major Technology and Internet companies continued their gains.
• Biotechnology stocks staged a strong comeback.
• Citigroup is planning to increase its stake in Nikko Securities, the huge Japanese brokerage house, to 20% (Citigroup currently owns about 10%).
• CNBC reported that, News Corp is planning a bid for General Motors (GM) in hopes of controlling its very valuable DirecTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics, a GM subsidiary; News Corp vehemently denied the rumor. 
• Bausch & Lomb has made an offer of $600 million for Wesley Jensen; Wesley Jensen recently acquired Ocular Sciences for $560 million.
• Microsoft is nearing a settlement with the Justice Department on its Anti-Trust case, the Washington Post reported.
• BreezeCom and Blaze Software were hot as their IPOs debuted today.
• IBM and TDK are to co-develop wireless devices based on the bluetooth technology.
• International Paper, Georgia Pacific, and Weyerhaeuser will co-develop a B2B marketplace for paper and forest products.
• Cognex's fiscal Q1 earnings beat estimates.
• FedEx's fiscal Q3 beat estimates.
• Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's fiscal Q1 beat estimates.
• Sherwin William's fiscal Q1 beat estimates.
• Eli Lilly is to buyback about $3 billion worth of its stocks.
• Exodus Communications' price target was raised by Thomas Wiesel.
• DB Alex Brown upgraded Masco.
• Lehman Brothers upgraded Gilead.
• JP Morgan upgraded and raised the price target for SonicWall.
• Bear Sterns upgraded Palm and Pets.com.

• We expect this strong rally to continue, especially our selections (see below) that were hit hard in anticipation of rate hikes. Now that the rate hikes are out of the way, it is time for bargain hunting.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Major Technology and Internet companies continue to do good.
• Biotechonogy stocks staged a strong comeback.
• Exodus communications will make a $637.5 million dollars investment into Mirror Image Internet, a unit of Xcelera.
• PSINet is paying $1.9 billion for Metamor Worldwide. 
• Genome Therapeutics had break-even earnings for fiscal Q2, beating estimates.
• Morgan Stanley Dean Witter raised the price tag for Rambus to $500!
• WR Hambrecht upgraded Broadcom, Garden.Com, JDS Uniphase, and SDL.
• Salomon Smith Barney upgraded Analog Devices.
• EDS plans to buyback about 9.5 million of its shares.
• InSilicon's IPO debuted today and closed higher, but short of doubling.
• NBC, a unit of GE, is acquiring a minority stake in Lou Dobb's Space.com
• WebStreet.com brokerage has entered into an alliance with HongKong's Hung Kai & Co to allow Hung Kai's customers to trade US stocks via WebStreet's online service.
• DB Alex Brown upgraded Natural Microsystems, and raised the price target on Belco Oil & Gas.
• Gartner Group, the large IS/IT research firm, is acquiring a 90% stake in TechRepublic, the online community for IT professionals, for $80 million; Gartner Group also got a $300 million funds infusion.
• Lehman Brothers upgraded Diebold, GATX, and Viad.
• DB Alex Brown and Warburg Dillon Read both raised the price target for Micron Tech.
• Microsoft and Texas Instruments are teaming up to develop enhanced software capabilities for handheld wireless devices.
• DaimlerChrysler is considering a majority stake in Mitsubishi Motors.

• We expect this strong rally to continue, especially our selections (see below) that were hit hard in anticipation of rate hikes. Now that the rate hikes are out of the way, it is time for bargain hunting.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• The Federal Reserve raised interest rates, but the markets reacted as if they have been waiting for it. Financial services stocks, which typically do poorly after a Feds rate hike, actually rallied. Visit our Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Alert page for more on this topic. 
• Major Internet players like Yahoo! mounted a rally after the rate hike.
• Palm Computing is to bundle Yahoo! into its handheld devices.
• Kozmo applied for an IPO; Amazon.Com owns a 31.8% stake in the company.
• Exodus' price target was increased by Robertson Stephens, while CS First Boston had positive comments about Exodus. 
• QSound of Alberta Canada, is paying Canadian $100 million for StreamMagic, an Internet server management solutions.
• Citigroup is paying $2.4 billion for the 15% stake of Travelers Property and Casualty Group it doesn't own; Travelers' credit rating was also upgraded by Fitch IBCA.
• GE announced that it will beat fiscal Q1 estimates by analysts.
• AHP is selling its Cynamid Agricultural Products unit to BASF for $3.8 billion.
• Goldman Sachs fiscal Q1 beat estimates.
• US Trade deficit in January grew a whopping $28 billion, well bigger than analysts' $26.5 billion forecast; the January growth is a new record.

• Now that the rate hikes are out of the way, it is time for bargain hunting.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

• Blue chip stocks rebounded lightly on the eve of the Feds' FOMC meeting. Financial and Biotechnology stocks were the major losers, as "old economy" stocks like consumer products and chemicals performed very well. Technology also took a hit, but not as severe as the above mentioned sectors. 
• 3Com announced fiscal Q3 earnings that beat estimates by 2 cents a share. The company also announced a restructuring that will include selling a 4% stake in Palm Computing, pulling out of the Modem and Business networking business, but acquire privately held Cell Technologies for $90 million in its efforts to expand its wireless operations.
• Avista Corporation received a broad US patent today on its cartridge fuel cell power system.
• Hewlett Packard announced they have settled the patent infringement lawsuit with Xerox.
• Collateral Therapeutics unveiled successful clinical trials reports of its non-surgical gene therapy procedure that causes the heart to grow new blood vessels. 
• CS First Boston raised the price target for Manhattan Associates and Complete Business Solutions; First Boston also upgraded Manhattan Associates.
• Compaq and Microsoft signed a 3-year deal that allows Compaq to carry Microsoft's MSN on its Presario line.
• Salomon Smith Barney raised the price target for Dell computers.
• Misonix announced that its Sonoblate 200(TM) was successful in treating localized prostrate cancer in clinical tests performed in Japan.
• Disney was upgraded, and its price target raised by Schroder.
• Micron Tech was upgraded, and its price target raised by Bear Sterns.
• AOL and PurchasePro.Com signed a 3-year agreement to create a B2B exchange.
• Eastman Chemical announced that it expects fiscal Q1 profits to exceed estimates by as much as 20 cents a share.
• Piper Jaffray raised the price target for Applied Power and Aether Systems; Piper Jaffray also upgraded Applied Power.
• National Commerce BanCorp. is paying $1.9 billion for CCB Financial, another Southeastern US Bank holding company.
• Toys'R'us is spinning off its Japanese Unit, and its plans to buyback about $1 billion shares.
• Taiwanese Semiconductor ADRs were weak due to uncertainty with China after the Island's recent elections.
• MicroStrategy lost 140 points, about 61% of its value, after it announced the revising of its 1998 and 1999 revenues. 

• The Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting and consequent results (interest rate hikes) will rule the market. We do expect Technology and Biotechnology stocks to rebound after the announcement; please visit our Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Alert page for more information on this subject.
• Expect Technology, Internet ISPs, E-Commerce, and Portal sites to perform very well.
• Cable, Telecommunications, and Drugs (especially Biopharmaceutical) stocks will do well.
• Internet holding and capacity (storage) companies will do very well (check out our Quarterly forecasts for other picks).

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