Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.invest From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: invest Fri, Feb 28 1992 Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 05:50:42 EST Message-ID: 02-28 0000 DECISIONLINE: Personal Investing USA TODAY Update Feb. 28-March 1, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network IBM TOPIC OF TALK: Word has it that before year-end, IBM may begin a proposed spinoff of a flock of its businesses to shareholders as public companies and retain an equity ownership in them, reports USA TODAY columnist Dan Dorfman. He also says that another story circulating has IBM Chairman John Akers getting the boot. IBM says Akers is staying and that he has the full support of the board. (For more, see special IBM package below.) STOCKS SLIP 13.87: Large stocks sank and small stocks rose in ho-hum trading Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 13.87 points to 3269.45. But the NASDAQ composite index of small company stocks gained 1.55 points to 633.95. Winners beat losers 912 to 810 on the New York Stock Exchange. Much uncertainty persists on Wall Street about the outlook for the credit markets and the economic recovery. BOGUS BONDS HIT MARKET: Members of The New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers have been alerted that bogus bonds are getting into the market. Experts insist individual investors are at no risk of getting stuck with expired bonds. The potentially large number of corporate bonds should have been destroyed. In some cases, the bonds simply expired. GET BONDS IN YOUR NAME: Jonathan Kallman, associate director in market regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission, says "the potential is very small" that the average investor could wind up buying one of the canceled bonds. Brokerages and banks are at the greatest risk, he says. But to be completely safe, investors should get bonds registered in their own names, he advises. TEST POSITIVE FOR STOCK: Gensia Pharmaceuticals soared 12 1:2, or 25%, to $62 Thursday after the company reported positive test results on its cardiovascular drug Arasine. The company says patients who took the drug in the Phase II study suffered 64% fewer heart attacks than a group on placebos. PaineWebber analyst Linda Miller called the results "very, very intriguing." FUNDS ARE HOPPING: Mutual-fund investors put more money than ever into bond and stock funds last month, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday. Investors put $6.7 billion more into stock funds then they took out last month. In bond funds, investors put in $7.9 billion more than they took out. Last month's nearly $15 billion inflow was a record, up 25% from December's $12 billion inflow. GOLD, SILVER UP: Gold prices shot higher in what trading analysts called a reaction to word of large purchase orders abroad. Republic National Bank quoted gold at $353.50 a troy ounce, up $4. At the Commodity Exchange, gold for current delivery fetched $353.90, up $4.20. The metal also rose in London and Zurich. On the Comex, silver for current delivery fetched $4.103 an ounce, up 4.2 cents. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON IBM: SPINOFFS A LONG-TERM PROSPECT: Hurting from excessive bureaucracy, rivals snaring market share and a bum economy, IBM said in December that it would break itself into autonomous units. Each will have its own top brass, and the take-home pay of each unit head will be tied to performance. Spinoffs are being weighed - but over the long term, not the short term, IBM says. IBM won't say what it means by long term. SPINOFFS SEEN BY 1993: One longtime IBM follower, Rick Martin of Chicago Corp., predicts public Baby Blues sooner than later. He sees IBM's printer business leading the way before year-end. What's more, he expects the personal-computer and workstation operations, either separately or as a team, to also be public before the end of next year. Ditto for disk drives, defense and pieces of the communications business. STOCKS PROSPECTS NOT FAVORABLE: Like many analyst, Martin isn't wild about the stock's prospects for now. That is despite the fact that the shares, $87 3:4, are selling well below where they were after the October 1987 crash, $103 1:4. In the same period, the Dow industrials shot up almost 90%. Last year, the stock fell 21%. Martin sees IBM trading between $85 and $100 the next few months. SPINOFFS COULD BOOST STOCK: If there's evidence of any spinoffs or the managers start turning around their businesses, the stock could get to $130 to $140 by next year, Martin says. His earnings outlook: $7.50 a share this year, $8.50 next year. Wall Street's consensus '92 and '93 earnings estimates: $7.22 and $9.09. Analyst Peter Labe rates the stock a buy, "but not a screaming buy." (End of package.) DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Friday at 3269.45, after closing down 13.87 Thursday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 228.75, down 0.48. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 416.09, up 2.12. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 633.95, up 1.55. DOLLAR OPENS MOSTLY DOWN: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Friday. It opens at 0.5701 British pounds, down from 0.5721; 5.5928 French francs, down from 5.6389; 129.40 Japanese yen, up from 129.35; and 1.6435 German marks, down from 1.6495. (As of 3 p.m. Thursday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) 24-HOUR TELEPHONE INFORMATION: USA TODAY Money Hot Line. 95 cents a minute. 1-900-555-5555. Personal Investing Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 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