Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.invest,americast.usa-today.invest From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: invest Wed, Oct 28 1992 Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 04:40:26 EST Message-ID: 10-28 0000 DECISIONLINE: Personal Investing USA TODAY Update Oct. 28, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network INVESTORS WHACK XEROX: Investors whacked Xerox Tuesday, dropping the stock 2 1:4 to $76 after the copier maker reported lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings of $1.18 a share. First Boston's Curt Rohrman says earnings were only a slight disappointment. The real downer was Xerox setting aside $444 million for restructuring at its Crum & Forster property:casualty insurance unit, a perennial loser. ECONOMIC GROWTH TAKES A LEAP: Economic growth jumped to a 2.7% annual rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, almost equal to first quarter's 2.9%. President Bush trumpeted the report, the last major economic report before the election. Economists were stunned by the jump in gross domestic product. The consensus forecast was for 1.6% growth. The deparment said the figure should not be revised downward much. U.S. HEALTHCARE TUMBLES: Tumbling shares of U.S. HealthCare, a large provider of HMOs, caught a lot of investors off guard this week. Analysts have loved the stock for years and it got an added kick as one of analysts' "Clinton portfolio." But company insiders turned more cautious as Wall Street got more bullish. Some analysts say the selloff was just the result of insiders trying to spread out their stocks. HMOS SHOULD BOUNCE BACK: Company insiders have been selling shares at United Healthcare, an HMO on many buy lists, and at HealthCare COMPARE, a health-care cost-containment company. United has shown no signs of cracking, but insider selling may be flashing a warning. Analyst Bradley Wilson at J.C. Bradford says not to worry, HMOs are still the best way to cut health-care costs. CLINTON ADVISER HITS MONEY LINE: A top adviser of Gov. Bill Clinton took to the phones Monday to fill in Wall Street on the candidate's economic plans. About 500 institutional investors from the USA, Europe and Asia tapped into a massive conference call with Robert Shapiro. Edward Yardeni of C. J. Lawrence, who set up the call, said he thought about "$500 billion, if not $1 trillion worth of assets was listening in." BRISTOL MYERS SELLS HOUSEHOLDS: Bristol-Myers Squibb is getting back to basics by getting out of the business of selling Drano, Endust and Windex. The drug company said Tuesday that it will sell its household products subsidiary, Drackett for $1.2 billion cash. "That should translate into a nice one-time gain for Bristol Myers," says Stuart Levine, stock analyst for Janney Montgomery. Long-term gains remain to be seen. DRUG COMPANIES SELL BUSINESSES: Increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are selling non-drug businesses. For example, Schering-Plough sold its Maybelline line and Pfizer spun off a fragrance unit. "In the '80s, everybody thought they ought to acquire something; now they're getting rid of things," says Jim McCamant, a newsletter editor Drug companies are also dedicating all attention to their basic business. RJR REPORTS EARNINGS: RJR Nabisco Holdings' earnings soared 48% the third quarter from a year earlier, including a $70 million charge the tobacco and food giant took to refinance debt. Net income jumped to $182 million, or 13 cents a share, vs. $123 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Officials say RJR has refinanced $2.8 billion in debt this year, which will produce significant savings on interest payments. CITICORP PLANS MILDER CUTS: Chairman John Reed says Citicorp will make more cost and staff cuts next year, but not as drastic as the past two years. Since 1990, the USA's largest bank company has cut annual operating costs by $1.4 billion and cut staff by 18,000 to 82,000. Reed Tuesday confirmed analysts' reports that Citicorp plans to sell $800 million of its assets the next few quarters to build capital. STERN CAN PROCESS TRADES: The Chicago Board of Trade says Lee B. Stern & Co. has voluntarily withdrawn as a clearing member of the exchange but remains a member. A clearing firm processes customer trades. Other member firms must channel business through clearing members. The board says it has removed the suspensions of the three major owners of Stern, but the firm is banned from handling customer accounts. GOLD FALLS, SILVER MIXED: Gold fell Tuesday. At New York's Commodity Exchange, gold dropped $3.70 a troy ounce to $337.40. Republic National Bank in New York quoted gold at $337.25, down $3.25 from Monday. Gold fell in London to $338.15, down from $341.25 Monday. Silver fell to $3.739 an ounce on New York's Comex from $3.744 late Monday. Silver bullion rose in London to $3.76 a troy ounce, up from $3.75 Monday. DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens at 3235.73 Wednesday after closing down 8.38 Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 230.01, up 0.23. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 376.65, down 0.49. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 596.95, down 1.97. DOLLAR OPENS MIXED OVERSEAS: The dollar opens mostly down on Wednesday. It opens at 0.6319 British pounds, down from 0.6343; 5.2015 French francs, down from 5.2290; 1.5325 German marks, down from 1.5420; and 122.33 Japanese yen, up from 122.20. (As of 3 p.m. Tuesday. 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: Martin Baucom. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution purposes violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM