The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (Apr. 30, 1997)

Wow. Who'd of thunk it? The Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter came in off the map and yet the market still rallied. If you pull the numbers apart, though, the extremely strong growth isn't accompanied by the kind of inflation that would prompt the Fed to get out the interest rate sledge hammer.

Most pundits still believe that the Fed will raise rates another 25 basis points at the May 20 meeting, but they don't see much reason for the Fed to raise rates beyond that. Trying to out-guess the Federal Reserve is almost as profitable as betting on the NBA, of course, but neither futile task suffers from a dearth of attempts.

The big moves recently have been in several of the technology bellwether stocks. Even after doubling in the past eleven months or so, both INTEL <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %> and MICROSOFT <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %> put on impressive spurts over the past week. Today was simply more of the same.

Many market followers are concerned that it's only these giant names which are scoring gains, but the rally of the last several days appears to be broadening out. Smaller stocks, for example, like AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: APCC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: APCC)") end if %>, MCAFEE ASSOCIATES <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MCAF)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MCAF)") end if %>, and ASCEND COMMUNICATIONS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ASND)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ASND)") end if %> also sprinted ahead.

Let's see; if we can only sustain this kind of torrid pace for another two months, the Unemotional Growth screen might break even for the year. Yechhh.

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
 16.69%  Relative Strength  
  7.12%  S&P 500 Index  
  1.61%  Low Price/Sales  
 -7.07%  YPEG Potential  
 -9.73%  Investing for Growth  
-17.06%  EPS Plus RS  
-17.87%  Unemotional Growth  
-23.96%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
 8.70%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
 8.35%  Dogs of the Dow  
 5.78%  Beating the S&P  
 0.47%  Unemotional Value  
 0.47%  Beating the Dow  
 0.43%  Dow Combo  
-4.31%  Foolish Four