Investing For Growth
Investing For Growth
(FOOL GLOBAL WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 11): First the good news, and believe it or not, there was a little. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette analyst Brian Egger upgraded Mirage Resorts <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MIR)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MIR)") end if %> to "outperform" from "market Perform" today. He said the fears that the companies might withdraw their development plans for Atlantic City are already built into the current stock price.
Another good bit of news is the announcement by Checkpoint Systems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:CKP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:CKP)") end if %> that it is installing its RF (Radio Frequency) Electronic Article Surveillance systems into five new major retail chains.
In America, Phar Mor Drug Stores and Drug Emporium are going to Checkpoint's source tagging throughout their chains. In the United Kingdom, Harrod's has switched to Checkpoint's RF EAS system in order to pursue source tagging. And in Canada, Oshawa Foods and The Federated Co-Operative Ltd. will be using the systems.
According to Kevin Dowd, Checkpoint's president and CEO, the rapid growth in the number of chain-wide commitments demonstrates the retail industry's preference for RF EAS source tagging. More than 450 manufacturers worldwide are currently source tagging by embedding Checkpoint's paper-thin RF labels into their products or packaging.
But today's bad news makes those bright lights seem extremely dim.
Hewlett-Packard <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:HWP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:HWP)") end if %> added to yesterday's bad news from Motorola <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MOT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MOT)") end if %> with its announcement that it's getting out of the disk-drive manufacturing line and that its overall order growth is slowing. Hewlett-Packard said after the market close Wednesday that it would take a $150 million pre-tax charge related to the disk-drive exit. It warned of slowing order growth across all businesses and regions.
To intensify the carnage, another round of downgrades were piled onto the stock. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette sliced it from "buy" to "market perform" and dropped it from its recommended list. Smith Barney lowered its rating from "buy" to "neutral."
And the news wasn't just contained to Hewlett-Packard. Much of the technology sector was slammed by association, with new IFG component SCI Systems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:SCIS)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:SCIS)") end if %> getting clobbered to the tune of 13%. And RoTech Medical <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ROTC)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ROTC)") end if %> dropped 13% along with the healthcare selloff. Oof!
Pass the Pepcid and turn off the cable TV. Can't do anything about it, so don't make yourself nuts watching every trade race across the screen. As of today, the IFG Classic model portfolio dipped into the red for 1996.
Transmitted: 7/11/96 | ||||||||
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