<THE FOOLISH FOUR>

Foolish Four Report
by Robert Sheard

LEXINGTON, KY. (Jan. 28, 1998) -- Another quartet of Dow players reported their fourth-quarter progress today. Let's look over the program notes together.

Our first violinist is AlliedSignal <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ALD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ALD)") end if %>. Soaring brilliant melodies characterize Allied's technical and artistic performances of late. Translation: the stock jumped nicely after telling the Street that it expects to meet its earnings goal for 1998 of 13% to 17% growth. AlliedSignal reported diluted earnings of 55 cents per share, right in line with estimates and nine cents a share better than last year's fourth quarter. AlliedSignal will be handling the tough solos in this concert.

The second violinist is DuPont <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") end if %>, a stock that has been among the Foolish Four a number of times recently. Despite reporting a fourth-quarter profit lower than last year's and warning that 1998 will be a tough year because of Asia and weak oil prices, the audience applauded heartily nevertheless. (DuPont was up over 2% for the day.)

Before special charges, DuPont's earnings climbed 11%, another record performance. After the charges for writing off research and development at recently acquired companies, DuPont's earnings dropped to 23 cents per share. Even with a negative currency impact of some 7%, DuPont was able to grow its earnings for the entire year by 9% over 1996's tally.

On viola tonight we have the long-time audience favorite, Coca-Cola <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") end if %>. While Coke missed analyst estimates by a penny, reporting 33 cents a share, the company's forecast for continuing sales and bottling operations kept the listeners in rapture. Overseas sales continued growing much faster than U.S. sales, and Coke's realignment of its bottling operations helped it to emphasize its concentrate business. Even with the strong dollar hampering annual revenues from its extensive overseas operations, Coke's gross profit margins still increased another 8% in 1997. Bravo!

And rounding out tonight's performance, on cello, Philip Morris <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") end if %>. Despite coming in with earnings essentially right on the mark with analyst expectations, the audience seems to expect this performer to hit a clunker at any moment. Philip Morris raised all the caution flags one might expect: the Asian economic crisis, the strong dollar, and the potential fallout from U.S. tobacco settlements (or further litigation). The stock didn't enjoy much of today's overall Dow celebration. Nevertheless, it was a solid earnings performance, but the audience chose to focus on the treble performers rather than the bass tonight.

Encore! Encore!

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TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change   Last 
 -------------------- 
 UK   +1  1/2   43.50 
 IP   +1 13/16  47.50 
 MO   -  15/16  41.31 
 EK   +1  7/8   65.81 
 
            
                    Day   Month    Year 
         FOOL-4   +2.16%   2.85%   2.85% 
         DJIA     +1.28%   0.09%   0.09% 
         S&P 500  +0.87%   0.72%   0.72% 
         NASDAQ   +2.02%   2.58%   2.58% 
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change 
  
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape    43.13     47.50    10.14% 
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko    60.56     65.81     8.67% 
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb    42.94     43.50     1.31% 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor    45.25     41.31    -8.70% 
  
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change 
  
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape 12463.13  13727.50  $1264.38 
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko 12475.88  13557.38  $1081.50 
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb 12494.81  12658.50   $163.69 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor 12489.00  11402.25 -$1086.75 
  
  
                              CASH     $77.19 
                             TOTAL  $51422.82