Pat Fitzgibbons Chats on AOL's MarketTalk, Nov. 6, 2000

Pat Fitzgibbons chatted on AOL MarketTalk on Monday, Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m. EST. AOL's MarketTalk is produced by Sage Online (Keyword: Markettalk).

PFitzgibbo: Afternoon everyone! The Dow's nearing 11,000 and the election looms!

Question: Which presidential candidate will benefit the stock market the most, Gore or Bush?

PFitzgibbo: I think that each would benefit certain sectors. As a rule, the market likes the GOP. However, in the past few years the market's done pretty well with a split Congress and presidency. Microsoft might like to see the Clinton-Gore years end, so might big tobacco. However, health care might like to have Gore around.

Question: The weak euro is being blamed for some earnings disappointments. Do you see any improvement in the euro and how would a Fed rate cut affect it?

PFitzgibbo: The euro did shoulder a lot of the blame from this last quarter. It looks like the ECB is more interested in propping up the currency and has intervened three times in the past week. It hasn't worked yet, but it may kick in over time. As far as the Fed goes, I suspect that any sort of cut could help the euro, but I'm unsure [of] the long-term benefits from such a cut

Question: Is Ericsson a good stock buy now or do you see a continual slide down for this sector?

PFitzgibbo: I can't comment on ERICY in particular, but an economic slowdown (if we are going to be in one) will likely not do a whole lot for this sector.

Question: Do you think Techs will rebound and if so when? Thanks.

PFitzgibbo: I think that the entire market tends to like November and December and will react positively to the election being over, whichever way it goes. Tech will likely benefit, of course, from any major market move higher.

Question: Do you think Rite Aid will ever get out of the jackpot it is in? Do you think bankruptcy is in the near future? Thanks.

PFitzgibbo: Rite Aid has certainly had its fair share of problems. I'm not sure what I would do if I owned the stock. It's up a little bit today, but it's so damned depressed. Deciding if a company is going to file for bankruptcy is a tricky game. I'm not sure what the company's officials have in mind for the long term, but I'd sure watch the wires pretty carefully to see if there's any company news.

Question: What is the current national debt and does it affect me and my stocks?

PFitzgibbo: Not sure what the real number of the debt is now. It affects the value of your stocks because the market does not generally react positively to the issuance of too much debt. A lot of government issuance has been staved off in the past few years as the deficit has shrunk. I suspect that, unless something very bad happens, the level of debt in the country will continue to decline.

Question: How do you think Cisco will do after the market closes? Thank you.

PFitzgibbo: It really depends on what the company's earnings look like. They have a tendency to always beat by a penny. If they do that then they may slip a little. However, they are down about 2.5% today, so anything positive could help the stock in after-hours trading.

Question: May I ask a question that you will probably consider dumb? I am new to my 401K and I don't understand basics.

PFitzgibbo: Well, first things first, you are going to need to do a little work and a little reading. If you'd like, there are several stories that we run on our site dealing with Investing Basics. They are a must-read for people just starting out.

As far as what investments to make, you should really demand that your company have an HR representative sit down with you and explain each of the available investments, how they have performed and what's in those funds. There are a dozen other things you could do, and this is one of the best times to be an investor because of the amount of available information. Take advantage of as much of it as you can.

SageMoola: Thank you very much for joining us today, Pat!

PFitzgibbo: Thanks very much for having me, and I'll see you on TheStreet.com.

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