Friday: Abby's Still the Same, Only More So

Abby Joseph Cohen, Goldman Sachs' highly influential strategist, is acting as a market mover once again. Yesterday, a story in The Wall Street Journal suggested that Cohen was waffling on her bullish theme. That prompted some analysts to blame the waffle for the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 92-point drop, although most of the information in the Journal story stemmed from a six-day-old memo, according to The Street's Thursday Market Roundup.

This morning, Cohen circulated a memo within Goldman and to key clients stressing that she was as bullish as ever, raising her 1997 price target for the S&P 500 to 850 from 810, according to CNBC.

Cohen said she felt comfortable that earnings growth would continue throughout 1997.

Following the news announcement, the Dow, which was drifting listlessly in negative territory early in the trading session, shot up almost 30 points.

Elsewhere this morning, Bear Stearns analyst Marina Kunis initiated coverage of six movie theater stocks. She placed a buy on Carmike Cinemas (CKE); an attractive on AMC Entertainment (AEN) and Imax Corp. (IMAXF); and a neutral on Cineplex Odeon (CPX), Regal Cinemas (REGL) and GC Cos. (GCX).

"Now is an interesting time to pick up coverage of theater stocks because of the strong box office," says Kunis. "And Carmike and AMC are especially attractive because they're undervalued relative to their growth rate."

Kunis believes there will be several blockbusters this summer that will follow up the box office success Star Wars is having.

In one small sign of a strong box office, a New York movie theater did the highly unusual today -- listing in The New York Times that several of its opening-night screenings of The Empire Strikes Back had already sold out.

Carmike was up 3/4 to 25 1/2 and AMC was up 1/4 to 15 3/4 in early-morning trading.

By Avi Stieglitz
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