midday04-28-00

TheStreet.com's MIDDAY UPDATE

April 28, 2000

http://www.thestreet.com

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Market Data as of Close, 4/28/00:

o Dow Jones Industrial Average: 10,745.39 down 142.71, -1.31%
o Nasdaq Composite Index: 3,822.40 up 48.37, 1.28%
o S&P 500: 1,450.27 down 14.65, -1.00%
o TSC Internet: 886.38 up 29.41, 3.43%
o Russell 2000: 502.41 up 7.83, 1.58%
o 30-Year Treasury: 103 28/32 up 8/32, yield 5.953%

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In Today's Bulletin:

o Midday Musings: Tech Strength Continues at Midday; Hobbled Dow Still Struggling
o Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations: When the Toughest Get Going

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Catch "TheStreet.com" on Fox News Channel Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. (ET). Scott Bleier, Chief Investment Strategist at Prime Charter, will be our guest April 29, 30.

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Also on TheStreet.com:

Banking: Conseco Picture Grows Bleaker as Top Execs Depart

The stock has plunged 85%, as heavy debt and operating problems have taken their toll.

http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/banking/929202.html

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Market Features: Tech Shows Renewed Immunity to Rate Fears

And as recent market action suggests, much of the risk is accumulating in money-losing dot-coms.

http://www.thestreet.com/markets/marketfeatures/929211.html

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The Buzz Beat: The Final Plot

Buzz and Batch will be on leave for a while, but they've got some plotting before they go.

http://www.thestreet.com/comment/buzzbeat/929507.html

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Christopher Edmonds: Buffett Hosts 'Capitalist Woodstock' in Omaha

Until two weeks ago it seemed there would be little to celebrate come Saturday.

http://www.thestreet.com/funds/chrisedmonds/929541.html

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Midday Musings: Tech Strength Continues at Midday; Hobbled Dow Still Struggling

By Kristen French
Staff Reporter
4/28/00 1:18 PM ETThe Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to limp downward after yesterday's hot inflation data broke its legs, but the Nasdaq Composite Index was still bucking upward in relatively thin trade.

Major Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE Dow -115.41 -1.1% 10,771.45 S&P 500 -12.07 -0.82% 1452.92 Nasdaq +56.1 +1.5 % 3830.13 Russell 2000 +6.34 +1.29% 500.98 TSC Internet +30.27 +3.54% 887.07 NOTE CHANGE PRICE YIELD 10-Year Treasury +1/32 101 31/32 6.229 %

Investors began fleeing the so-called "inflation-sensitive" old-economy stocks yesterday as they sought cover in "high-growth" tech stocks. So far that trend has held.

Most market observers said the fact that the Nasdaq has been able to hold its head high amid the recent flutter of bad news is very impressive and bodes well, at least for the short term.

That bad news includes a report earlier today that George Soros' firm is losing Stanley Druckenmiller and Nicholos Roditi, which some thought might mean some heavy selling in tech.

Druckenmiller ran Soros' $8.2 billion Quantum Fund and Roditi ran the $1.2 billion Quota Fund. The two managers had bet heavily on technology names starting in the latter half of 1999. The recent selloff in tech names hurt the fund badly -- it reportedly lost $3 billion in capitalization in the last six weeks.

For more on this story, take a look at the coverage out of the TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com joint newsroom.

One stock, in particular, was really singing the blues today.

In the last hour, a federal judge in New York ruled that MP3 (MPPP Quote) violated copyright laws by creating a database of music available to be downloaded off the Web. The ruling has hammered the stock and it was recently down 4 5/8, or 40%, to 7.

"For a Friday, going into a weekend, and having digested a lot of bad news, it's very impressive that the market has been able to hang in this tough so far," said Ned Collins, executive vice president of U.S. stocks at Daiwa Securities America.

But no one wants to say that the market has moved entirely out of the woods yet as there may be more bad news to be weathered.

"Next week everyone will be keeping an eye on the April employment data. Market players are sitting boxed in by that data. We may see activity slow down in the afternoon after the harrowing week we've had. And we could see tech back-and-fill a little bit more," said Bryan Piskorowski, market analyst at Prudential Securities.

Financials and insurance stocks were still taking blows after falling hard on the inflation news yesterday. The American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index was down 1.4%, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange KBW/Bank Index was down 2.2% and the S&P Insurance Index was 1.3.

Leading financials down around mid-session were Citigroup(C Quote), down 2.6, and American Express(AXP Quote), down 0.9%.

Fellow Dow industrials components J.P. Morgan(JPM Quote) was down 1.9% and Chase Manhattan(CMB Quote) dropped 1.4%.

Insurance giant American International Group(AIG Quote) was off 1.5%.

On the NYSE, Three-Five Systems(TFS Quote) was off 8% and Mettler-Toledo Int'l(MTD Quote) off 14.6%, were posting the biggest losses.

The Nasdaq was getting extra bounce, meanwhile, from Aether Systems(AETH Quote), and Rambus(RMBS Quote).

Rambus' gain was also propelling the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index up 3.2%.

Technology bellwether Intel(INTC Quote) was up 2.1%, after the chip giant reported Thursday it is accelerating its efforts to promote the growth of electronic commerce. Other chip makers, such as Texas Instruments(TXN Quote) and LSI Logic(LSI Quote) were riding Intel's wave.

Meanwhile, Microsoft(MSFT Quote) was down 1.4% ahead of the release of the government's proposal for splitting up the company after the market closes this afternoon.

Consumer retail stocks were also in trouble, as were drug stocks. And utility stocks were down after a strong run up in the last few weeks. The American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index was off 1.7%, and the Dow Jones Utility Average was off 1.3%.

The Street.com Internet Sector index was up 35.48 to 892.45, once again, boosted by strength in Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and CMGI(CMGI Quote).

Market Internals

Breadth was narrowly mixed on the NYSE and positive on the Nasdaq, while volume was relatively light on both.

New York Stock Exchange: 1,424 advancers, 1,351 decliners, 553 million shares. 41 new 52-week highs, 30 new lows.

Nasdaq Stock Market: 2,200 advancers, 1,634 decliners, 882 million shares. 33 new highs, 60 new lows.

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Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations: When the Toughest Get Going

By James J. Cramer

4/28/00 8:56 AM ET

First Julian Robertson. Now Stanley Druckenmiller? And you think running money is easy? This morning we learned of the departure of Stanley Druckenmiller from the Soros Fund, where he was the chief investment strategist. The departure comes after Soros suffered some heavyweight losses in this market.

Druckenmiller is no ordinary fund manager. I met Stanley 14 years ago when he was the star at Dreyfus, when that fund family was hot as a pistol.

He is one of the greats of this business, perceptive, intelligent, honest and ahead of the game at all times. When he spoke, you listened. All he did in the intervening years was get better and better and better. He is someone my wife, skeptical beyond belief, always felt had a fabulous call on the tape. If she heard that he liked the tape, and she didn't, she might change her mind.

He came on Ron Insana's great show a few years back and talked about something he did wrong. I sat there in awe that he would have the confidence to tell the truth like that. He's an awesome money manager. The fact that Druckenmiller's near-term results have been subpar is a sharp reminder of how hard this market has gotten.

It is a wake-up call for those who would beat themselves up over the vicissitudes of this tape. It the tape itself and not you that is so confused. It would not surprise me if some of the craziness lately in the Nasdaq is related to the unwinding of some Soros' positions in that market.

As shook up as I was about the losses Julian Robetson experienced, I am even more sobered by what has happened at Soros. The takeaway here is that the game has gotten tougher for the professionals running billions than it has ever been.

Please, please be careful out there. When the toughest get going, you can't be too sure or cocky or arrogant about anything.

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund had no positions in any stocks mentioned. His fund often buys and sells securities that are the subject of his columns, both before and after the columns are published, and the positions that his fund takes may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Cramer's writings provide insights into the dynamics of money management and are not a solicitation for transactions. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to comment on his column at [e-mail].

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