Mythic Tales, Oily Insights and a Bunch of Basics

Author:: Cory Johnson
Publish date:: Sep 5, 1998 12:15 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- One of these Fridays, I'll sit down to write about what a great job TheStreet.com staffers did making a boring week of trading into interesting reading. Not this week. Monday's market fell faster than a Greg Maddux curveball, and TSC staffers knocked it out of the park like McGwire or Sosa. And, save the embarrassing exception, they did so with an absence of lame sports metaphor!

But there's the pitch, here's the swing:

Hanging Semi-Tough

Amid the widespread market wreckage, no stocks looked more pathetic than those in the semiconductor industry. But a few savvy fund managers were buying, and staff reporter

Marcy Burstiner

was on the phone with them, looking at their picks.

Garage Sale: Picking Through Beat-Up Semiconductors

(Sept. 1)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980901/Companies/siliconvalley/30903_911998.html

Tragic Comedy

Our Wyoming-based economist

Funky Cold James Padinha

is privy to much, but as the old journalistic maxim goes, "If no news, report rumor." Padinha takes it a step further (there's a shocker) and reports fiction, with a conversation between Fed Chairman

Alan Greenspan

, Treasury Secretary

Robert Rubin

and Japanese Finance Minister

Kiichi Miyazawa

. The result is brilliant.

The Invisible Mouth: The Sounds of Silence

(Sept. 1)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980901/Commentary/economics/30888_911998.html

Hedge Head Count

Staff reporter

Suzanne Kapner

has one of those Rolodexes that most reporters -- even those in the

TSC

newsroom -- salivate over. So when the Street was swirling with rumors that certain hedge funds had been done in by the calamity of U.S. and foreign markets, Kapner was on the horn, checking for signs of life.

And even before the hedgies knew how much trouble they were in, Kapner took a look at the hedge-fund industry as a whole and discovered that these are not, in fact, the good old days for hedge funds.

Market Puts Hedge Funds on the Hot Seat. Who's Next?

(Sept. 3)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980903/companies/topstories/30971_931998.html

No Haven for Hedgies

(Aug. 29)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980829/funds/fundwatchfeatures/30791_8291998.html

A Less Than Holy Abby

Senior writer

Justin Lahart

has an incredible knack for getting a feel for the market. He spends most of his days sitting in a corner of the newsroom, talking loudly into his headset hoping the traders on the other end of the phone can hear him over the hubbub. He's spent every working day of the last year and a half making dozens of these calls daily. So when Lahart says "The Street sez this," it's a notion that comes well researched.

On Wednesday, Lahart finds the Street talking about the myth of

Abby Joseph Cohen

. In a powerful piece, Lahart shows why the myth of an infallible Cohen is little more than Wall Street fantasy.

Abby Cohen's Heavy Halo Starts to Show Some Tarnish

(Sept. 2)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980902/markets/marketfeatures/30929_921998.html

A Package Deal

Last week you could've sold tickets to a class on How to Run for the Hills. Nonetheless, contributor

Andrew Greta

was offering up an education on the basics of fundamental analysis last week, and what a class it was: four parts on how to break down stocks and figure out what you own and why you own it, with the fifth coming next week. It couldn't have come at a better time.

Hoosier Dispatch: The Basics of Fundamental Analysis

(Sept. 1-7)

https://archive.thestreet.com/980901/Commentary/hoosierdispatch/30900_911998.html

Ladies and Gentlemen: Start Your Calendars

TSC's

technology staff looked into the crystal ball a bit, looking at six tech sectors and selecting the most important dates on the calendar over the next year. A list of some 60 events that could rock the market is just what traders need right now.

Tech 10 Things to Watch Lists

(Aug. 30-Sept. 4)

https://www.thestreet.com/premium/Companies/siliconvalley/30960_931998.html

Meanwhile, Back at the Oil Patch

Staff reporter

Mavis Scanlon's

travels in the oil sector this year have taken her from the bowels of Wall Street to oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. So when she comes up with a list of overly beaten-down stocks in the oil-service sector, you know she's diggin' deep.

A Starting Point for Oil Service Bargain Hunters

(Sept. 3)

https://www.thestreet.com/premium/Companies/topstories/30927_931998.html

A Ringing WWWeb of Intrigue

Staff reporter

Kevin Petrie

usually keeps himself to fat boxes -- no, not jazz guitars, but routers, hubs, switches; all those things that blink in the tech closet. But this time, Petrie turns his savvy eye to

e-Net

(ETEL)

, a Internet telephony company that has gathered a circle of short-sellers. Every reporter should wish they had a little bit of what Petrie has.

Entangled in e-Net

(Sept. 2)

https://www.thestreet.com/premium/Companies/topstories/30935_921998.html