The ADMISSION !!
from Time Magazine's web site

http://www.pathfinder.com/time/daily/0,2960,32564-101991014,00.html

Y2K Is Bugging the Markets

Y2K Is Bugging the Markets
What's bothering Wall Street these days? Everything it can find

Sure, sophisticates love to scoff that fear of the new millennium is much ado about nothing, that the Y2K bug is a molehill, that when the sun rises (if it does) on Year 2000, the worlds financial infrastructure will boot right up.

Try telling that to the markets, whose indexes have been shedding points steadily the past two days  mostly on the theory that all the bad news is true.

"Its pessimism," says TIME senior economics reporter Bernard Baumohl.
"The big portfolio managers are beginning to play it safe, moving into cash and bonds because theyre just not sure whats going to happen in the final months of the year."

For now, there's plenty to worry about if you're looking. The bond markets have begun to sniff inflation  Treasury yields hit a two year high Wednesday  and with Fed meetings in November andDecember, Greenspan watchers are having a hard time believing he wont raise rates at least once. (This despite the logic of increased liquidity in case of serious millenium-induced money-under-mattress syndrome.)

Earnings expectations  and the expectation that good companies beat expectations  have been ratcheted up so high by the summers bull market that nobody seems to be able to keep up. And then theres the ultimate uncertainty: the possibility, however slight, that December 31 will be the end of the world.

"Its hanging over everything  the chance that something will happen that nobody was expecting," says Baumohl. "What were seeing the past few days is the latest phase of a long, slow correction that will probably continue until spring." Which is not to say that some daring folks wont be using 400-point slides like this weeks as a bargain-hunting opportunity. Just that they might not be getting much of a bargain. After all, you cant bring your stock portfolio to Judgment Day.
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well well well well

-- Ashton & Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999

Answers

Apparently just a wee bit of nervous flitz is fluttering out there.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999.

They still just gotta mix it in with superstition and Silly Doomer Scuff.

They should try some true, disciplined, scientific, technological Doomer discussion of embedded systems, faulty code, interconnectedness, carrying capacity.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999.

Everyone I know is moving mutual funds and 401Ks into the money market. Just in case.

-- (DowGuy@wallstreet.com), October 14, 1999.

But what's that old adage? When something appears on the cover of Time or Newsweek, do the opposite because it's a contrary indicator? (Yuck,yuck.) I wonder if that would hold true for Time Daily as well. Probably not, since they shoot from the hip a lot more than the weekly mag.

-- argh (argh@nowhere.com), October 14, 1999.

Go MAC! !!!!! Yes, Steve Jobs, one of our heroes, is featured on this week's cover of Time Mag. Yes! WheeeeeHeeeee! May Mac users get a long last belly laugh :-) Toy Story 2 will be out this ThanksGiving, and the reviews are scrumptious rollicking fun!

Reading the Time stories on Steve's Jobs is a real upper, a giddy rush of techno-excitement and hope for the future.
A very nice change of pace!

Nice to forget about the damn insect infestation once in a while ...

The new iMacs are out, demand already outstripping supply, and the earthquake in Taiwan doesn't help. But just imagine how many small biz owners will opt to chuck their sputtering beige doorstops and plug into the powerful, playful Mac world, soon now!

Too bad it needs electricity and telecom :_(

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999.

A&L: Was on vacation last week, up until yesterday. Haven't read the Mac cover yet.

-- argh (another Mac fan) (argh@nowhere.com), October 14, 1999.

argh, you're in for a treat! Many other Macintosh users on this Forum too. It's a GOOD NEWS experience!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999.

"After all, you cant bring your stock portfolio to Judgment Day" Man, what insight!

-- Jay Urban (jurban@berenyi.com), October 14, 1999.

Andy will bring his gold to the Pearly Gates ;^)

-- A & L (allaha@earthlink.net), October 14, 1999.