Investment Figures of the Week

Investment Figures of the Week

COMMENTARYAfter its mad race up the charts, the Dow fell off its blistering pace to closethe week down 1.2%. The Dow's 79-point plunge on Dec. 3--its biggest one-daydrop since July--was sparked by an about-face in bond prices as the dollardropped against the yen. The dollar's drop raised the prospect that a strongerdollar would hurt corporate profits. A report of poor auto sales for GeneralMotors Corp. in November added fuel to the fire. Small caps rallied for most ofthe week, with the NASDAQ Composite Index ending the week up 0.75%.

% change

U.S. MARKETS Latest Week 52-week

Dow Jones Industrials 6422.9 -1.2 25.0

NASDAQ Combined Composite 1297.0 0.8 21.2

S&P MidCap 400 255.8 0.0 16.4

S&P SmallCap 600 144.9 1.1 20.1

S&P SuperComposite 1500 160.6 -1.1 20.8

% change

SECTORS Latest Week 52-week

Bloomberg Information Age 235.5 0.5 18.8

S&P Financials 82.0 -3.1 30.1

S&P Utilities 200.0 -0.4 3.3

PSE Technology 252.2 2.8 NA

% change

FOREIGN MARKETS Latest Week 52-week

London (FT-SE 100) 4045.2 -0.1 10.2

Frankfurt (DAX) 2866.1 2.5 27.3

Tokyo (NIKKEI 225) 20,659.9 -3.2 9.3

Hong Kong (Hang Seng) 13,434.2 -0.7 35.1

Toronto (TSE 300) 5910.7 -1.3 25.4

Mexico City (IPC) 3390.5 3.7 26.1

Week Year

FUNDAMENTALS Latest ago ago

S&P 500 Dividend Yield 1.94% 1.91% 2.20%

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Last 12 mos.) 20.8 21.0 18.3

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Next 12 mos.)* 16.2 16.6 NA

First Call Earnings Revision* -0.95% -0.06% NA

Week

TECHNICAL INDICATORS Latest ago Reading

S&P 500 200-day average 671.2 668.6r Positive

Stocks above 200-day average 68.0% 66.0% Neutral

Options: Put/call ratio 0.54 0.54 Negative

Insiders: Vickers Sell/buy ratio 1.85 1.80 Positive

Data: Bloomberg Financial Markets; *First Call Corp.

Latest Week Year

KEY RATES week% ago% ago%

MONEY MARKET FUNDS 4.95 4.94 NA

90-DAY TREASURY BILLS 5.05 5.16 5.46

6-MONTH BANK CDS 5.22 5.27 5.43

1-YEAR TREASURY NOTES 5.39 5.41 5.32

10-YEAR TREASURY BONDS 6.06 6.13 5.63

30-YEAR TREASURY BONDS 6.35 6.43 6.01

LONG-TERM AA INDUSTRIALS 6.90 6.98 6.71

LONG-TERM BBB INDUSTRIALS 7.32 7.43 7.08

LONG-TERM AA TELEPHONES 7.05 7.14 6.94

BEST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Computer Systems 24.2 Oil & Gas Drilling 127.5

Instrumentation 19.6 Shoes 84.3

Semiconductors 19.4 Oil-Well Equip. & Svcs. 47.9

HMOs 18.8 Computer Software 45.2

Hospital Management 14.8 Specialty Appar. Retailers 43.4

WORST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Manufactured Housing -14.2 Trucking -29.6

Publishing -6.2 Broadcasting -16.6

Cosmetics -2.0 Machine Tools -15.3

Soft Drinks -2.0 Long-Dist. Telecomm. -10.1

Commercial Services -1.8 Steel -9.9

BLOOMBERG MONEY FLOW ANALYSIS

Rebound ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant buying on price weakness Price change

Fila Holding-ADR 70 3/4 - 3/4

MFS Communications 49 1/2 - 1/8

BellSouth 39 -1 1/2

Cascade Communications 70 -3 3/8

Wal-Mart Stores 26 - 1/4

Coca-Cola 49 3/4 -1

Decline ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant selling on price strength Price change

Microsoft 154 11/16 16 11/16

Cisco Systems 65 1/2 4 7/8

Oracle 49 3/4 5

Informix 25 1/4 3 7/8

U.S. Robotics 73 3/4 14 1/4

Dell Computer 108 11/16 30 15/16

BLOOMBERG MUNI YIELD EQUIVALENTS

Taxable equivalent yields on AAA-rated, tax-exempt municipal bonds,

assuming a 31% federal tax rate.

10-yr. bond 30-yr. bond

Latest Last Latest Last

week week week week

GENERAL OBLIGATIONS 4.67% 4.72% 5.31% 5.36%

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 76.58 77.00 83.10 83.24

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 6.77 6.84 7.70 7.77

INSURED REVENUE BONDS 4.79 4.84 5.55 5.60

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 78.55 78.96 86.85 86.96

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 6.94 7.01 8.04 8.12

EQUITY FUNDS

Leaders Laggards

Four-week total return % Four-week total return %

Seligman Commun. & Info. D 15.0 United Svcs. Gold Shares -11.0

Fidelity Sel. Electronics 14.7 Bull & Bear Gold Invest. -9.9

Principal Pr. PSE Tech. 100 14.3 Pioneer India A -9.1

United Svcs. China Region 13.5 Lexington Strat. Invmts. -8.6

Seligman Hend. Glob. Tech. A 13.2 IDS Precious Metals B -8.1

Leaders Laggards

52-week total return % 52-week total return %

State St. Res. Glob. Res. A 81.2 Steadman Technology Grth. -27.5

Interactive Inv. Tech. Val. 65.6 Matthews Korea -27.0

Fidelity Sel. Energy Serv. 61.0 Pioneer India B -22.1

PBHG Technology & Commun. 53.6 United Svcs. Gold Shares -21.9

Dreyfus Aggressive Value 52.2 Bhirud Mid Cap Growth -19.8

EQUITY FUND OBJECTIVES

Leaders Laggards

Four-week total return % Four-week total return %

Specialty-Technology 9.6 Specialty-Precious Metals -5.0

Growth and Income 5.0 Specialty-Utilities 1.8

Specialty-Natural Resources 5.0 Diversified Emerging Market 2.0

Specialty-Financial 5.0 Specialty-Communication 2.4

Growth 4.6 Multiasset Global 2.7

Leaders Laggards

52-week total return % 52-week total return%

Specialty-Natural Resources 35.1 Specialty-Communication 8.6

Specialty-Real Estate 30.1 Specialty-Precious Metals 9.1

Specialty-Financial 29.3 Pacific 9.9

Growth and Income 23.4 Specialty-Utilities 12.6

Europe 22.5 Diversified Emerging Market 13.4

All data are as of market close Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1996, unless otherwise

indicated. Industry groups include S&P 500 companies only. Fundamentals,

technical indicators, Bloomberg money flow analysis, and mutual fund returns

are as of Dec. 3. For a more detailed explanation, write to us or E-mail

figures@businessweek.com NA=Not available r=revised **Vanguard Index 500 Fund

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