Investment Figures of the Week

Investment Figures of the Week

COMMENTARYStocks really took it on the chin this week, suffering from the double whammyof inflation fears and less-than-robust earnings. The Dow industrials tumbled363 points, or 5.3%, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index sank 5.1%. Forthe year so far, those two large-cap indexes are ahead just a bit more than 1%,after sporting almost double-digit gains less than a month ago. The performanceof the tech-laden NASDAQ index has been far worse---down 7% for the year. Goldstocks were rocked by the Bre-X scandal, and so were gold mutual funds.

% change

U.S. MARKETS Latest Week Year

Dow Jones Industrials 6517.0 -5.3 14.9

NASDAQ Combined Composite 1201.0 -5.4 8.1

S&P MidCap 400 249.1 -4.7 7.3

S&P SmallCap 600 135.2 -4.2 5.1

S&P SuperComposite 1500 160.6 -5.0 13.3

% change

SECTORS Latest Week Year

Bloomberg Information Age 223.9 -5.5 12.1

S&P Financials 84.3 -7.2 23.5

S&P Utilities 188.6 -2.5 -3.0

PSE Technology 238.1 -5.3 17.9

% change

FOREIGN MARKETS Latest Week Year

London (FT-SE 100) 4236.6 -1.5 13.6

Frankfurt (DAX) 3301.9 -3.4 32.0

Tokyo (NIKKEI 225) 18,037.3 -2.4 -16.5

Hong Kong (Hang Seng) 12,136.3 -5.0 8.9

Toronto (TSE 300) 5849.1 -4.5 16.4

Mexico City (IPC) 3716.2 -3.3 20.8

Week Year

FUNDAMENTALS Latest ago ago

S&P 500 Dividend Yield 1.94% 1.86% 2.13%

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Last 12 mos.) 19.9 20.7 19.3

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Next 12 mos.)* 15.9 16.6 NA

First Call Earnings Surprise* 2.41% NA NA

Week

TECHNICAL INDICATORS Latest ago Reading

S&P 500 200-day average 720.0 717.9 Positive

Stocks above 200-day average 56.0% 64.0% Neutral

Options: Put/call ratio 0.69 0.69 Neutral

Insiders: Vickers Sell/buy ratio 2.04 1.94 Neutral

BEST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Oil & Gas Drilling 11.4 Semiconductors 78.1

Trucking 9.3 Oil & Gas Drilling 56.1

Restaurants 9.3 Shoes 51.7

Newspaper Publishing 4.8 Savings & Loans 44.4

Oil-Well Equip. & Svcs. 3.4 Household Products 33.7

WORST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Hospital Management -21.2 Gold Mining -26.7

Photography/Imaging -17.7 Machine Tools -26.5

Tobacco -14.5 Engineering & Constr. -23.4

Gold Mining -14.2 Broadcasting -20.5

Engineering & Constr. -14.0 Steel -14.7

BLOOMBERG MONEY FLOW ANALYSIS

Rebound ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant buying on price weakness Price change

IBM 136 3/4 -8 3/8

Texas Instruments 75 1/4 -4 3/4

General Electric 98 5/8 -4 3/4

Citicorp 112 1/8 -5 1/2

Compaq Computer 74 3/4 -5 3/8

3M 85 5/8 -6 7/8

Decline ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant selling on price strength Price change

Royal Dutch Petroleum 174 3/8 3 3/4

ADC Telecommunications 28 1/8 3/8

PacifiCare Health Systems 83 3/4 11/16

ASM Lithography Holding 73 6 3/8

Monsanto 37 3/4 1/8

Zitel 29 3/4 3/4

INTEREST RATES

Latest Week Year

KEY RATES week% ago% ago%

MONEY MARKET FUNDS 5.01 4.96 4.86

90-DAY TREASURY BILLS 5.28 5.44 5.20

6-MONTH BANK CDS 5.13 5.07 4.86

1-YEAR TREASURY BILLS 5.95 5.91 5.41

10-YEAR TREASURY NOTES 6.85 6.75 6.31

30-YEAR TREASURY BONDS 7.07 6.95 6.66

LONG-TERM AA INDUSTRIALS 7.57 7.45 7.22

LONG-TERM BBB INDUSTRIALS 7.94 7.79 7.62

LONG-TERM AA TELEPHONES 7.76 7.65 7.48

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 5.07% 4.99% 5.63% 5.59%

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 73.94 73.68 79.63 80.13

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 7.35 7.23 8.16 8.10

INSURED REVENUE BONDS 5.24 5.14 5.89 5.86

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 76.42 75.89 83.31 84.00

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 7.59 7.45 8.54 8.49

MUTUAL FUNDS

EQUITY FUNDS

Leaders Laggards

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

Prudent Bear 6.7 IDS Precious Metals B -17.6

Fidelity Sel. Energy Serv. 4.8 Morgan Stanley Inst. Gold A -16.8

Rydex Ursa 4.7 Invesco Strategic Gold -16.0

Caldwell & Orkin Mkt. Opp. 4.5 Midas -15.9

Tocqueville Intl. Value 4.2 First Amer. Technology B -15.6

Leaders Laggards

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

Vontobel Eastern Europ. Eq. 56.2 Steadman Technology Grth. -42.0

Morgan Stan. Inst. Lat. Am. A 47.4 United Svcs. Gold Shares -41.1

Morgan Stanley Latin Amer. A 46.1 DFA Japanese Small Co. -39.2

Delaware Pooled Real Estate 43.2 Fidelity Japan Small Co. -35.2

State St. Res. Glob. Res. A 41.8 Matthews Korea -34.1

EQUITY FUND CATEGORIES

Leaders Laggards

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

Europe -0.4 Precious Metals -11.3

Japan -0.8 Technology -9.0

Latin America -1.4 Small-cap Growth -8.4

Foreign -1.4 Health -7.1

Real Estate -1.7 Mid-cap Growth -7.1

Leaders Laggards

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

Real Estate 31.3 Precious Metals -20.1

Latin America 29.1 Japan -19.0

Financial 24.5 Diversified Pacific/Asia -4.9

Europe 18.5 Small-cap Growth -4.6

Large-cap Value 14.9 Communications -1.2

All data are as of market close Wednesday, Apr. 2, 1997, 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 Apr. 1. For a more detailed explanation, write to us or E-mail

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

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