Investment Figures of the Week

Investment Figures of the Week

COMMENTARYConcern about turmoil in Asia hurting U.S. corporate profits led to a volatileweek in the markets. Korea's crisis hit tech stocks particularly hard, with theNASDAQ Composite losing more than 3%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury fell aslow as 5.92% as producer prices showed an unexpected drop. Japan's plannedincome tax cut, and the sale of dollars by the Bank of Japan, helped bring thelong bond's yield to 6.00% and sent the dollar plunging against the yen. TheFederal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its Dec. 16 meeting.

% change

U.S. MARKETS Latest Week Year

Dow Jones Industrials 7957.4 -0.3 25.4

NASDAQ Combined Composite 1547.4 -3.1 20.4

S&P MidCap 400 324.6 -1.0 29.9

S&P SmallCap 600 176.6 -1.3 24.9

S&P SuperComposite 1500 207.1 -0.5 31.3

% change

SECTORS Latest Week Year

Bloomberg Information Age 288.9 -2.2 25.4

S&P Financials 119.1 0.2 48.5

S&P Utilities 225.9 2.5 15.4

PSE Technology 283.4 -4.1 14.3

% change

FOREIGN MARKETS Latest Week Year

London (FT-SE 100) 5190.8 1.2 29.2

Frankfurt (DAX) 4158.7 1.0 47.4

Tokyo (NIKKEI 225) 16,541.1 0.4 -17.7

Hong Kong (Hang Seng) 10,692.7 -3.0 -16.2

Toronto (TSE 300) 6625.5 -1.9 15.7

Mexico City (IPC) 5112.0 1.3 56.2

Week Year

FUNDAMENTALS Latest ago ago

S&P 500 Dividend Yield 1.58 % 1.57 % 2.00 %

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Last 12 mos.) 24.3 24.6 20.3

S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Next 12 mos.)* 19.2 19.3 15.7

First Call Earnings Revision* -2.00 % -1.35 % -0.11 %

Week

TECHNICAL INDICATORS Latest ago Reading

S&P 500 200-day average 889.2 885.0 Positive

Stocks above 200-day average 65.0 % 70.0 % Neutral

Options: Put/call ratio 0.72 0.51 Positive

Insiders: Vickers Sell/buy ratio 2.18 2.56 Neutral

BEST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Manufactured Housing 37.0 Trucking 142.4

Airlines 12.9 Invest. Banking/Brkrge. 87.4

Long-Distance Telecom. 11.1 Savings & Loans 75.7

Major Regional Banks 9.2 Airlines 66.7

Newspaper Publishing 8.6 Homebuilding 66.4

WORST-PERFORMING Last Last 12

GROUPS month% months%

Oil & Gas Drilling -17.4 Gold Mining -36.2

Metals -15.9 Engineering & Constr. -33.8

Leisure Time -14.8 Metals -31.9

Shoes -14.0 Photography/Imaging -27.0

Semiconductors -13.5 Shoes -18.0

BLOOMBERG MONEY FLOW ANALYSIS

Rebound ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant buying on price weakness Price change

Schlumberger 79 -9 3/16

Compaq Computer 57 1/2 -9 1/8

McDonald's 45 11/16 -1 7/16

Texas Instruments 44 -6 5/8

Cliffs Drilling 52 1/16 -17 15/16

Motorola 56 1/4 -10

Decline ahead? Stocks with most 1-month

significant selling on price strength Price change

3Com 35 1/4 1 1/8

WorldCom 32 1/2 1 5/16

Boeing 50 5/8 15/16

Sun Microsystems 36 13/16 1/16

Dell Computer 87 2 3/8

Pfizer 76 3/4 5 3/8

Data: Bloomberg Financial Markets; *First Call Corp.

Latest Week Year

KEY RATES week% ago% ago%

MONEY MARKET FUNDS 5.22 5.20 4.93

90-DAY TREASURY BILLS 5.24 5.21 5.03

6-MONTH BANK CDS 5.21 5.21 5.00

1-YEAR TREASURY BILLS 5.49 5.51 5.55

10-YEAR TREASURY NOTES 5.81 5.90 6.46

30-YEAR TREASURY BONDS 6.00 6.10 6.69

LONG-TERM AA INDUSTRIALS 6.62 6.63 7.23

LONG-TERM BBB INDUSTRIALS 6.96 7.03 7.69

LONG-TERM AA TELEPHONES 6.96 7.02 7.40

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 4.45% 4.50% 5.03% 5.08%

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 76.62 76.56 83.85 83.63

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 6.45 6.52 7.29 7.36

INSURED REVENUE BONDS 4.55 4.60 5.22 5.27

PERCENT OF TREASURIES 78.35 78.26 87.01 86.76

TAXABLE EQUIVALENT 6.59 6.67 7.57 7.64

EQUITY FUNDS

Leaders Laggards

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

Stagecoach Strat. Grth. C 33.1 Matthews Korea -35.3

Smith Barney Apprec. B 18.9 Merrill Technology B -22.5

Wright EquiFd.-Mexico 11.9 DFA Japanese Small Co. -18.8

Invesco Latin Amer. Grth. 10.1 Van Wagoner Post-Venture -17.6

Fidelity Latin America 9.8 Eaton Vance Wwde. Dev. Res. B -17.6

Leaders Laggards

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

Fidelity Sel. Brokerage 70.6 Midas -60.9

Lexington Troika Russia 67.9 U.S. Global Investors Gold -60.4

American Heritage 59.3 Morgan Stan. Instl. Gold A -58.9

Evergreen U.S. Real Est. Y 59.0 Matthews Korea -58.8

Titan Financial Services 58.2 Invesco Strategic Gold -58.2

EQUITY FUND CATEGORIES

Leaders Laggards

Four-week total return % Four-week total %

Latin America 7.3 Precious Metals -12.6

Financial 6.8 Technology -9.1

Utilities 4.6 Natural Resources -7.8

Large-cap Value 2.3 Japan -7.8

Large-cap Blend 2.1 Pacific/Asia ex-Japan -7.6

Leaders Laggards

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

Financial 48.5 Precious Metals -46.3

Large-cap Blend 30.4 Pacific/Asia ex-Japan -33.8

Mid-cap Value 29.1 Diversified Pacific/Asia -26.5

Large-cap Value 29.1 Japan -20.9

Large-cap Growth 28.7 Diversified Emerging Mkts. -3.4

All data are as of market close Wednesday, Dec. 17, 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 Dec. 16. 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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