RULE MAKER PORTFOLIO A QuickNews Extra
A Simpler Way to Invest
By Matt Richey (TMF Verve)

Many of us desperately need stress relief. Our lives have become cluttered at every turn. The same can be true of our portfolios. When it comes to investing, simpler is better. If your time for investing research is scarce, pick your spots and focus just on those few companies that you really know and that you're confident are world-beaters. It's a strategy of investing most of your assets in an index fund, with only a portion set aside for one or two individual stocks.
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RULE BREAKER PORTFOLIO A QuickNews Extra
Amazon Wants To Be eBay
By Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff)

Amazon has quietly begun to allow people to sell books, music, and videos, right on the products' pages. The company copied a page right out of eBay's Half.com to launch its new Amazon Marketplace. However, this new trading platform may cloud Amazon's brand and value offering.
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AT&T Postmortem
By Motley Fool Staff

Telco giant AT&T announced a restructuring recently, a monumental effort that will take until mid-2002 if not longer. As a result, shareholders in the company have time to consider their next moves, and investors generally may want to draw some lessons from the company's experience
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Transmeta Ups IPO Price
By Tom Jacobs (TMF Tom9)

Transmeta plans to offer 13 million shares to the public tomorrow. Despite IBM's decision last week not to use the company's Crusoe chip in its new ThinkPad 240, investor interest is so strong that Transmeta raised the expected offering price from $11-13 to $16-18. The company's low-power chip technology promises a new era in mobile computing, and Sony, Gateway, America Online and others agree, diminishing the importance of IBM's decision.
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More Legal Issues a Philip Morris Buzzkill?
By LouAnn Lofton (TMF Lou2)

Tobacco giant Philip Morris was smacked twice in recent days with more legal woes. The company already has its next moves planned to combat one, while waiting to find out more about the other. As usual with Philip Morris, though, these seemingly big troubles mean nothing for now. Having bid shares up so far this year from a low of $18.69 to the current $35 range, investors seem to agree.
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FOOL PLATE SPECIAL An Investment Opinion
Jupiter Media Metrix Tracks, Feeds Back
By Nico Detourn (TMF Nico)

Jupiter Media Metrix is in the interesting position of measuring the broad development of the Internet and also feeding its analysis and interpretation of those measurements back into the industry. It thus not only tracks the industry but has the potential to shape it.
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Seagram Sews Up Good Quarter
By Rex Moore (TMF Orangeblood)

Reporting results for the last time, Seagram sees EBITDA gains across all divisions. The new Vivendi Universal entity could bring in combined revenues of some $55 billion with EBITDA of about $7 billion. Meanwhile, shareholders ponder what effects the Napster-Bertelsmann agreement will have on the company's music subscription service.
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DAILY DOUBLE A QuickNews Extra
Brinker Eats Up Market
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)

Just looking back over the past decade you will find companies that came onto the dining scene roaring but walked away with nary a whimper. From Boston Chicken to Planet Hollywood to the more solvent Checkers (Nasdaq: CHKR) and Lone Star Steakhouse (Nasdaq: STAR), accountants are often the ones left behind to clear the tables. That's not the case with Brinker International (NYSE: EAT). Founded by Norman Brinker of Steak & Ale fame, the company has been a casual dining standard for more than just a few fleeting years of glory.
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BREAKFAST WITH THE FOOL
Continental, Northwest Deal During Trial
By Tom Jacobs (TMF Tom9)

Feeling the heat of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust trial against them, defendants Northwest Airlines (Nasdaq: NWAC) and Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) announced today an agreement intended to end the dispute. The DOJ sued the airlines in 1998 over a deal giving Northwest 54% voting control over Continental -- preventing Continental's takeover by Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL). Under the deal, Continental would buy back Northwest's common stock. The parties will ask the federal judge to delay the trial, which started last week, while the carriers work out the details.
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Today's Market Movers

Ups

Although still within the margin of error, Governor George W. Bush remains ahead of Vice President Al Gore in most presidential polls. Drug stocks perceived to favor the Bush prescription drug plan gained today. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) climbed $0.88 to $44.50, Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) increased $2.13 to $90 and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) shares gained $1.50 to $89.56.

Internet service provider PSINet (Nasdaq: PSIX) inched back up today $0.28 to $2.63 after a horrible past week plagued with bad news and shareholder disappointment. The company missed revenue estimates by 22% when it announced third-quarter results last Thursday, and also warned that fourth-quarter earnings would fall below expectations. The departure of the company's president and COO was also announced as part of company restructuring.

The maker of the Zip storage drive Iomega (NYSE: IOM) announced IBM (NSYE: IBM) agreed to include its data backup software with IBM's Microdrive miniaturized hard disk technology. Iomega's photo viewing and printing package software Photo Printer is also included in the agreement. Iomega climbed $0.43 to $6.41.

Downs

The world's largest database and software company Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) dropped again today $2.38 to $27.94. Last week the company fell victim to a barrage of false rumors and trading errors, which included speculation CEO Larry Ellison had died and CFO Jeff Henley was leaving the company. The company vehemently denied the rumors and the stock began to regain much of what it had lost. Nevertheless, questions regarding the company's valuation and application sales growth remain.

Handheld device maker Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) dropped $4.56 to $62.38. Beginning today, the company is being listed in the Nasdaq 100 index. Palm is replacing Global Crossing (NYSE: GX), which moved to the New York Stock Exchange today. The fiber optic network company also closed down $0.31 to $21.13.

VA Linux (Nasdaq: LNUX) crashed $12.63 to $17.38 after the developer of software for the Linux operating system announced its fiscal first-quarter results would not meet expectations, citing slow sales to Internet companies. VA expects a loss between $0.14 per share and $0.16 per share. The Street consensus called for the company to lose $0.09 per share. The company also cut its fiscal 2001 revenue forecast 10% from $300.8 million to $270.7 million.

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