Boring Portfolio Report
Wednesday, January 8, 1997
by Greg Markus (MF Boring)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Jan. 8) -- Stocks fell today as money moved from equities into bonds, attracted by yields that continue to creep up to offset nervousness among bond traders worried that Friday's report on December employment may show signs of ... zzz-z-z-z.
Huh? Whuzzat?? Oh. 'Scuse me. I must have dozed off. I seem to have put myself to sleep. Let's start again.
Profit-taking hit the stock market late Wednesday afternoon, following two consecutive record setting sessions for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index. A late wave of futures-related program selling .... zzz-z-z-z.
Okay, okay. One last try. Third time's the charm, you know.
Lotsa stocks dropped today. The Dow lost 51 points. The Nasdaq fell, too, as did the S&P. The Boring Portfolio got hit worst of all, dropping a full percentage point in value.
Why'd the Borefolio get hit that hard? No particular reasons that I can discern. It probably didn't help Cisco any that networker Shiva was cut in half after alerting folks that its quarterly earnings wouldn't begin to approach analysts' expectations. Nor did it help Web-centric software companies like Oracle much when Netscape, progenitor of the Webolution, took a double-digit drop after an analyst issued some cautious comments about the company's prospects.
The only specific news I found regarding Boring holdings looked just fine to me.
Regarding Oracle, the first-ever worldwide survey of corporate Chief Information Officers found that nearly 80% intend to increase spending on the Internet next year, and nearly 70% reported they will replace their legacy systems with client/server technologies within two years. When doing so, the majority of CIOs plan to employ commercial packages, and "Oracle is considered to be the most important database management system in all regions except Central Europe," where IBM's SQL Server leads. The survey of 1,442 CIOs in 20 countries was conducted by Deloitte & Touche.
As for Cisco, the news today was that the company (along with Informix and Softbank) added to its minority stake in VXtreme Inc. VXtreme is developing "video streaming" technology, a way to send high-quality video over the Internet and corporate intranets. According to a press release, the new investment by the three stakeholders totaled more than $10 million.
According to the press release, Cisco and VXtreme plan to work closely to assure interoperability of VXtreme's streaming technology features with Cisco's Internetworking Operating System (IOS) software technologies.
Checking other Borefolio stocks, I see that Borders public relations department let loose a hail of new-store announcements last night. Scheduled to open this spring are Borders superstores in Richfield, Minn. (that's near Mall of America, according to my map) and Salem, Ore. Come summer, look for a new Borders in Redmond, Wash. (home of El Toreador Restaurant and a software company the name of which escapes me at the moment). Slated for fall openings are superstores in Elk Grove, Calif. (near Sacramento), San Antonio, Texas and Wyomissing, Pa. That last one's in eastern Pennsylvania, near Reading -- which is where we'll end today's geography lesson.
A reminder: Borders will release its holiday sales figures tomorrow morning. All I can tell you now is that I contributed more than my share.
Today's Numbers
Stock Change Bid -------------------- BGP - 1/8 34.75 CSL - 1/2 60.13 CSCO -1 7/8 66.25 GNT - 1/8 36.38 ORCL -1 1/4 43.38 OXHP -1 3/4 58.13 PMSI --- 11.88 SLR -1 53.13 TDW + 3/4 48.00
Day Month Year History
BORING -1.05% 0.59% 0.59% 15.75%
S&P 500 -0.64% 1.04% 1.04% 20.40%
NASDAQ -0.56% 2.27% 2.27% 26.84%
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
2/28/96 200 Borders Gr 22.51 34.75 54.36%
6/26/96 100 Cisco Syst 53.90 66.25 22.91%
5/24/96 100 Oxford Hea 48.02 58.13 21.03%
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 30.39 36.38 19.70%
3/8/96 400 Prime Medi 10.07 11.88 17.94%
8/13/96 100 Carlisle C 52.65 60.13 14.20%
12/23/96 100 Tidewater 46.52 48.00 3.17%
10/15/96 100 Solectron 54.52 53.13 -2.57%
11/21/96 100 Oracle Cor 48.65 43.38 -10.84%
Rec'd # Security In At Value Change
2/28/96 200 Borders Gr 4502.49 6950.00 $2447.51
6/26/96 100 Cisco Syst 5389.99 6625.00 $1235.01
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 6077.49 7275.00 $1197.51
5/24/96 100 Oxford Hea 4802.49 5812.50 $1010.01
8/13/96 100 Carlisle C 5264.99 6012.50 $747.51
3/8/96 400 Prime Medi 4027.49 4750.00 $722.51
12/23/96 100 Tidewater 4652.49 4800.00 $147.51
10/15/96 100 Solectron 5452.49 5312.50 -$139.99
11/21/96 100 Oracle Cor 4864.99 4337.50 -$527.49
CASH $5999.08
TOTAL $57874.08
