Fool Portfolio Report
Monday, October 13, 1997
by Jeff Fischer ([email protected])

ALEXANDRIA, VA (Oct. 13, 1997) -- The Fool sailed on calm seas today, sloshing back and forth slowly, no trade winds filling the sails, no seagulls to watch provide sharp moves up and down in the sky. The day was long and slow and the Fools onboard paid little attention to it, as is their privilege. By evening the S&P was a little closer on the horizon -- the Fool gained 0.14% against the S&P's 0.12%. As darkness fell the Fools slipped below deck for a hearty meal of bread and wine, and to discuss the slow day.

Well, there was little of significance to report. In fact, it was quiet in more ways than one.

Though the Fool employs about sixty full-time people in this office, I'm the only one here. I've been alone in this office for the entire day -- sitting in the silence, the walls creaking in the wind like an old ship. And no, today wasn't a holiday for us. Not at all.

I think the missing employees have something to do with the fact that David and Tom left on Saturday for a week in California. I believe that everyone saw this as a perfect opportunity to completely vacate the office. While the Gardner brothers and three other Fools are working hard touring California, shaking hands, kissing cats, signing books, the Fools here on the East Coast are relaxing. I might join them beginning tomorrow, so if this column and most of the Fool's daily content seems stale by Wednesday, just realize that we'll return next Monday and we'll pick up with new content on that day as if nothing happened. (So please, if you see David and Tom in California, kindly mention nothing of this situation. Just smile and compliment the workers here.)

Now that I'm in the right frame of mind, let's see how little work I can do for the rest of today. I see two stories and one rumor.

CHEVRON (NYSE: CHV) discovered oil in the South China Sea and GENERAL MOTORS (NYSE: GM) made a new high. GM will announce earnings tomorrow and $1.21 per share is expected.

AT&T (NYSE: T) will announce earnings on October 20th and sixty-five cents per share is expected. That same amount is expected for the following quarter, too. Today a rumor was floating around that AT&T may make a bid for Hughes Electronics, a division of General Motors. Supposedly if AT&T did make a several billion dollar bid for Hughes, the company would then try to hire its head, C. Michael Armstrong, as the new CEO for AT&T. Ma Bell has had some difficulty in finding an appropriate new CEO that shareholders would agree to, but a scheme like this could represent a solution.

It's just a rumor, though.

AMAZON.COM (Nasdaq: AMZN) was the winner for the day, rising on no news and light volume. The company is pioneering a new frontier, but unlike Columbus, it knows what it's trying to do. On October 12, 1492, it's believed that Columbus stumbled upon San Salvador in the Bahamas. He never managed to land on the mainland of North America, he didn't name the country, and he never knew that he even "discovered" a new continent -- yet schools teach that he found America. How's that for Wise?

Depending on how the rest of the week goes: if you find yourself looking for good Foolish content that doesn't need to be updated every day, check out the Fool's School. There you can find the 13 steps to investing Foolishly, how to value stocks, the Fribble, and more. And our guys in England are working, too... I think.

Until next time (in reality, that's tomorrow -- because somebody will be here)...

Fool on!

Drip Portfolio -- Randy teaches how to value segments of a biz.
Fool Message Boards -- Speak your mind!
Boring Portfolio -- Boring beating Fool, barely.
Fool Four Portfolio -- 23% annually, historically.
Market News -- All the News, early.
Port Tracker -- Update your portfolio daily.
Daily Double -- Good business?
Daily Trouble -- What went wrong? Learn from it.
Fribble -- A fun lesson from readers.

TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change    Bid
----------------
AMZN  +1 3/8   47.75
AOL   -  3/8   83.13
T     -  3/16  45.56
CHV   -  5/16  85.50
DJT   +  1/4   9.94
GM    +1 7/16  71.44
INVX  -  1/4   31.00
IOM   +  1/8   25.00
KLAC  -  7/16  71.31
LU      ---    89.00
MMM   +  9/16  96.44
COMS  -  7/16  55.19



      
    
    
                  Day   Month    Year  History
        FOOL     +0.14%   2.86%  29.47% 245.54%
        S&P:     +0.12%   2.20%  30.69% 111.19%
        NASDAQ:  +0.18%   3.35%  34.94% 141.90%


     Rec'd    #  Security     In At       Now    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline       7.27     83.13  1042.95%
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor     2.52     25.00   892.06%
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech    47.62     89.00    86.91%
  8/11/95   125 Chevron       50.28     85.50    70.03%
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor    44.71     71.31    59.49%
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M      65.68     96.44    46.84%
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto    51.97     71.44    37.45%
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com    38.22     47.75    24.93%
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp.    46.86     55.19    17.77%
  8/12/96   130 AT&T          39.58     45.56    15.12%
  6/26/97   325 Innovex       27.71     31.00    11.87%
  4/30/97 -1170 *Trump*        8.47      9.94   -17.34%


     Rec'd    #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline    2581.87  29509.38 $26927.51
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor  2509.60  24500.00 $21990.40
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49  20002.50  $5450.01
  8/11/95   125 Chevron     6285.61  10687.50  $4401.89
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor  5812.49   9270.63  $3458.14
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M    7224.44  10608.13  $3383.69
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com 11084.24  13847.50  $2763.26
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech  1999.88   3738.00  $1738.12
  6/26/97   325 Innovex     9005.62  10075.00  $1069.38
  8/12/96   130 AT&T        5145.11   5923.13   $778.02
  4/30/97 -1170*Trump*     -9908.50 -11626.88 -$1718.38
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp. 11714.99  13796.88  $2081.89


                              CASH  $32438.81
                             TOTAL $172770.56