Investors

Investors who may have been too pessimistic last fall about McCormick & Co. Inc.'s operating prospects have pushed the company's stock price to a 52-week high in a 10-week bullish stampede.McCormick's stock closed yesterday at $23.125, unchanged from Tuesday's high. The stock has gained $5, or 27.6 percent, since the first of the year.Investors and analysts said that McCormick's stock has more than made up for an eight-month decline that started when the company reduced its earnings estimates in July.

Want to buy some high-technology stocks cheap? Personal Finance says, "Many techs, once the market's darlings, are off over 50 percent from their highs and while valuations remain in the stratosphere, many are trading at multiples even `die-hard' value investors shouldn't pass up." The newsletter says these stocks are "Rebound Ready": Applied Materials Inc., Arrow Electronics Inc., CNET Network Inc., Flextronics International Ltd., Gateway Inc. and International Rectifier Corp. COOL IT: "Keep cool.

An Annapolis investment adviser pleaded guilty yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court to theft and violating state securities laws, admitting that he bilked 130 clients out of $4.7 million.Joshua Fry, 60, of the first block of Beacon Court may be given up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 16 by Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr.Assistant Attorney General Christopher J. Romano said that Fry took money from clients, promising to invest it, but used it to finance trips to casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., a Jaguar and a stable of race horses.

C As investors prepare for a month when more certificate-of-deposit money is scheduled to roll over than ever before, a study commissioned by Fidelity Investments says that only 31 percent of CD holders with October expirations are committed to keeping their money in the bank.The culprit is lower interest rates, says Fidelity, relying on a national polling firm's survey of 302 consumers who own CDs scheduled to expireduring the next six months. CD yields have fallen to between 5 percent and 6 percent, giving pause to many customers who invested in CDs when rates were much higher.

LET'S KEEP this bull market in perspective."We may back and fill but then it's off to the races to Dow Jones 10,000." (Fund Profit Alert)"This historic bull market has room to run. Corrections will be brief. Then stocks typically rise higher than ever." (Jane Bryant Quinn)"This is a breathtaking bull market, linking Wall Street to Main Street. Even if you keep money under the mattress, your financial health is tied to the ticker." (Newsweek magazine)Although the Dow Jones industrials and S&P 500 indexes have returned an average of 10.7 percent annually since 1926, I find many investors expecting recent above-average returns as a matter of course, forgetting that stocks historically gravitate to their historic norms.

"AS THE U.S. stock market continues to struggle, many investors remain dazed and angry," says Financial Planning Perspectives. "Some had to postpone planned retirements or find themselves without enough money to pay hefty bills. But the bear market taught us tough but valuable lessons: "Don't jump around, buying the `hot' stocks and getting burned. ... The market taketh as well as giveth; 90 percent of today's investors came into the market after 1990, never knowing any direction but up."

The Alex. Brown & Sons annual Consumer Growth Stock Seminar hardly seems a hotbed of liberal Democrats, but two-thirds of the institutional investors attending this year's conference think President-elect Bill Clinton will help stimulate consumer spending next year.That result came as part of a survey released yesterday by Alex. Brown, which asked nearly 200 investment professionals who took part in the two-day annual conference about their outlook for the consumer economy.The informal survey found broad optimism among investors about prospects for the holiday shopping season and next year's consumer spending.

THERE WAS a time not too long ago when stocks were scary and bonds looked safe. Investors rushed into bonds, only to discover that fixed-income investments can be risky, too. Complaints regarding brokers and bonds shot up. Last year, arbitration cases involving corporate bonds rose to 353. That's a fraction of the several thousand arbitrations over stocks and mutual funds last year, but more than double the number of bond cases in 2001, according to...

Do you sit forever on the investment sidelines because you fear making a mistake? Can't bear to dump loser stocks even if it's in your best interest? Make investment decisions on the latest fad regardless of other information? If so, your actions may be irrational, but they aren't surprising to the growing number of experts studying behavioral finance. This burgeoning field seeks to uncover how and why individuals make investment decisions, particularly poor ones. It's not exactly a new science.

When regulatory and law enforcement officials knocked on the doors of a number of mutual funds in the scandals of 2003-2004, investors banged on the doors to get their money out. With the smell of scandal in the air, many investors couldn't wait to pull their money out of Janus, Putnam, Alliance Capital and others, even if they didn't own funds that were directly affected by the allegations. Industry watchers like Morningstar and Lipper warned shareholders to be cautious in dealing with firms tagged by regulators.