Stocks

WHEN BRIAN Kroneberger Jr. gets a call from a client about an Internet stock, the questions are fast and few:"What is it trading at?" "What's the high?" "What's the low?" Finally: "Buy me `X' amount of shares.""There is no rationalization," said Kroneberger, a broker at Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. who often warns clients that Internet stocks can fall as fast as they go up.Despite the risks, Internet stocks are Wall Street's latest craze, and no wonder. In just six weeks, shares of Broadcast.

MANY INVESTORS have done quite nicely with mutual funds, but John Neff, who made money for lots of folks when he ran Vanguard's Windsor Fund, warns that holding too many of them can dull a portfolio's performance."

LIKE TO chase high-tech, high-flying stocks? Here's contrarian advice:"Buying strong companies beaten up by a fickle market is the safest, most profitable way to invest," says Kiplinger's Personal Finance Adviser."

WHAT LIES AHEAD for your money?"Over 48 years, April in Wall Street was up an average 1.3 percent. Only December, January, and November were bigger gainers." (1999 Stock Trader's Almanac.)"Follow money into `big-name' stocks," says financial adviser Laszlo Birinyi. "Over 30 percent of Big Board net buying is in the 30 Dow Jones stocks. This will continue until money exits these stocks. I don't expect that for several months.""Here are `year 2000' investment opportunities -- companies making things people will load up on at year-end," says adviser Robert Stovall: "Battery manufacturers, such as Gillette Co., and Rayovac Corp Canned goods: Campbell Soup Co. and H. J. Heinz Co Stores selling battery-operated radios, portable stoves, etc.: Home Depot Inc., Lowe's Cos. Inc. and Sears Roebuck and Co."

A FINANCIAL journalist must separate "off-the-wall" predictions ("Our gut feeling says the market will crash in late December") from forecasts based on solid reasons. Recent examples of the latter: "Bargain hunters will soon charge back into the market. Buying on dips worked too well recently to be abandoned now." (S&P Outlook)"Oil prices have more than doubled. That could send the market lower, but helps top energy stocks like Burlington Resources Inc., Exxon Corp., Schlumberger Ltd. and Haliburton Co."

Does reaching the much-hyped "Dow Jones 10,000" milestone mean stocks will continue to surge? Not at all. In 1972, after the Dow closed above 1,000 for the first time -- with much cheering -- stocks plunged 45 percent in two years, at one point (Dec. 6, 1974), sinking to 577.60. The indicator remained below 1,000 for another 10 years.More meaningful than artificial "thousand-point" markers is the continuation of the most powerful bull market in history. Five years ago today, the Dow stood at 3,865.

Murray Levin remembers his first taste. It was 14 months ago, and all of his money was in CDs because he had "a fear" of the stock market. A friend finally persuaded him to buy a few shares of Dell Computer, and he sold in less than a week for a $500 profit. That was the beginning.Now Levin is among the hordes of small investors around the country who have lashed their fortunes onto the bucking broncos of the financial markets: Internet-based stocks that are producing spectacular investment returns, even as some of the businesses behind them lose money at a staggering pace.

Money manager Charles Allmon says the Dow Jones industrial average closing above 10,000 is a meaningless milestone."It doesn't mean a thing to me," said Allmon, a Bethesda-based longtime bear who publishes the Growth Stock Outlook newsletter."

DID YOU buy tax-free bond funds for high income and a possible capital gain? Here is unhappy news from Black Enterprise, January: "This was a trying year for tax-free bond funds. Tax-exempt portfolios suffered one of the worst bear markets since 1993. Because of rising interest rates, long-term bond funds returned a negative 3 percent for the nine months ended Sept. 30.""Gifts of stock and/or mutual funds are valuable presents not only for Christmas but also for birthdays, holidays, graduations, confirmations or for no special reason at all."

The Dow Jones industrial average came within eyeshot of the milestone 10,000-point mark yesterday, as stocks soared for the second day in a row.The index was propelled by a report that unemployment and wages are creeping up, and the news calmed fears that the Federal Reserve Board will raise interest rates soon.The Dow, which is made up of 30 big company stocks, soared 268.68 points, or 2.84 percent, to a record 9,736.08 points.It broke through the 9,700-point mark for the first time and snapped out of a lull that has dragged on for several weeks.

Magna seeks extension to reveal bid for tracks The bankrupt owner of Maryland's Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park filed Monday a motion seeking to extend the deadline to provide a lead, or "stalking horse," bid for the Maryland assets to Wednesday. Magna Entertainment Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection in March, was scheduled to reveal the lead bidder Monday. According to court documents, Magna said it's working to finalize a purchase agreement with an unnamed party, but negotiations were not expected to be completed by Monday's deadline.

NEW YORK - -The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,000 Wednesday, a testament to the stock market's powerful rebound from last year's financial crisis but also to a lost decade that has left many individual investors worse off than they were 10 years ago. Strong third-quarter earnings from bellwether companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Intel Corp. powered the blue-chip index up 144.80 points, or 1.5 percent, to 10,015.86, the capstone to a furious seven-month rally driven by hope that the punishing global recession is slowly giving way. The retaking of the 10,000 level marks an improbable turnaround from a brutal bear market, when the Dow plunged 54 percent from October 2007 through early March in the wake of a meltdown in the home-mortgage market, a crash in housing prices and the worst recession since the Great Depression.

NEW YORK - As if to underscore the daunting financial mess confronting President Barack Obama, a fresh plunge in banking stocks yesterday dragged the stock market to its worst loss of the new year. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 300 points as it, and other major stock indexes closed at their lowest levels since Nov. 20, the day that has marked the bottom of the bear market that began more than a year ago. The sell-off, triggered by anxiety about the depth of the banking crisis and its effect on the economy, raised fear that stocks might skid below that November trough.

Everyone knows that the Chesapeake Bay is in deep trouble. One of the clearest signs is the state of our fishing industry. There are bans on clamming, serious limits on yellow perch fishing and restrictions on crab harvests so severe that the federal government is spending $10 million to help watermen. This is a far cry from the Chesapeake of 400 years ago, when John Smith wrote about fish "lying so thick with their heads above the water, as for want of nets." Despite today's desperate situation, I am more optimistic than ever about Maryland's fisheries.

NEW YORK - A runaway train of a sell-off turned the anniversary of the stock market peak into one of the worst days in Wall Street history yesterday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down a breathtaking 678.91 points and deepening a financial crisis that has defied all efforts to stop it. Stocks lost more than 7 percent, $872 billion of investments evaporated, and the Dow fell to 8,579.19 yesterday. When the average crashed through the 9,000 level for the first time in five years in the final hour of trading, sellers had only begun to hit the gas pedal.

When everything seems upside down, when century-old banks fall like duckpins, when Democratic congresspeople want to rescue Wall Street and Republicans don't, when even "safe" investments seem risky, there are still eternal truths investors can embrace. This, too, shall pass. Financial panics always end. The trick is living long enough to see it and taking care of yourself meanwhile. It took less than two years for stocks to recover from the 1987 crash. It took almost seven years for stocks to get over the collapse from the Internet bubble.

You have to love emerging market stocks. After all, they are up more than 36 percent for the year, an even more tantalizing return than the 31.6 percent average for each of the past five years. But should you love them and leave them? Analysts are starting to use the word bubble for emerging market stocks. Yet many are telling investors it's still not time to bolt. They urge investors to watch stock valuations and performance, along with the prospects for inflation or recession, to help determine where stocks are likely to be headed.

Rising interest rates suddenly are giving global stock markets a fear of heights. Shares slumped worldwide yesterday as long-term bond yields surged and several central banks boosted their bellwether short-term rates. U.S. market indexes suffered their biggest declines in three months, with the Dow Jones industrial average sliding 198.94 points, or 1.48 percent to 13,266.73, its third straight loss. But the same force driving interest rates up - a strong world economy - also has underpinned the powerful rally in stocks this year, analysts note.

Utilities stocks are on a winning streak so convincing that it may cause investors to forget the long series of ups and downs they've endured. Decades of regulatory snafus, fumbled new ventures and outright scandal have faded away to reveal a robust, focused industry. It also has benefited from low interest rates and merger potential. Utilities funds - traditionally valued for dividends and steady, if unspectacular, performance - have been roaring: They are up 13 percent in 2007, nearly double the performance of the average U.S. diversified stock fund.

As stocks soared in the 1990s, countless Wall Street wannabes became "day traders," quitting their jobs and trying to make their living by trading stocks at a furious pace. When the boom ended, so did the day-trading craze. But rising stock prices and new highs in major stock indexes have tickled investor interest, and aggressive trading by individuals is on its way back. "There's no other way to live," said Robert Earl, a 52-year-old Long Beach, Calif., man who began trading full time in 2004.