Investor's Business Daily articles from April 2001

Investor's Business Daily archives from April 2001

Mullling A Huge New Tech Project? Competitiveness, Payback Are Key.(A)(MANAGING THE SUCCESSFUL COMPANY)
April 30, 2001... Byline: J. Bonasia In late 1999, medical products firm Medtronic felt the painof buying six companies in 12 months. It needed to integrate and update its business systems for the 21st century but wasn't sure how. So early last year,...

Profit Power Breeds Stock Gains In Biotechs.(A)(INVESTOR'S CORNER)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Jonah Keri As the market ebbs and flows, individual sectors emerge andcapture investors' attention. But few ever packed the wallop biotechs unleashed in 1999 to 2000. Biotechs first caught Wall Street's eye in the late 1980s...

IBD'S TOP 10.(A)
April 30, 2001... Economy Grew Solid 2% As Consumers Ponied Up 1First-quarter growth in gross domestic product was better than most analysts hoped. Consumer spending rose at an annual 3.1% clip, also a pleasant surprise. Inventories fell a whopping...

AFTER THE CLOSE.(A)
April 30, 2001... AMERICAN AIRLINES said a federal judge dismissed an antitrust suit against the airline over pricing at its Dallas hub. It also settled a contempt damage dispute with its pilots. BOEING AND BOMBARDIER won a contract from Canada to upgrade...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 30, 2001... Damaged techs bouncing higher, but top groups also posting gains Since the market bottomed on April 4, many of the big winners have been beaten down tech stocks. Over the past four weeks, security software stocks have surged 30.5%,...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 30, 2001... SBC plans to offer long-distance in Calif., 3 other states this year SBC Communications expects to offer long-distance in Missouri, Arkansas, Nevada and California by year's end. The No. 2 local phone company currently has government...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 30, 2001... Delta's Comair is laying off 2,000 due to month-old pilot walkout The layoffs affect about half of Comair's nonstriking staff, the Cincinnati-based regional airline said. A federal agency reconvened talks between Comair and the...

THE ECONOMY.(A)
April 30, 2001... No U.S. recession: World Bank World Bank President James Wolfensohn doesn't see a U.S. recession this year. But he's worried slower U.S. and Japanese growth will pinch growth in developing nations. He agreed with International Monetary...

THE WORLD.(A)
April 30, 2001... Six Red Cross workers are shot, hacked to death in Congo attack The dead were a Swiss nurse, a Colombian relief worker and four Congolese. AUgandan military patrol found the bodies by their two vehicles in rebel- and Ugandan-held...

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(A)
April 30, 2001... Mad cow disease claimed its oldest victim, a 74-year-oldman in England. Medical experts said more elderly people will fall victim to the fatal brain illness. Scientists experimenting with embryonic stem cells in mice say in two studies...

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(A)
April 30, 2001... Biotech assembles mouse genome Celera Genomics says it has assembled more than 99% of the mouse genome. Humans have only a few hundred genes that mice don't have. More is known about mouse genes than those of humans because mice are...

WASHINGTON.(A)
April 30, 2001... Powell looks to visit Asia in June Secretary of State Colin Powell may visit Japan and South Korea as early as June to strengthen ties with Asian allies following a rise in tension with China, Japanese media said. A Japanese Foreign...

5. Work Hard - And Smart.(A)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Cord Cooper Business leaders who consistently reach their goals do so by limiting their focus to a few key areas and delegating jobs freely. Executives buried in detail usually lack the time to be proactive and wind up...

Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne His Constant Stretch For Perfection Gave Us The First Great American Novel.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Amy Reeves "Some portions of the book are powerfully written; but my writings do not, nor ever will, appeal to the broadest class of sympathies." So wrote Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) about what would become his seminal...

Entrepreneur Jim Liautaud Hard Work And Examination Pulled Him Up.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Julianne Nachtrab "I'm having a mental breakdown," Jim Liautaud's plant manager called to tell him. "And, by the way, your accountant's on drugs." With just one phone call, the Chicago-based entrepreneur's dream became a...

Wisdom To Live By ...(A)
April 30, 2001... ON NEW CHALLENGES The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor ON FEAR The thing we fear we bring to pass. Elbert Hubbard, publisher ON TAKING ACTION If...

TECHBITS.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Antonio A. Prado Tech Spending Down, Commerce Confirms The U.S. economy grew at twice the rate expected in the first quarter, but capital spending on information technology fell at a 6.6% annualized rate, the Commerce...

E-TAILING Barnes & Noble Plots Way To Sell Magazines Via Web.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Sarah Z. Sleeper Companies sell $10 billion in U.S. magazine subscriptions a year -- and bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. is after a piece of that pie. The company's stores already feature huge magazine selections, and the...

COMPAQ COMPUTER Proxicom Purchase Paves Services Push For The Ex-PC King.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Patrick Seitz Compaq Computer Corp. is turning to services as a safe refuge from blistering competition in the personal computer and server hardwarebusinesses. The Houston-based company, which this month lost its title as the...

THE TECH CASH CRUNCH Next Level Missed Opportunity Telecom gear maker's June offering raised money for shareholder, not firm.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Jed Graham By June last year, technology stocks had come down from their heights but hadn't yet fallen into the abyss. Money was still flowing to networking companies, as investors searched for the next Cisco Systems Inc. It...

HIGH-SPEED CONNECTIONS Networking A Home Or Office Can Be Easy.(A)(COMPUTERS MADE PLAIN)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Ted Needleman With the growing popularity of networking in homes and small offices, even tech novices are connecting two or more personal computers. Several companies, including 3Com Corp. and Sohoware Inc., offer starter...

WIRELESS Little-Known Start-Up Is Offering Fast Web Access.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Peter Benesh How fast is fast? Remember the days before you knew about the Internet, when you thought 9.6 kilobits a second was fast? Or when you began Web surfing and made the leap to a sizzling 56K, the current dial-up...

Revamped IBM Unit Guns For EMC.(A)(Q & A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Brian Deagon About a year ago IBM Corp. hit the reboot button on its storage systems group. Tired of being kicked around by market leader EMC Corp.,IBM began to pump hundreds of millions of fresh dollars into the unit. IBM...

CHRISTOPHER & BANKS CORP. / Plymouth, Minnesota Retailer Puts Big Emphasis On Plus-Sized Clothes.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Adelia Cellini Linecker Apparel retailer Christopher & Banks Corp. has shown a knack for outperforming its peers. Whether it can continue doing so might depend on how well it capitalizes on a consumer demographic that's...

CHILDREN'S PLACE RETAIL STORES / Secaucus, N.J. Amid Retail Slowdown, Chain Shifts Its Focus.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Marilyn Much The holiday shopping season might be a distant memory for consumers, but for retailers it continues to cast a long, dark shadow. Just ask the folks at Children's Place Retail Stores Inc., a discount clothes and...

DAKTRONICS INC. / Brookings, South Dakota Scoreboard Maker On A Real Winning Streak.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Steve Watkins Next time you walk into an arena or stadium to watch a game, look around. You're probably bombarded by huge scoreboards, video screens, message boardsand ads. Lots of ads. There's a good chance most of that...

NYSE Stocks In The News.(A)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Christina Wise Freddie Mac, which is working through an 18-week base, finished the week 7% short of its old high. In recent months, it has run into resistance around 67. Freddie Mac buys home loans from lenders, bundles them...

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE ...(A)(EDITORIALS)
April 30, 2001... Being the biggest, richest guy on the block isn't alwayseasy. That may be why the U.S. is the target of so much sniping and so many insults these days. Even some of our so-called friends seem to be taking potshots at us. It's even...

CHILD-CARE REPORT ABUSED.(A)(EDITORIALS)
April 30, 2001... A recent government study supports the conclusion that children get better care from their mothers than from strangers at day care. Sounds like a safe conclusion, right? Not to elitist journalists. They find it "controversial" and "alarmist."...

A FRESH FACE FOR JAPAN.(A)(EDITORIALS)
April 30, 2001... It's hardly news that Japan tends toward risk aversion. That's why Junichiro Koizumi's leap last week to become prime minister has shaken his nation and the world. An outsider who favors bright neckwear and an Iron Chef mane, the former...

Whole Language Versus Phonics: Will Bush End 'Reading Wars'?(A)(PERSPECTIVE)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Tom Gray The federal government has long required that drugs soldto the public be proven safe and effective. But there's no Food and Drug Administration for reading. Washington has never made much of an effort to protect kids...

Bush Passes His First 100 Days Talking Past The Media's 'Filter".(A)(PERSPECTIVE)
April 30, 2001... Byline: K. E. Grubbs Jr. Somebody said George W. Bush has begun to sport bags under his eyes. Maybe. But then again, perhaps it's just that anatomical feature -- the West Texas squint -- that fascinated a few feature writers back during...

KEY FUND HOLDINGS.(MAKING MONEY IN MUTUALS)
April 30, 2001... Key Fund Holdings / El Paso was a top holding of Fortis Capital Fund as of the latest reporting period. Earnings rose 52% and 37% the past two quarters. Sales growth was 63% to 280% in the past five quarters. The stock is within 7% of its...

Growth Funds Triumphant In April Returns Lagging stock, leading bond sectors switch places in latest month.(B)(INVESTMENT TRENDS)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Claire Mencke April could mark the start of stock funds' recovery froma year of weakness. That's the way it looks in preliminary data from Lipper Inc. Bond fund returns took the back seat to stocks in the month -- the...

Wasatch Funds Mounting Tech-Lite Rebound Core Growth, up 14%, and Micro Cap, up 8%, lifted by ICU Medical.(B)(FUND PROFILE)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Joanne Legomsky What kinds of companies does Robert Gardiner, manager of$269 million Wasatch Micro Cap Fund, look for? "Small companies," Gardiner said, "that are going to get big." His answer might seem obvious. But...

Save Time. Use IBD SmartSelectF Corporate Ratings.(B)
April 30, 2001... SmartSelect' Composite Rating - Combines all 5 SmartSelect' Ratings into one easy-to-use rating. More weight is placed on EPS and RS Ratings, and the stock's percent off its 52-week high is also included in the formula. Results are then...

The Real Most Active - NASDAQ.(B)
April 30, 2001... Byline: Jonah Keri Big-cap techs got on board with their smaller-cap brethren Friday, pushing the Nasdaq higher on light trade. The composite index picked up 2% as turnover dipped from Thursday's 2 billion shares. Actrade Financial...

Where The Big Money's Flowing - NASDAQ.(B)
April 30, 2001... 6392C16.56SthwstLf SWLH18.256.25556999 2792A13.25UrbanOutfit oURBN13.601.52391600 4380B83.63Cephalon oCEPH60.061.744,317313 8798A17.00InsigtHlth IHSC15.790.8952294 9996B36.00ActradeFn ACRT31.851.85429281 9896B13.15I C T...

NASDAQ Stocks In The News.(B)
April 30, 2001... Byline: David Saito-Chung OSCA cleared a seven-week base at 25 last week on the heaviest weekly volume since its initial public offering in June at 16. At 26.25, it's 4% above its pivot of 25.13. Avoid buying at a price more than 5%...

Saucer Base Weeds Out Sellers Over Time.(A)(INVESTOR'S CORNER)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Christina Wise Bases, though painful, serve a valuable purpose -- ridding a stock of its weak holders. As a stock tries to power its way higher, those faint-hearted souls are mostliable to head for the exits. This selling...

Cutting Is Easy, Cutting Right Isn't, But That'll Decide Who Wins, Loses.(A)(MANAGING THE SUCCESSFUL COMPANY)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Brian Deagon When a recession hits, companies slash payrolls, close plants, delay products and hoard cash. Hunkering down and riding out the storm is the goal. That's happening now, just as it did during the last U.S....

IBD'S TOP 10.(A)
April 27, 2001... Employment Costs Climb, But Unlikely To Deter Fed 1The employment cost index rose 1.1% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2000 and 4% from the first quarter a year ago. The biggest increase came from more expensive...

AFTER THE CLOSE.(A)
April 27, 2001... CORNING netted 29 cents a share in the first quarter, up26% from a year ago. That beat views of 28 cents, but the fiber-optic giant lowered its 2001 profit estimate. It'll have cut 4,300 jobs by month's end. AMGEN netted 28 cents a share...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 27, 2001... IBM tech breakthrough may lead to molecule-sized semiconductors Big Blue researchers have found a way to mass produce carbon nanotubes, tinycylinders as small as 10 atoms across. The cylinders -- 500 times smaller thantoday's silicon...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 27, 2001... Embattled BT boss steps down; firm cutting debt after resignation Sir Christopher Brand, head of the British Broadcasting Corp., will replace Sir Iain Vallance as chairman of British Telecom. Vallance had been criticized as BT's debt...

BUSINESS NEWS.(A)
April 27, 2001... Texaco 1st-qtr earnings up 40% The No. 3 U.S. oil firm netted $1.54 a share vs. $1.10 a year ago. It beat forecasts by a nickel. Texaco, along with other major energy companies, has benefited from high oil and natural gas prices. The...

THE ECONOMY.(A)
April 27, 2001... Economists slash growth outlook, but still say recession not likely The National Association for Business Economics said 55% of 131 members polled estimated U.S. economic growth of 1% or less in the first half of 2001. In January,...

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(A)
April 27, 2001... Cincinnati health officials documented the first case ofsexually transmitted typhoid fever. A man contracted it on a trip to Puerto Rico. A new vaccine against typhoid fever is safe and effective for children ages 2 to 5, says the...

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(A)
April 27, 2001... U.S. Muslims growing, survey finds About 6.5 million Americans consider themselves Muslims. That figure excludes Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and other non-mainstream groups. U.S. Muslims worship in 1,209 mosques nationwide. Mosques...

WASHINGTON.(A)
April 27, 2001... Sen. Lott sees $1.3 trillion tax cut Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said tax cuts may fall some $300billion below President Bush's $1.6 trillion target. But he said if Bush had started compromising earlier, "we'd be talking...

THE WORLD.(A)
April 27, 2001... U.S. reviving its role in Mideast "We're doing it quietly, without a billboard announcement, every day," Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress. President Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and discussed "ways to...

4. Sorting Through Internet Information.(A)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Linda Stockman-Vines With its broad assortment of information, experts and analyses, the Internet is an incredibly rich learning tool. Learners beware, however: Along with its wealth of information -- or perhaps because of it --...

Singer Helen Forrest Her Persistance Pushed Her To The Top Of The Swing-Era Charts.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Amy Alexander People might've thought 16-year-old Helen Fogel was batty. Wherever she went, she sang. But Fogel wasn't crazy -- just determined to find listeners. To market herself, she'd belt out tunes any time, anywhere....

Physicist Allan Cormack Changed Medicine By Taking Simple Approach.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Doug Tsuruoka Allan Cormack believed in one way to solve problems -- complex or otherwise: Keep it simple. The result was a tool that saved countless lives. Cormack's approach helped develop the first CAT scan (short for...

Wisdom To Live By ...(A)
April 27, 2001... ON TRUTH The search for truth is in one way hard and in another way easy, for it is evident that no one can master it fully or miss it wholly. But each adds a little to our knowledge of nature, and from all the facts assembled there...

Seeking Cutting-Edge Firms That Click.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Patrick Seitz Cisco Systems Inc., EMC Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are yesterday's news to investors seeking companies with big growth prospects. Tomorrow's tech leaders likely are companies with unfamiliar names. Most...

Teens Have Big Say Amid Wireless Wave.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Peter Benesh How many times have you heard someone say the future is in the hands of American youth? Well, so are cell phones. More and more kids have them. With business slowing and corporate bean-counters cutting costs, the...

An Ear For Phone Health Concerns.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Peter Benesh Parents who think cell phones are an indulgence for their kids might want to look at the U.K. example for an unexpected benefit. British teen-agers are talking on cell phones more and smoking less. Smoking among...

Short And Sweet - But Maybe It's All Too Tiny.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Peter Benesh The hot item in Europe, where more young people have cell phones than don't, is short message service, or SMS. Limited to 160 characters, these messages have become the high-tech version of secret notes passed in...

Smaller Firms Chipping Away At Phone Ideas.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: James DeTar A pack of smaller companies is hounding the heels of semiconductor giants Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. The smaller guys want to get in on the market for chips that enable phone calls to be made via personal...

Chips Clearing Up Internet Phone Calls.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: James DeTar One of the most popular uses for the Internet may surprise some people. It's making phone calls. People in the computer industry call it Internet telephony. According to analysts, it's the fastest-growing use of...

Companies Collaborate To Plug Into C-Commerce.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Murray Coleman Ed Kilroy has seen his share of market madness in the past year. As general manager for IBM Corp.'s electronic commerce software operations, hisjob is to help companies figure out how best to swap data using...

Networking Gearing Up For Speed And The City.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Mike Angell The telecom equipment market is in the sewer. That is, in telecom storage lockers found in sewers. The market is in an office-park closet or in windowless, air-conditioned buildings along city streets. These are...

Here Comes Satellite Radio Boom.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Patrick Seitz Consumer electronics retailers are betting that digital satellite radio will be the next breakthrough product in the coming year. Superstore chain Best Buy Co. and specialty retailer Tweeter Home Entertainment...

Storage Savings And Data Mass See Help In Virtualization.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Brian Deagon Imagine if all the data in the world were in one library. Now, what if you wanted to look at two books at the same time? And what if one book were written in English and the other in Swahili? Rather than having...

A Key Security Bonus: Locking In Big Money.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Donna Howell To find out what's hot in computer security, just followthe money trail. Firms are buying products and services that cut costs. In a recent FBI computer crime survey, 186 firms said security breaches costthem...

The Dented New Economy Is Just Starting To Cruise.(SERIES: TOMORROW'S TECH LEADERS)(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Antonio A. Prado Get over the tech wreck. This sector is poised to drive the next boom in the U.S. economy, analysts say. During last year's white-hot economy, the tech sector formed just 6% to 9% of the nation's gross...

UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS INC. / Los Angeles, California Broadcaster Hears Sweet Music In New Venture.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: -- Robin M. Grugal -- Gloria Lau -- Amy Reeves Univision Communications Inc. (New America, May 17) is about to find out if it has what it takes to make it in the music business. Last week, the nation's No. 1 Spanish-language...

U.S. LABORATORIES INC. / San Diego, California This Engineering Firm Really Stays Grounded.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Kirk Shinkle Thousands of buildings aren't collapsing today. Millionsof schoolchildren aren't playing with toxic soil. Big deal, right? Right -- if you're U.S. Laboratories Inc. The firm tests and inspects construction...

CORUS BANKSHARES INC. / Chicago, Illinois Riskey Business? Yep, But Bank Still Succeeds.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Steve Watkins In banking, walking a tightrope means making money the way Corus Bankshares Inc. does. The company's main business is commercial loans. They make up 79% of Corus' loan portfolio. It focuses on office, hotel and...

NYSE Stocks In The News.(A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Christina Wise ResMed spent much of last fall forming a base, then climbed as high as 47.25 before falling into its current nine-week consolidation. It finished Thursday 8% short of its old high. The firm makes medical...

Make Sure Finances Are Included In Your Wedding Planning.(B)(PERSONAL FINANCE)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Claire Mencke Mention the word "wedding" and the next word that often comes to mind is "planning." But in the thicket of details in planning a wedding, a most important element can be forgotten. That's planning for the...

CALIFORNIA'S SPENDTHIFTS.(A)(EDITORIALS)
April 27, 2001... For California's troubled energy users, the news just isn't getting better. The state is warning again that citizens face a long, hotsummer of random blackouts. Now this: They're going to have to pay for the pleasure, big time, with their...

WHY SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST?(A)(EDITORIALS)
April 27, 2001... Proclaiming himself a practical man, President Bush says he's willing to compromise down his tax cut. Well, if that's practical, then give us the imprudent man. The tax cut wasn't big enough to begin with. Worse, Bush's tax cut -- even...

The Rich Can Afford Socialism.(A)(BRAIN TRUST)
April 27, 2001... Byline: William H. Peterson George Soros, Bill Gates Sr., Paul Newman and two Rockefellers are members of the super-rich that favor only "responsible wealth"-- their title for a pro-death tax manifesto aired in The New York Times earlier...

LETTERS.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)
April 27, 2001... Union Virtues Challenged I would like to call Mr. John J. Sweeney a liar. In "Still Going Strong" (Counterpoint, Wednesday) he said: "Unions guarantee rewards for hard work and initiative, and help narrow the wage gap for women and...

Congress To Face Stark Choices As Entitlements Take Over Budget.(A)(NATIONAL ISSUE)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Sean Higgins Every year the White House, Congress and the lobbyists on K Street fight tooth and nail over the federal budget. Too bad it's only a small slice of the federal pie. The lion's share goes to "mandatory spending."...

SLOW EARNERS Corporate Bottom Lines Seen Recovering, But Process To Take Several Quarters.(B)(INVESTMENT TRENDS)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Paul Katzeff The euphoria was short-lived. After rallying for a few days after the Federal Reserve's unexpected April 18 rate cuts, the market is sagging again. Surprised? The smart money isn't. If you thought the latest...

Dreyfus' Higgins Focuses On Energy, Health Stocks.(B)(FUND MANAGER Q & A)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Dan Moreau In 1998, investors in Dreyfus Midcap Value Fund clenchedtheir teeth when the fund was down 4.2% for the year. That was 8.3 percentage points below its category's peers, and 32.8 points below the S&P 500 index. ...

Which Will Be Internet's Next Crop Of Leaders?(B)(INVESTMENT TRENDS)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Paul Katzeff In a turnaround that on the surface appears amazing, theInternet is showing signs of life just when a lot of investors had given it upas dead. But before you plunge back into Net stocks, consider how fragile the...

Builders, Related Sectors Have Strong Footing.(B)(INVESTMENT TRENDS)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Nancy Gondo Despite mounting job cuts and fears of a slowing economy, building activity looks like it's staying the course. The major marketindexes rose April 25 on strong March home sales data, which have largely beenspurred by...

Legg Mason Buys Nextel, Dell And Gateway Fund group unloads UnitedHealth, Fannie Mae, Washington Mutual.(B)(ALL IN THE FAMILY)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Leo Fasciocco Talk about bargain hunting! The Legg Mason fund family, well-known for its successful value approach to stock picking, was a heavy buyer of several battered tech stocks in the fourth quarter. The most notable...

KEY FUND HOLDINGS.(MAKING MONEY IN MUTUALS)
April 27, 2001... Key Fund Holdings / Conoco was a top 10 holding of Van Kampen Comstock Fund as of its latest reporting period. The stock, just 3% below its 52-week intraday high, is making its way back to its previous high of30.35, set March 12. Earnings...

What To Do If You Can't Afford Your Tax Bill Avoid interest, penalties by using the IRS' Offer in Compromise plan.(B)(TAXES)
April 27, 2001... Byline: Stuart Weiss For many people, this was a rough tax season. They had to pay taxes even though stock portfolios had plummeted. Even selling shares would not raise much cash. Some people found that they couldn't pay. If you're...