Investor's Business Daily articles from May 2004, page 4

Investor's Business Daily archives from May 2004

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(TO THE POINT)
May 19, 2004... U.S. govt. wants brains for fuel The Agriculture Dept. rolled out a $50 mil loan guarantee program for motivating small businesses in rural areas to find ways to make cattle brains and other high-risk remains into a "bio-based" source of...

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS.(TO THE POINT)
May 19, 2004... ** Low-carbohydrate food sales may be falling off, according to participants in a conference organized by industry trade publication LowCarbiz. Store owners and manufacturers report sales falling 15-20% monthly from Jan '04. ** Diet...

DON'T BE AFRAID TO INNOVATE; BE DIFFERENT Charting A New Course.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)
May 19, 2004... Byline: Amy Alexander 8 There's a poet in a boardroom teaching executives about words. An orchestra conductor showing that small-as-shiver moves can move staff. A Jesuit priest helping managers discern their goals. No, it isn't a...

Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz; Meticulous Warrior: He helped win the Pacific in WWII by keeping his cool.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)
May 19, 2004... Byline: DOUG TSURUOKA Smoke was still rising over the wreckage of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor when Adm. Chester Nimitz, its new commander, sized up the situation. "It was God's mercy that our fleet was in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7,...

Hewlett-Packard Q2 Profit And Sales Up; Boosts 2004 Outlook; Revenue Beats Expectations; Continued rebound of PC field, services helped firm hit first $20-billion quarter.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 19, 2004... Byline: KEN SPENCER BROWN Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came out swinging Tuesday against rivals IBM and Dell, dismissing their "competitive rhetoric" with second-quarter sales figures that show HP beating its biggest foes in several...

Sony Likes Outlook In The Video Game Game; Entertainment "At Core'; Moving ahead with IBM on chip aimed at helping build interactive content.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)(Q & A)
May 19, 2004... Byline: BRIAN DEAGON A 20-year Sony veteran, Kaz Hirai helped launch of the original PlayStation as well as the groundbreaking PS2 in 2000. The PlayStation is the largest selling game console, and it remains far ahead of Microsoft's Xbox...

FBI Investigates Possible Cisco Code Theft.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 19, 2004... Byline: FROM REUTERS The FBI is investigating the possible theft of source code from networking equipment maker Cisco Systems, the agency said on Tuesday. "We're aware of the situation and we're working with Cisco regarding the...

Diodes Inc. Sending Positive Signals As Tech Industry Rebounds.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 19, 2004... Byline: JAMES DETAR As the tech industry rebounds, basic components are back in demand. And that includes diodes, the simple electronic devices that transmit signals and current. It's good news for Diodes Inc., a top maker of the...

AARON RENTS INC. Atlanta, Georgia; Furniture Rental Firm Buys Into Partnership.(THE NEW AMERICA)
May 19, 2004... Byline: MARILYN MUCH It's not often a retailer gets customer referrals directly from a top vendor. That's how things are shaping up for Aaron Rents. The company runs 840 rent-to-own stores stocked with furniture, consumer...

AMERICA SERVICE GROUP Brentwood, Tennessee; More Jails, More Prisoners, More Business.(THE NEW AMERICA)
May 19, 2004... Byline: PETER BENESH Three strikes and you're out makes no sense when it comes to crime. It should be called three strikes and you're in -- jail. That's the case in 40 states. The three-strikes law is one reason the nation's prison...

ICI Meets In Hope Of Quelling Scandal; Reaffirming Priorities; Fund industry is facing several changes aimed at safeguarding investors.(MUTUAL FUNDS)(FUND INDUSTRY TRENDS)
May 19, 2004... Byline: PAUL KATZEFF Mutual fund leaders gathered in Washington for the Investment Company Institute's annual meeting Wednesday with hopes of turning the page on the scandal the industry has grappled with since September. Some 20...

Euro-Laggards.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 19, 2004... Europe's Economy: The European Union keeps hitting potholes on its road to nirvana. A few more, and some members might decide belonging isn't worth the effort. What sounded great and doable just four years ago now seems like a joke. At...

E-Ballot Bugs.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 19, 2004... Elections: Electronic voting was hyped as the answer to Florida-style follies. Now it raises suspicions of its own. Isn't there a better way to get rid of hanging chads? Among lessons that can be drawn from the 2000 presidential...

THE REAL MOST ACTIVE S&P 600 Leads Rebound, But Volume Falters.(MAKING MONEY)
May 19, 2004... Byline: CRAIG SHAW Strong retail earnings and the renomination of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan helped soothe markets Tuesday as stocks grabbed back part of Monday's losses. The Dow advanced 0.6%, the S&P 500 0.7%. The small-cap S&P 600...

Analyze, Profit From IBD's Market Charts.(GENERAL MARKET & SECTORS)
May 19, 2004... Analyzing the price and volume changes in the major market averages each day is essential to successful investing. They reveal major tops and bottoms in the stock market. Most stocks follow the general market's trend. They tend to rise...

Corus Bankshares In 11th Week Of Base.(B)(NASDAQ STOCKS IN THE NEWS)
May 19, 2004... Byline: Nancy Gondo Corus Bankshares reached a new intraday high March 1 before reversing to close at its low. It gradually declined to, but bounced off, its 50-day moving average. But on April 13 it closed below the trend line and has...

Security Gear Maker Sees Armor Demand.(B)(NYSE STOCKS IN THE NEWS)
May 19, 2004... Byline: Craig Shaw Armor Holdings has consolidated above its 50-day moving average the past six weeks, defying the market's downturn. The stock's up/down volume ratio of 1.5 shows upside trade outweighed downside demand the past 50 days....

THE REAL MOST ACTIVE Nasdaq Rebounds 1.1% On Slightly Lower Trade.(B)
May 19, 2004... Byline: NANCY GONDO Nasdaq stocks closed higher but didn't quite recoup all of Monday's losses. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 1.3%, but on lighter volume. Innovative Solutions & Support gained 1.40 to a...

Stock Exchange Crashes 11% In Bombay As Pro-Business Reforms Are Imperiled; Worst Day In 129-Yr History; ADRs traded in U.S. are also hit in what analysts doubt is a one-day event.(A)
May 18, 2004... Byline: JONAH KERI Indian shares plunged for a second straight session Monday as investors continued to worry about the fate of economic reforms under the incoming government. The Indian market plunged over 15% in the morning,...

IBD'S TOP 10.(A)
May 18, 2004... Bomb Kills Head Of Iraqi Council 1A suicide car bombing killed the rotating president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council Abdel-Zahraa Othman, or Izzadine Saleem, outside the coalition's Baghdad HQ. It's a blow to U.S. efforts to...

AFTER THE CLOSE.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... AGILENT swung to a 24 cent a share profit ex items in Q2 vs. a year-ago loss, matching views. Sales rose 24% to $1.83 bil, and orders also rose 24%. It raised its Q3 outlook. Shares rose. COMPUTER SCIENCES earned $1.01 in Q4, up 6% from a...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... RETAIL Kmart profit jumps, but sales slip The discount retailer earned $93 mil in Q1, or 94 cents a share, turning around the year-ago loss of $1.65 a share. Views were for 15 cents a share. Sales fell 25% to $4.62 bil, and...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... TELECOM Lucent fined; 9 charged in fraud The SEC accused 9 current and ex-employees of the telecom equipment maker, plus another individual, of securities fraud tied to a 2000 accounting scandal. Lucent also was fined $25 mil for...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... ACQUISITIONS XTO to buy Chevron oil, gas fields Natural gas producer XTO Energy will acquire 150 natural gas and oil fields in 7 states from ChevronTexaco. The deal will hike XTO's production targets by 28-30% in '04 and 18-20% in...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... MEDICAL King Pharma chief suddenly exits The company said Jefferson Gregory resigned as chairman and CEO of the embattled drug maker on Friday. No successor was named. In Feb., Gregory said he would give up his CEO title, but planned...

THE ECONOMY.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... Home builders are still optimistic The National Association of Home Builders' housing index, which gauges builder sentiment, stood at 69 in May, the same level as in April. Readings above 50 show a larger number of builders think sales...

IN BRIEF.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... Deluxe, a check and business forms printer, will buy New England Business Service for about $600 mil. Deluxe rose 4% to 42.46, NEB rose 31% to 43.69. Sherwin-Williams will buy rival Duron for $253 mil in cash plus debt as it expands its...

NATION.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... U.S. to pull troops from S. Korea Pentagon officials confirmed talks were under way to withdraw as many as 4,000 of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, sending most of those to Iraq. President Bush told South Korean...

WORLD.(TO THE POINT)
May 18, 2004... Al-Qaida plan targeted embassy Al-Qaida recruited a British-born Muslim convert in a plot to blow up Israel's embassy in Canberra, Australia, with a truck bomb, prosecutors said on the opening day of Jack Roche's trial in Australia. They...

How You Play The Game.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)
May 18, 2004... Byline: Adelia Cellini Linecker 7 In 2002, the New York Yankees had a player payroll of $126 million vs. the Oakland Athletics' $40 million. Yet Oakland won more regular season games than any other team in Major League Baseball that year...

Slocum Sailed Above His Peers; Follow Your Passion: Sea captain's shipshape attitude took him places.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)
May 18, 2004... Byline: SEAN HIGGINS Joshua Slocum knew it for a fact: If you're going to spend your life pursuing anything, it might as well be something you love. And Slocum simply loved his work. For him, the only thing that rivaled the joy of...

CDW Taps Resellers As It Eyes Comeback In Business Spending; Looking Past $8 Billion Sales; Direct technology marketer adjusted its business model to lure government clients.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 18, 2004... Byline: PATRICK SEITZ The strategy that helped CDW grow during the tech spending downturn could be a major boon for the company now that U.S. businesses are buying computer hardware and software again. The Vernon Hills, Ill.-based...

As Labor Costs Climb, Firms Seek Tech Help; Changing View Of HR; Human capital software helping businesses get more out of employees.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 18, 2004... Byline: J. BONASIA Getting the right people to the right jobs is more important than ever. Companies shell out more on labor these days than on capital spending. In fact, labor is the largest expense of doing business in developed...

Surging T-Mobile USA Emerges As Key Asset; Sale Seen As Less Likely; After suffering big losses, Deutsche Telekom unit posting subscriber gains.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 18, 2004... Byline: REINHARDT KRAUSE After seeing strong subscriber growth at T-Mobile USA, parent Deutsche Telekom is likely to hold onto the wireless service, analysts say. T-Mobile USA added 1.18 million net subscribers in the quarter ended...

Software Aims To Ease Government Contracts; A Boom In Tech Deals; Privia helps businesses evaluate deals, manage costly bidding process.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)(Q & A)
May 18, 2004... Byline: DOUG TSURUOKA The U.S. government handed out over $115 billion in IT-related contracts in 2003. Most of it was for defense or homeland security. Federal information technology spending in 2004 is expected to exceed last year's...

Nonquiet Salesforce CEO Might Have Forced Company To Delay IPO.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 18, 2004... Byline: J. BONASIA There's "quiet" -- and then there's Marc Benioff, the founder and chief executive of Salesforce.com. The company plans to soon make its initial public offering, but people close to the situation say the IPO has...

ZIMMER HOLDINGS INC. Warsaw, Indiana; Buy Moves Medical Supplier To The Head Of The Class.(THE NEW AMERICA)
May 18, 2004... Byline: STEVE WATKINS When you get a chance to be No. 1, you do it. Zimmer Holdings Inc. did just that in October, when it bought Switzerland's Centerpulse AG. The deal made Zimmer the top orthopedic products firm in the U.S., Europe...

Pacific Advisors Fund Buys And Holds; Seeks Small-Cap Value; Fund waits for pullbacks to grab promising firms; Tyler Tech is a favorite.(MUTUAL FUNDS)(MUTUAL FUND PROFILE)
May 18, 2004... Byline: PAUL KATZEFF Pacific Advisors Small Cap Fund is a classic no pain-no gain portfolio. In the four weeks going into Monday, the fund lost 7.11% vs. a 6.31% loss for its small blend peers tracked by Morningstar and a 6.32%...

Moral Equivalents.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 18, 2004... War Coverage: Another newspaper editor has resigned in disgrace, giving journalism another black eye and further confusing what's going on in the war on terror. Journalism's latest black mark was embossed in Britain. Seems that London's...

A Day Without.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 18, 2004... Civil Liberties: A new film called "A Day Without a Mexican" is supposed to make us think. We think someone ought to do a sequel: "A Day Without The ACLU." We thought of this as we gazed upon a photo of a teenager with pants nearly...

THE REAL MOST ACTIVE India, Iraq, Oil Deal Market Another Loss.(MAKING MONEY)
May 18, 2004... Byline: CRAIG SHAW Record high oil prices and worries over Iraq and India ganged up Monday to squelch the market's attempted rally. The Dow and S&P 500 each sank 1.1% on heavier trade. The small-cap S&P 600 shed 1.5%. Twenty-eight of 30...

Analyze, Profit From IBD's Market Charts.(GENERAL MARKET & SECTORS)
May 18, 2004... Analyzing the price and volume changes in the major market averages each day is essential to successful investing. They reveal major tops and bottoms in the stock market. Most stocks follow the general market's trend. They tend to rise...

Orthopedic Brace Firm Trades In Tight Range.(B)(NYSE STOCKS IN THE NEWS)
May 18, 2004... Byline: Craig Shaw Dj Orthopedics is adding a handle to its five-month base. The stock marked tight closes near its 50-day moving average the past three weeks, a sign of support. The 21% decline within its handle is steeper than normal,...

THE REAL MOST ACTIVE Biotechs, Inflation Woes Weigh Down Nasdaq.(B)
May 18, 2004... Byline: NANCY GONDO Iraqi turmoil, high oil prices and inflation concerns continued to pressure Nasdaq stocks. Only a handful of defensive sectors were spared the sell-off. The Nasdaq composite and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 each lost...

Digital River Reclaims 50-, 200-Day Lines.(B)(NASDAQ STOCKS IN THE NEWS)
May 18, 2004... Byline: Nancy Gondo Digital River marked a three-year intraday high Oct. 9. The stock pulled back over the next four months to fall below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. It fell as much as 43% from the top of the base to its...

Tight-Fisted S&P 500 Watches Cash Pile Up; Nonfinance firms hold record hoards, could fund dividends, M&As.(A)
May 17, 2004... Byline: CRAIG SHAW If you believe the saying "cash is king," half the S&P 500 must be wearing crowns. Cash held by the benchmark index's nonfinancial firms topped $500 billion this year, an all-time record. It's seen hitting $520...

Consumer Prices Climb 0.2%, Core Signals Inflation Uptick; Industry Output Rises 0.8%; With U.S. growth strong and inflation returning, economists say hike rates.(A)
May 17, 2004... Byline: CHRISTINA WISE Inflation is heating up while factories grow at a fast clip, reinforcing expectations for gradual but steady Federal Reserve rate hikes. The consumer price index rose 0.2% in April, the Commerce Department...

MARKET TOOL BAR.(A)
May 17, 2004... S&P 500 INDEX 1095.70 -0.74 (-0.1%) Staying comfortably above 200-day avg. DOW JONES IND. 10,012.87 +2.13 (0.0%) Mixed, like market, closing on 200-day NYSE VOL. (MIL) 1,345 -106...

IBD'S TOP 10.(A)
May 17, 2004... Crude Hits All-Time High $41.56 1Continuing its relentless rise, Nymex crude oil futures broke the old Oct. '90 peak of $41.15 a barrel. Crude settled up 30 cents to $41.38, the latest record close. Fears about tight U.S. gasoline...

AFTER THE CLOSE.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... ORACLE cut its bid for PeopleSoft by 19%, to $7.7 bil, or $21 a share. Since both stocks have fallen in the last 3 weeks, the offer is still 21% higher than PeopleSoft's Fri. closing price. Oracle also extended its offer to July 16. Oracle...

IN BRIEF.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... Investors pulled $2.15 bil from U.S. junk bond mutual funds in the week ended Wed., the 2nd biggest outflow on record and the most since August, AMG Data Services said. It also marked the 5th straight week of outflow from these higher...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... MEDICAL Cholesterol drugs may fight MS The statin drugs, already used to reduce the risk of heart attack by lowering cholesterol, may also aid in treating multiple sclerosis. Researchers at the University of South Carolina said...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... TECHNOLOGY Chinadotcom merger delayed The Internet firm's shares fell 12% to 6.67 on news that the deadline to remake itself as a software supplier through a merger with Ross Systems was pushed back to Sept. 1. The firm made 4 cents...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... TELECOM NTT warns of decline in profit The world's No. 1 telecom group by revenue said its annual operating profit rose 14% to a record $13.5 bil for its just-completed fiscal year, but it warned that its profit for the current year...

THE ECONOMY.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... ECRI leading index edges higher The Economic Cycle Research Institute's gauge of the U.S. economic outlook last week rose to 135.7 from 135.5 the prior week, lifted by a rise in money supply and improving corporate credit. The index's...

TRENDS/INNOVATIONS.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... Air pollution linked to mutations Mice that breathed unfiltered air had a 52% increase in the rate of genetic mutations, Science reported. The culprit for the DNA alteration: soot generated by industrial activity, which is tiny enough to...

NATION.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... Mad cow screening error probed The USDA admitted it failed when it didn't test a bovine that may have had the brain-wasting disease. The incident is being probed. Critics say it raises doubts about the screening system set to start in...

WORLD.(TO THE POINT)
May 17, 2004... Ambush in Gaza kills 2 Israelis Two soldiers died when Palestinian militants blew up their jeep in the third deadly ambush this week. Israel widened its flash-point corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, demolishing rows of Palestinian homes...

The Finer Points Of Sales.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Cord Cooper 6 The best salespeople don't sell their products. They sell what the customer will get from those products. The sale lies in the details, Jeffrey Fox says in "How to Become a Rainmaker." Below are...

Condi Rice Rises To The Task; Face The Heat: The national security adviser keeps standing her ground.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: MARILYN ALVA Condoleezza Rice was on the firing line. Members of the 9-11 commission wanted answers. What top-level decisions were made or could have been made to keep America safe from terrorists in the months before the...

As 10th E3 Concludes, Video Game Executives Ponder What's Ahead; Sales To Double In 10 Years?; Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and other firms must bet correctly on future systems.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 17, 2004... Byline: BRIAN DEAGON Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, took the opportunity last week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in Los Angeles to boast about how much the video game industry has...

Adelphia Breakup Likely In The Event Of A Sale; Huge Subscriber Losses; Company's in bad shape, but Comcast deal shows turnarounds are possible.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 17, 2004... Byline: REINHARDT KRAUSE Huge subscriber losses at bankrupt Adelphia Communications shouldn't derail plans to sell the troubled cable firm, analysts say. The big question is whether the company will be sold off as a whole, or in pieces....

Olympic Committee Readies Webcast Plan To Show Games Online; Group To Offer Two Options; NBC, which has the rights to show Games in U.S., hasn't revealed Web plans.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)
May 17, 2004... Byline: PETE BARLAS For sports fans, the 2004 Summer Olympic Games could be must-see PC. Later this month, the International Olympic Committee plans to offer technology to TV networks that will let them broadcast -- for the first...

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS & SUPPORT INC. Exton, Pennsylvania; Manufacturer Of Flight Gear Looks To Measure Up To New Standard.(THE NEW AMERICA)
May 17, 2004... Byline: DAVID ISAAC How high. How fast. Those two metrics are important to aircraft. They also lie at the heart of computer systems made by Innovative Solutions and Support. The company's gear is used in both military and...

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)
May 17, 2004... ON THE BOOKSHELF New Reading ** How work gets done. Most managers have little understanding of how their employees actually interact to accomplish tasks, argue Rob Cross and Andrew Parker in their new book "The Hidden Power of...

Leadership Skills From Navy Seals.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)(REAL SOLUTIONS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Morey Stettner After his high school graduation, Michael Crooke joined the U.S. military and spent four years as a Navy Seal. Today, he's chief executive of Patagonia Inc., a maker of outdoor apparel based in Ventura, Calif. ...

The Honest Heart Brand Of Leadership.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)(REAL SOLUTIONS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Morey Stettner In his 33-year career at United Parcel Service, Cal Darden has learned the secret of leadership: Let people know you care about them with an honest heart. Some executives define leadership as communicating a...

When The Back Office Is A Store; FedEx, UPS specialize in services for small and home-based businesses.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: MARILYN MUCH Allan Wallace sees a lot of people dropping by at The UPS Store on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The most frequent customers are local small business owners who work from home, says Wallace, who owns the store....

Market-Leading Medical Stocks.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)
May 17, 2004... 1Escalon Medical ProductsESMC20.82-24.269999A390015 It develops, distributes and sells ophthalmic medical devices and drugs. Its top client is Bausch & Lomb, and it has "03 sales of $13 mil. 2Amedisys Outpnt/Home...

MED BRIEFS.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)
May 17, 2004... Pfizer Admits To False Marketing Pfizer's Warner-Lambert unit agreed to pay $430 million and plead guilty to criminal charges that it illegally marketed epilepsy drug Neurontin for migraine, bipolar disease and pain. It didn't have...

Inaction By Lawmakers Reverberates In Medical World; Project Bioshield Stalls; Expert: As Senate drags its feet on bioterror bill, drug firms suspend plans.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)(Q & A)
May 17, 2004... Byline: GLORIA LAU While the U.S. Senate mulls what to do with Project Bioshield, some drug companies have put their plans on hold as well. Project Bioshield is a 10-year, $6 billion program to fund development of drugs to protect...

Public, Private Sectors Unite To Analyze Disease Outbreaks; The Motto: Be Prepared; New initiative from NIH is designed to help predict the course of outbreaks.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)
May 17, 2004... Byline: AMY REEVES Plenty of businesses use computer modeling to pretest their products. They might see how a car design will drive, where to drill for oil or how a surgery would go. Now the U.S. government is adapting the technology...

Software Firm Helps Clients Get Organized; Impac Medical Systems; Mountain View, Calif. impac.com.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)(UNDER THE MICROSCOPE)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Gloria Lau Cancer is the second biggest killer in the U.S. behind heart disease. It's also a complex disease to treat. There are chemotherapy drug regimens, radiation treatments and surgeries to schedule. The result from each...

Who's Who In Shoe Manufacturing Stocks ranked by a combined EPS and Relative Strength.(INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT)
May 17, 2004... 1Deckers OutdoorDECK889623.65224.7129.2322.7231312.3 Goleta CA. Functional, fashion-oriented footwear for outdoor activities + everyday use. 2Phoenix FootwearPXG809712.9965.848.5140010264.9 Carlsbad CA. Casual and dress footwear...

Shoes, Economy In Lock Step; Cheap rubber flip-flops find the closet as consumers break out the leather.(INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT)(APPAREL - SHOES AND RELATED MANUFACTURING)
May 17, 2004... Byline: LAURA MANDARO Clothes make the man. But shoes won't make it off the shelf when times get tough. That's been the shoe industry's story the last three years. U.S. sales slowed in 2000 and, for many of the big...

Wolverine World Wide Makes Tracks Abroad; Nonathletic-shoe maker finds a firm foothold in underpenetrated market.(INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT)(Q & A)
May 17, 2004... Byline: LAURA MANDARO With American closets overflowing with new shoes, manufacturers are increasingly looking abroad to stack up sales. Wolverine World Wide knows that as well as anyone. Last year, one-quarter of its $889 million in...

Take Turnover With A Grain Of Salt; Popular Ratio Is Vague; Figure misses the mark as way to judge costs; returns more important.(FUNDS & PERSONAL FINANCE)(FUND INDUSTRY TRENDS)
May 17, 2004... Byline: MURRAY COLEMAN Financial advisers often warn investors about one of their favorite pet peeves: turnover. Too much of it raises expenses and transaction costs. And that can take a bite out of your return. But turnover,...

Not Quite Yet.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 17, 2004... Economy: Fearing inflation, a growing number of pundits and economists are pushing the Fed to hike interest rates. The Fed should ignore them, at least for now. The Fed has promised to be "patient" with its rate policy, and to take only...

Speaking Of "Horrific'.(A)
May 17, 2004... Incidents at Abu Ghraib prison, widely described as "horrific," are back in the spotlight, elbowing aside other, not-so-camera-friendly events such as the beheading of Nicholas Berg (second from left, bottom). Berg's murder, which lasted one...

Brown And Reality.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)
May 17, 2004... Choice: Fifty years after the high court outlawed school segregation, the racial gap in education remains -- at least in part because the poor have few, if any, options. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education...

Use SmartLink To Help Mine IBD 100 Stocks.(THE IBD 100)(INSIDE THE IBD 100)
May 17, 2004... Byline: NANCY GONDO One hundred stocks is a lot to go through when you're pressed for time. But investors.com makes it easy for you to screen the IBD 100 list based on different criteria. What better time than now to keep your watch...

THE IBD 100.(THE IBD 100)
May 17, 2004... 1Escalon Medical CpESMC20.58-25999999..+90..+152314202 Ophthalmic company earns an A+ from Stock Checkup at investors.com. Featured 5/10 on B2. 2Middleby CorpMIDD54.79-4999998+24+100+41+113512505 One-stop shop for heating,...

Outsourcer Speeds Clinical Trials As Drug Firms Race Patent Clock.(THE IBD 100)
May 17, 2004... Byline: DAVID ISAAC The next time you're in line at the pharmacy bemoaning the cost of prescription drugs, remember this number: $802 million. That's how much it costs a pharmaceutical firm to develop a new drug, the Journal of...

IBD'S WEEK IN REVIEW.(THE IBD 100)
May 17, 2004... Market Recovers From Volatile Trading 1Stocks plunged Monday and Wednesday. But rebounds Tuesday and late Wednesday kept the losses in check. Despite inflation fears and record oil prices, the market finished the week with modest...