Word: merck
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that seems to be the smartest play. Inflation worries have driven growth stocks, including Merck and Philip Morris, 20% lower. Some tech stocks (AT&T) are way cheaper too. Internet stocks, if you're so inclined (I'm not), have fallen even more. Yet the Fed has had the right answer for every new-age inflation scare. Why bet against Alan Greenspan now? It could be that the new era deserves a new truism. Forget stumble. Call it three steps and a start...
Sometimes Wall Street gets captivated by a business model, and everybody just goes nuts trying to find companies that fit it. When I got in the business in the early '80s, everybody wanted to find the next Merck, which was a fabulous stock for so many years. Later, people wanted to find the next Microsoft. Then we searched for the next Amgen, and for the past few years we've wanted to find the next Intel. Recently we wanted to find the next WorldCom and the next America Online...
...prices in that kind of environment, which makes them far less vulnerable to the dark side of economic growth--inflation and higher interest rates. If rates, which have also been going up, keep rising, it will let air out of a lot of consumer stocks, like Wal-Mart and Merck. Tech stocks would also suffer. Rising rates are terrible for bonds...
JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR The Merck Manual has long been an important physician's reference book. The 1899 manual, though, rereleased as a companion to its new centennial edition, makes one wonder what folks will think of our medical practices in 100 years. Some of the alarming advice: for alcoholism, slowly suck an orange. For an earache, pour "hot as it can be borne" water in the ear. Drink a cup of coffee to help combat insomnia, and administer electric shocks to cut short a hysteria attack. Bleeding from a jugular vein will help with acute bronchitis, and morphine...
...world economy recovers from the Asian flu. "What started two weeks ago started too fast and was too extreme," says Jeffrey Warantz, strategist at Salomon Smith Barney. "But it's not over." Warantz's research shows that it isn't just tech stocks or large consumer stocks like Merck and Wal-Mart that are rising now. Several weeks ago, 81% of the stocks that he tracks were lagging the gains in Standard & Poor's 500 by 15% or more. Last week the reading was down to 76%. That hardly points to a party to which everyone's been invited. Still...