Noticing that the DJIA dipped below 10K for a short time on Friday, someone mentioned to me that the S&P index is the one to watch. Am I right in saying that the S&P is tied closely to Moodys' and is a good reflection of fortune 500 companies credit worthiness ?

I ask this as my source says the S&P has gone * below * the margin he would consider safe, and that 18th is going to be a bad, bad day....

Anyone able to enlighten an IT guru with enough interests in the market to be dangerious ? (Note, my current perspective is anyone wityh monbry in the markets at the moment is either very brave or very foolish .....)

Thanks

-- Rob Somerville (merville@globalnet.co.uk), October 17, 1999

Answers

Dow Jones = 30 (largest) companies: 28% growth year-to-date (even after last week's "correction") according to a previous poster.

S&P = 500 companies: 1% (ONE PERCENT!) growth year-to-date for 1999, according to WTOP AM 1500 NEWS.

I still think that "they" will keep the market going until the end of 1999 to aid Y2K repairs world-wide - no matter what. "They" can play a lot of games - things that if "we" did, would be called "market manipulation".

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), October 17, 1999.

Please replace ----

dangerious <--- dangerous wityh <--- with monbry <--- money

.... IE4 unfortunately does not come with spell-check !!!

-- Rob Somerville (merville@globalnet.co.uk), October 17, 1999.

Rob,

The S&P is not tied to Moody's. It is a separate index comprised of 500 companies on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. The S&P price has nothing to do with credit worthiness, it is just a reflection of what buyers and sellers are willing to execute trades for.

As to your source's observation that the price is below a margin considered safe, I would guess he/she is looking at technical trading support levels which are subjective measurements, not scientific truth. Ditto the comment about the 18th. We'll know soon enough.

-- mike (maples@voy.net), October 17, 1999.

* Market Crash / Bank Runs by 12/99 at the latest.

* Major oil problems by 1/00.

* Y2K is Real

* Y2K is a sub-set of the Millennium Problem

-- Dan G (earth_changes@hotmail.com), October 17, 1999.