Market briefing --- Matt (slow)
>> welcome back to “world financial report.” i’m matt nesto. let’s walk you through the day that was on wall street.. the dow up .1%, the s&p 500 barely changed and the nazz -- nasdaq, the star of the three, .8% higher. shares of xilinks closed lower today. they make programmable semiconductors and the chief executive officer says that sales may rise 8% this quarter. analysts say that’s less than some investors expected.
>> the june quarter is typically a few points below the march quarter. so, for us, it was pretty irrational to give that position. also, i think that, you know, when you look back at previous recoveries, we always see two strong quarters followed by a quarter where we grow just a little bit less when people have replenished their inventories and things like that. so, we’re more cautious. as i said yesterday on the conference call, business is bigger, we certainly will take it.
>> rowland says xilinks will grow 5% to 10% faster than the industry as a whole. this quarter, net income more than doubleed to $131 million as xilinks saw rising demand for new products. bloomberg’s second annual ranking of top wall street analysts is out. they identified the best stock pickers and also those who saved their kleins money with timely sell recommendations. among the best, those analysts who discounted fear about consumer debt and the economy. for more on the story, we bring in michael pelizan with us. which firms, i guess i should say, really stood out in the survey this year?
>> well, we looked at 76 firms and of those firms, 29 had at least one analyst. the top firm was prudential. five of their analysts made the list and that was followed by deutsche bank with four analysts.
>> did you find any common traits or themes within the winners, the successful firms?
>> well, if you remember, if you go back a year, remember the economy was like, what the landscape was like t. people that did well were contrarian, willing to make a bet that things would turn around and even before the fundamentals supported that kind of choice.
>> we mentioned sell, calls, some timely ones there. anyone in particular stand out?
>> yes. the number of sells increased last year to 11%. that was somewhat of a problem because you really want to be buying. but there were some good sells. mark hudson, a food analyst with merrill lynch, put a very timely sell on winn-dixie and those shares went down more than 30%.
>> also, there was a lot of news about the spration a pleat list of the top 51 wall street analystses is available in the june issue of bloomberg markets magazine on newsstands next month. in terms of size, the u.s., japan, and germany have the three largest economies in world and a lot of focus on them ahead of the g-7 andism m.f. and world bank talk this is week. but in terms of stock market performances, some very different story. let’s take a look. i put these together here for you. get the right graph up, if we can. there it is. if we look at how these have performed year-to-date, one really jumps out. the nikkei, as well as on the one-year basis, as you see, up 57%. germany’s dax would be second of the seven, followed by france’s cac and that’s on the one-year basis. so, let’s take a look at the nikkei. you know, we’re talking about a 57% increase in that benchmark index. we’re going back 15 years, folks, and this is an index, mind you, that at the turn of 1999 -- 1989, rather, into 2000, this is an index at one point that was up as high as 30,000 and has risen now above 12,000. but clearly this index has a long way to go. if you look at pe ratios here, not surprisingly the nikkei also leading the pack there, trading at 41 times the estimate, mind you, the estimated earnings for 2004. the ft-se second at nearly 20. u.s. and italy neck-and-neck at about 18 times estimated earnings for this year. germany, canada and france rounding out the rivals there. so, there you have it. a quick look at how the g-7 stacks up. even with rising interest rates, our next guest expects stocks will do well. the chief investment officer at skba asset management joins us next with his market strategy and top picks. that’s all ahead on the “world financial report.” i’m matt nesto. stay with us. we’ll be right back.
