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Enough already!
Bad news: Warren Buffett says stocks aren't cheap, downgrades all over. So the markets fell.
March 4, 2003: 5:36 PM EST
By Andrew Serwer, FORTUNE

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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - What's to like? Bad news everywhere today. From the Philippines to Omaha. From Detroit to Disney, from companies to Oracles -- none of 'em have good news.

Say wouldn't you know it, Warren Buffett says stocks still aren't cheap. Oh, and then there's Iraq. (If this line seems familiar, it should be. It's from yesterday's Street Life and will be repeated until it need not be...)

The Dow lost 132 to close at 7,704 (below a key support level say the technicians -- don't believe that hooey!). NAZ fell 12 to 1,307. Hey watch me, Furio Giunta ("As far as the INS is concerned, Furio is a highly skilled mozzarella maker. To people who owe Tony Soprano money, he's a ponytailed nightmare."), I mean Andy Serwer, on CNN's "American Morning with Paula Zahn," "In the Money," and Headline News. Read Loose Change to get my take on Quattrone. Here's wazzup:

STOCKYARD Another analyst downgraded GM to a sell. Auto numbers weak. Big bomb in Philippines kills 21. Disney's park business may be in the soup. UAL continues to sink (see below). CAT hit hard. Home Depot hit hard, too. Breadth very negative. The dollar fell. Oil rose. Ford, Visteon, and Delphi are also sells. (Hey I am not making this up!)

Pentagon moves more troops to Gulf. Job cuts accelerate in February. Merrill says financials, telecom services, technology, and consumer sectors are all weak. Greenspan says housing prices won't keep rising. Housing stocks are weak. Martha Stewart warns. Retailers tank. Whew!

And now for the really bad news: It's not going to end any time soon. So sorry! Love your kids, love your dog, work hard to keep your job. 'Cause people, there isn't a lot of love out there!... I'm going home to watch Sopranos DVDs! I'm going to send Furio over to fix this @#$%^ing mess!!

AIRLINES Did you see that United lost $382 million in January. IN JANUARY! Extrapolate that (multiply by 12) and you get $4.6 BILLION for the year! Don't think it can't happen. (It could happen to you, just ask Nicolas Cage!) I mean how long can this go on? (UAL broke a buck. Again!) What if AMR goes bankrupt? How healthy is Delta? This business is so horrible. Why can't more of these guys do Southwest and Jet Blue? They say it's impossible, but guess what the alternative is?! The whole business will be radically different in 10 years..."How long has this been going on?"

BILL GROSS "Hello my name is Bill Gross, bond guru!" So what are we to make of him, his bonds, and his poetry? Frankly, I'm beginning to think he's starting to believe his own press clips. (Don't ever do that, Bill!) Ever since they built their own TV studio out at PIMCO.

Here's Deep Blue's take: "...Gross is the poster boy for people who never wanted to be on a poster. He appears to happiest in some backroom reading Moody's reports and working with walls of ratios. Of course, when bonds crash, the press will try and vilify him -- although I doubt in financial history there has ever been a big bond cheerleader a la Blodget or Quattrone. Fact is they are boring." Beers to ya, Blue!!

Loose change

So it looks like Frankie (sweet music) Quattrone overplayed his hand! He resigned today from CSFB (saying he needed to "concentrate his full energies on his defense.")...

Nice to see our own Fortune.com get just bombarded by people reading Warren Buffett's latest musings. It will be on the Berkshire Web site on Saturday -- of course you can read it at Fortune days and days before that, (and ONLY at Fortune.com!)....

"BAD FOOD! Don't you just hate it when vendors and stores try to foist spinoffs of old reliable products on you at the expense of old reliables?! Example: I went to the store to look for some Redi-Whip (straight out of the can, boys!), all the store had was chocolate!! Example #2: Tried to buy some Cheetos, all the store had was new puffy Cheetos! Puh-lease!!!"...

Hey did you know you could buy a Segway at Amazon?...

Hall & Oates is the ultimate in blue-eyed soul: "Sara Smile." "Maneater" "Rich Girl" "Kiss on my List" and (their version of) "You Lost that Lovin' Feelin"....

Sixers? Nets? Doesn't matter. The west is the best, by far!


Andrew Serwer is editor-at-large of Fortune magazine.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.