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Andy Serwer Commentary:
Street Life by Andy Serwer Column archive
Serwer: Of Oracle, homes and guns
Oracle shows promise but homebuilders do not; and would you own a 'killer' stock?
Market insight from Fortune Editor-at-Large Andy Serwer

NEW YORK (Fortune) - Whoa baby! I'm still catching my breath after Thursday's stupendous rally! Be interesting to see if we can at least hold on here a bit.

ORACLE: Is Oracle back? Maybe. Sort of. Company upped its profit forecast for the fourth quarter. So maybe that means its $20 billion purchases of Siebel and PeopleSoft (among others) are beginning to pay off. One thing's for sure, it's never boring in Larry (Ellison) Land. Of course this stock is still way down from its Internet crazied era high, but it's back up near $14 after falling to single digits a few years back. This is a company (Charts) with a huge installed base, so it has staying power. Not as expensive as it used to be. Good for the long haul.

KB HOMES: Here's a stock making damn fine money, but with a P/E of 4! Four! Stock is at $45 which means it is making close to $10 a year in earnings! Amazing ... so you should buy it, right? Me no think so. Company announced after the bell on Thursday that profits rose 14 percent, but it lowered its guidance for the year. Yes, Gertrude, the housing boom is over. We are overbuilt, plus rates are moving up and the economy is weakish. Stock (Charts) is down from $85 earlier this year. And it could be a look out below situation, if you catch my drift.....

SMITH & WESSON: Hey, it's a sporting goods company. Its fourth quarter profit is up nicely. Here's CEO Michael Golden: "Our results for the year reflected solid execution on the strategy to grow our core handgun business...." Boy you could have made some serious kwan here! Stock (Charts) sold for less than a buck in Jan '01, now it's at $7.75. I wouldn't own it, but someone did! So what do you think: A) Would you own this stock? And B) What's worse? A handgun stock? Or a tobacco stock? My producer Paul Amin says that they are about the same, both are killers.

Loose Change: Isn't unreal how many celebrities have "written" kids books? Kinda sick. Mostly market driven. As in a book company calls up a celeb and pitches, "don't worry, we'll write it for ya!" Here's a partial list (and of course it's possible that some of these books come from the bottom of their hearts) Debby Boone, Katie Couric, Madonna, Jay Leno, Spike Lee, Sting. Here's the link.

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