Cautiously moving into a holiday-shortened week, the stock market edged lower yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 4 points on moderate volume to close at 3,223.04.
TURKEY TRIMMINGS: "For a nest egg for your newborn child or grandchild, invest $1,000 in a stock that grows 11 percent a year and you'll have $23,000 in 30 years." (Dick Davis Digest) . . . Merck and Philip Morris stocks are currently recommended by nine newsletters followed by Hulbert Financial Digest. . . . A friend tells me that in the Depression, when he asked his father what the parent would give him for his 21st birthday, the father replied, "A world to make a living in." . . . WBAL newscaster Alan Walden points out that Berkshire Hathaway stock, which sold for $20 a share in the mid-1960s, set an NYSE record last week when it touched $10,000 (no misprint) a share. . . . You'll probably get fewer telephone sales pitches after Dec. 21 when F.C.C. rules go into effect banning use of automatic dialers by firms doing cold-call selling.
BALTIMORE BEAT: T. Rowe Price New Asia Fund, which has outperformed the Wilshire 5000 index over the past five years, is recommended by two or more newsletters. . . . Baltimore Gas & Electric stock is written up at length by Legg Mason. Gerald Scheinker (486-8010) will send you the report. ("The firm is returning to its high-quality status, due primarily to the removal of Calvert Cliffs from the NRC's watch list. The 6.5 percent yield could grow.") . . . Eastern Savings (Md.) is listed under "Top-Yielding Certificates of Deposit" in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine for November. . . . Local stocks that reached 12-month highs in last week's lack-luster market include Micros Systems, Manor Care and Merry-Go-Round. Procter & Gamble, with two facilities here, also touched a yearly high.
NEW & OLD: "I would raise cash. Interest rates will rise next year; not good for stocks." (Bernadette Murphy) . . . "1993 will be a tough year for stocks, especially compared to the past decade where the S & P 500 stocks gained an average of 17 percent annually." (Howard "Pete" Colhoun) . . . "Stocks will rise 8 to 10 percent next year." (Gail Dudack, technician) . . . "I recommend Philip Morris, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Annheuser Busch." (Emanuel Goldman, top Wall Street food and tobacco analyst). Above quotes from "Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser." . . . "The budget should be balanced, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt." (Cicero, 63 B.C.)
NEW YORK DIARY: A dish of 12 blackberries (not priced on the dessert menu) cost $12 at a midtown not-too-fashionable restaurant near the Museum of Modern Art. . . . The Helmsley Palace is about to be named The New York Palace. . . . Be sure to instruct taxi drivers to lock all doors when you enter cabs; thugs now open taxi doors, take everyone's money at gunpoint, then disappear in the crowd. (It's a good idea wherever you travel, including in Baltimore.) . . . A Brooks Brothers salesman told me, "We really felt the recession this summer, but things are picking up now."
NOVEMBER NUGGETS: "An estate-planning diary, or organizer, helps to document your assets, providing a road map for heirs. It serves as a one-stop aid for your descendants, who will need to quickly find vital information -- funeral arrangements, safe-deposit box locations, investment lists, etc." (David Rhine, New York CPA) . . . "Successful leaders energize their subordinates. If your leadership does not create more energy in your subordinates than they would have without you, then you are not leading." (from "Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge" by Geoffrey Bellman, $27.95) . . . "With mortgage rates so low now, consider refinancing your mortgage. On a $150,000 loan, the difference between current rates and the 10.2 percent available two years ago is a savings of about $200 a month." (Wall Street Journal) . . . "Home values in established neighborhoods are rising, while those farther out -- in the exurbs -- are flat or falling. If you want extra living space, you can have your pick of larger homes beyond the suburbs." (Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine for December) . . . "The time to invest money is when you have it." (The late Charles Pinkerton, my boss many years ago.)