Markets to be slow and trend-less ahead of Easter Weekend (page 1 of 3)

US Stocks

Macroeconomics events: 3/26/02 durable good orders for February is expected to increase 1% vs. a 2% for the previous month. On the same day consumer confidence for March will also be made public, 98.00 is expected, an increase of around 4% since February.

Pfizer Inc. (PFE, $40.51, CSFB recommendation: Buy) presented disappointing test results relating to it's Zithromax WIZARD, during the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting. WIZARD documented a 7% favourable effect of Zithromax in mitigating reducing death in post-heart attack patients, although the results failed to achieve statistical significance. There was an early benefit associated with Zithromax therapy, which failed to sustain over the full course of the study. CSFB's Zithromax forecasts remains at $1.75 billion for 2002 (+16%) and $1.98 billion for 2003 (+13%) representing respectively 5% and 6% of current company's sales in total.

Furthermore Pfizer is a net beneficiary of Merck's recent Arcoxia New Drug Application (NDA) withdrawal. Pfizer possesses a strong line-up of advancing new product development initiatives, sustaining the company's position as one of the premier growth stocks in the U.S. major pharmaceutical sector. We remain confident on the company and below $40.00, stocks price represents an opportunity to accumulate. 12-months target price $54.00.

One of Pfizer Inc.'s competitors, Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK, $58.20, CSFB recommendation: Hold): has made public phase III clinical results released at Monday's ACC meeting. It highlighted attractive complementary LDL (low-density lipoprotein) lowering and HDL HDL (high-density lipoprotein) elevating attributes for use of Zetia in statin combination therapy. It is expected that fixed-dose Zocor/Zetia combination product line will be launched in late 2004. Zetia should clearly have a role in cholesterol therapy. Accumulate at these levels. 12-months target price $67.

Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL, $24.09, CSFB recommendation: Hold) announced it is raising prices on new iMac models by $100 to compensate for rising component prices, particularly flat screens, whose costs have increased 25% since January. The company also said that it had shipped 125K new iMacs to date, below consensus' 250K expectation for the current quarter. This flat screen price increases should negatively impact sales. We see good buying opportunities in the low $20s.

US Technology

On a week-on-week basis, the NASDAQ Composite Index lost 0.90% to 1851.39.

The last week's performance of the NASDAQ Composite was rather mixed, reflecting the news flow concerning on technology companies.

Two weeks ago we reported that the Chinese government was ordering as much as 700,000 CDMA mobile phones to give some incentives to the handset manufacturers to increase their output, as the Chinese telecom operators are deploying their CDMA network following to the demand. After the 3G hype in the year 2000 and the following burst of this "bubble", the CDMA / UMTS technology seemed to become a chapter which would not be finished (operators in Europe do not have enough funding for the build up of the networks after having stretched their balance sheets to obtain the licenses).

However, the technology now looks like it has some chance to be implemented but at a slower pace and with lower penetration than initially expected. This trend is positive news for Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM $40.47; CSFB rating: Buy) which charges licensing fees for the usage of the CDMA technology (QCOM's proprietary technology).