FEW SELLS IN SIGHT

Despite the outcry over misleadingrecommendations from WallStreet analysts, the situation is littlechanged, according to Weiss Ratings(www.weissratings.com), an independentfinancial analyst firm. Afterreviewing analysts' ratings on 30companies that went Chapter 11 during4 months of 2001, Weiss foundthat 66% of the brokerage firmsadvised investors to buy or holdshares in those companies right up tothe date of the bankruptcy filing. Asbad as that record appears, it's animprovement over previous Weissstudies, which showed 74% of brokerspushed stock in companies thatwent bust between May 1 and August31 of last year, and 94% put buy orhold labels on companies that wentunder between January 1 and April30. Among the firms that issued sellratings on companies bound forbankruptcy during the past 4 monthsof 2002, according to Weiss, wereLehman Brothers, Salomon SmithBarney, and Deutsche Bank.