INSIDER BUYING SHRINKS

If you're looking to corporateinsiders for a ray of stock markethope, forget it. Even though manystocks are at bargain-basement levelsafter months of being beaten by thebear market, insider buying by corporateexecutives and directorsshrank for the third year in a row,according to the research firmWashington Service. Tracking insiderfilings with the SEC, the companyreported that insider buying droppedto $2.6 billion, a 2.1% decline andthe lowest level since 1996. Althoughsome of the drop can be attributed tolower stock prices, some marketwatchers took the report as anothersignal that a new bull market isn't yeton the horizon.