Bullish Sentiment Among Investors At Record High, Quick & Reilly 500 Survey Finds.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--

But Half See A 20% Market Correction as Moderately Likely

in the Next 6 Months

Investors Prefer Using Federal Budget Surplus to Reduce Taxes

and National Debt Rather than Applying Budget Surplus to

President's Social Security Plan

Internet Use Continues to Climb, Even Among Investors

who Trade through a Broker

Despite the stock market's recent volatility, 64 percent of sophisticated individual investors are bullish about the outlook for the stock market in 1999, according to the latest quarterly Quick & Reilly 500 survey. This ties with the summer of 1997 as the highest level of bullish sentiment among investors since the Quick & Reilly 500 was first conducted in the spring of 1992.

The Quick & Reilly 500 survey, which has now been conducted for 27 consecutive quarters, is one of the best-established surveys of investor opinion. The latest survey was conducted January 29 to February 1, 1999.

Investors in the latest Quick & Reilly survey have higher confidence in the outlook for the broader market of the S&P 500 than for the narrower group of 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Investors predicted an increase of 23.8 percent in the S&P 500 index in 1999, compared to the actual 35.7 percent increase in the S&P 500 in 1998. Investors expect the Dow Jones Industrial Average to close the year at 9222, slightly below its level of 9350 when the survey was conducted.

A market correction of 20 percent or more in the next six months was judged at least moderately likely by half the investors in the Quick & Reilly survey. In the event of such a 20 percent market correction, 42 percent of the investors in the survey said they would buy more stock to increase equity holdings, while 54 percent would neither increase nor decrease their overall stock portfolio. Only 5 percent of those surveyed would reduce their overall stock holdings.

Budget Surplus Debate

Some 57 percent of the investors in the Quick & Reilly survey favored use of the projected Federal budget surplus (an estimated $4.4 trillion surplus over the next 15 years) for tax cuts and reduction of the national debt, as suggested by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Only 8 percent of the investors surveyed preferred President Clinton's plan to funnel $700 billion in the projected budget surplus into the stock market over the next 15 years as a method of shoring up Social Security. However, 33 percent of the investors surveyed felt that both plans deserve further study.

Investors Rate Factors Affecting Investment Decisions

When asked to name a single factor that affected their investment decisions the most, investors cited U.S. economic news as a top concern (50 percent), as well as the financial crisis in Asia (42 percent) and in Latin America (36 percent). Only 9 percent of investors surveyed cited President Clinton's impeachment trial as having had a significant impact on their investing approach.

Telecommunications Sector Favored by Internet and Traditional Investors

Some 100 of the 500 investors in the Quick & Reilly survey are those who have an Internet account, allowing comparisons with traditional investors who execute their trades through a broker.

Both traditional investors (40 percent) and investors who use the Internet (47 percent) ranked telecommunications as the industry sector that is the most promising to "buy and hold" stocks over the next ten years, followed by pharmaceuticals companies (32 percent of traditional investors; 21 percent of Internet investors). Internet stocks were named as the most promising sector for a ten-year "buy and hold" strategy by 12 percent of the Internet investors and 13 percent of the investors who trade through a broker.

Internet traders are attracted to Internet stocks. Only 16 percent of the investors using a broker had traded Internet stocks in the last three months, compared with 36 percent of the investors in the survey who trade on the Internet.

Use of the Internet for Investment Information and Trading

Use of the Internet to obtain investment information continues to rise, even among investors who trade through a broker. Some 64 percent of investors in the survey who trade through a broker have access to the Internet at home or at work, compared to 60 percent in November 1998 and only 44 percent surveyed in November 1997. Among these traditional investors who have access to the Internet, 82 percent are now using the Internet to obtain investment information and monitor their portfolios, compared to 71 percent of such investors surveyed in November 1998. Investors with access to the Internet who normally use a broker are increasingly using the Internet to place some of their trades. In the most recent Quick & Reilly survey, 29 percent of the investors in this category had traded on the Internet, compared to 23 percent of such investors who were surveyed in November, 1998.

Survey Methodology

The Quick & Reilly 500 Index, a quarterly survey of sophisticated investor sentiment, is one of the best established measures of investor outlook, having been conducted under the sponsorship of Quick & Reilly, Inc., one of the nation's leading discount brokers, since 1992. This survey is conducted by the independent research firm, Wirthlin Worldwide, which interviewed 500 active investors who are clients of Quick & Reilly, 100 of whom trade on the Internet. The interviews were conducted from January 29 to February 1, 1999. Sample error for a group of this size at the 95 percent confidence level is plus or minus 5 percent for the 400 investors who trade through a broker, plus or minus 10 percent for the 100 investors who trade on the Internet, and plus or minus 4.5 percent for the entire sample of 500.

Quick & Reilly was the first member of the New York Stock Exchange to offer discounted commissions to individuals, following its founding in 1974. Since then, Quick & Reilly has become the discount broker of choice for over 1.2 million investors nationwide, and has grown to one of the nation's largest discount brokerage firms, with 118 Investor Centers nationwide, and QuickWay Net, one of the leading Internet securities trading systems, at www.quick-reilly.com. QuickWay Net was ranked #1 by Smart Money in its latest evaluation of Internet brokers, in January 1999. Quick & Reilly, Inc., is part of Fleet Financial Group (NYSE:FLT), headquartered in Boston, a $104 billion diversified financial services company with an outstanding record of growth and profitability.