Fred Hager Highlights the Following Stocks: El Paso, TXU Corporation, ChevronTexaco, and ExxonMobil.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 17, 2003

Fred Hager suggests that you concentrate on small cap stocks with a market correction sure to occur soon. Don't let a market pullback hurt your investments! Use this expert's intensive market and stock commentary to protect your portfolio. Get information on El Paso (NYSE:EP), TXU Corporation (NYSE:TXU), ChevronTexaco (NYSE:CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://featuredexpert2bw.zacks.com/

Here are the highlights from the Featured Expert column:

The Market This Week from June 6, 2003

The trend has been so incredibly strong over the last month that bearish traders have been astonished at the continuing advance. The risk is high for the bulls by point and figure standards, and according to the volatility indexes. Yet, the bears have been getting creamed by shorting this market. The markets can't continue to go up at this rate, or the indexes would double within months. At some point the market is going to experience a correction, and traders need some type of clues as to when this may happen.

One major factor influencing the markets is the spike up in oil prices. Oil is again above $30 per barrel, and this has the potential to put a major crimp on economic growth. The natural gas index is at a new 52-week high, and the natural gas prices have been rising dramatically. The shortage of natural gas has the potential of causing another energy crisis in certain areas. The XNG is at a new 52-week high, and companies such as El Paso (NYSE:EP) and TXU Corporation (NYSE:TXU) have been attracting renewed investor attentions.

Because of the high energy prices, a lot of the growth in the earnings for the first quarter was attributed to massive gains in the large oil service companies like ChevronTexaco (NYSE:CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), as well as oil drilling companies, which make up a substantial percentage of the S & P 500. If these companies were taken out of the index, the earnings growth rate of the SPX would have been less than 10% for the first quarter.

A safe way of trading now is to be mixed and to concentrate on small cap stocks, which may be hurt less in a market fall. In addition, an important factor to monitor is the closing price of stocks. During upward trends, stocks close at their highs.

Get more of Fred Hager's market commentary to keep yourself in a profitable mode by clicking: http://featuredexpert3bw.zacks.com/

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