Schaeffer's Street Chatter Features Altria Group, General Electric, Rambus.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2004

Today's Schaeffer's Street Chatter features Altria Group (NYSE:MO), General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Rambus (Nasdaq:RMBS). A new daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is Street Chatter. Every day, we'll focus on three stocks that are generating a lot of attention on Internet message boards. We hope this will effectively offer information on equities that are popular in the investing world and will be a beneficial resource for our readers. For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you free via email every day click on the following link: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/addinfo

Schaeffer's Street Chatter:

Altria Group

Altria Group (NYSE:MO), formerly Philip Morris Companies, is down 1.9-percent today after UBS adjusted its rating on the stock to "reduce" from "neutral." UBS cited MO's outperformance of the S&P 500 Index by 22 percent as a reason to be fearful of the consumer defensive stock. Yet interestingly, UBS lifted its price target for MO to $49 from $42.50. Technically speaking, the shares have been in a steady uptrend since mid-September, increasing by nearly 33 percent. They have recently met resistance at the 55 level and are currently trading sideways. The sentiment picture, however, is very bearish. The Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for MO has steadily increased over the past three months and it currently stands at 1.83, higher than 90 percent of past year's readings. On the short-interest front, the number of MO shares sold short increased by 27 percent over the most recent reporting period to 23.2 million, for a short-interest ratio of nearly four times the security's average daily volume. Meanwhile, the analyst community is slightly more bullish on the shares as it has 10 "buys," two "holds," and no "sell" ratings.

Click the following link to see a Daily Chart of MO since June 2003 with 10-Day and 20-Day Moving Averages: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=9280 .

General Electric

Shares of the industrial conglomerate General Electric (NYSE:GE) are up 43 cents today to $32.43 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings news that are in-line with expectations. GE is one of four Dow industrial components reaching a new 52-week high today. Possibly helping GE is that some of the investor pessimism built into the stock is now being unwound. This pessimism is illustrated by GE's SOIR of 1.10, which is higher than 98 percent of all readings taken over the past year. With so many investors having such low expectations on GE shares, just meeting the consensus earnings estimate was enough to create a surprise to the upside. Technically speaking, the stock has been trending higher over the past two months with the support of its 10-day moving average. The security has also recently broken above resistance at its 20-week trendline. A close above $32.40 would break previous horizontal resistance and allow for further upside.

Click the following link to see a Daily Chart of GE since June 2003 with 10-Day and 20-Day Moving Averages: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=9280 .

Rambus

Memory chipmaker Rambus (Nasdaq:RMBS) reported a 33-percent jump in third-quarter earnings after yesterday's closing bell. The stock has skipped more than three percent higher on the news in trading today. In fact, RMBS has enjoyed quite a run over the past four months. As recently as September 29, the equity traded under $17 per share. However, a series of positive outcomes on patent suits have boosted the stock to its current level. On no less than three occasions since that time, RMBS has gapped higher to close up more than eight percent. Pessimism is evident on the security as its SOIR is higher than 70 percent of all readings taken over the past 12 months. RMBS is also not well followed on Wall Street. According to Zacks, only two analysts cover the company and both have "buy" ratings on it. Any additional coverage could give the shares an additional lift.

Click the following link to see a Daily Chart of RMBS since August 2003 with 10-Day Moving Average: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=9280 .

The best way to take advantage of the timely Schaeffer commentaries is to sign up to receive their free e-newsletters -- Opening View, Midday Report, Market Recap and Monday Morning Outlook. Click here to have the Schaeffer's commentaries delivered to you free via email every day. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/addinfo.

About Schaeffer's Investment Research (www.SchaeffersResearch.com)

Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method .