Street Chatter From SIR Highlights the Following Stocks: Abercrombie & Fitch, Exxon Mobil, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2003

Today's Street Chatter from SIR focuses on: Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX).

Street Chatter focuses on three stocks that are generating a lot of attention on Internet message boards and is published every day at SchaeffersResearch.com . For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you via email everyday click on the following link : http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/addinfo .

Street Chatter:

1. Merrill Lynch smiled upon the retailing sector today, boosting its ratings on nine lucky retailers. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was among the selected few, as its rating was lifted to a "buy" from a "neutral" at the brokerage giant. Merrill noted that it expects a strong retailing sector into March 2004 and possibly even beyond. The vote of confidence from Wall Street boosted ANF above its 10-day moving average for the first time since October 17. Looming overhead, however, is the stock's 20-day trendline, which is perched around the 29.25 level. On the sentiment horizon, optimism is running fairly high. Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for ANF weighs in at 0.37, in the bottom one-quarter of the past year's worth of data. Meanwhile, the number of shorted ANF shares declined by 24 percent last month to 2.8 million, for a measly short-interest ratio of 1.32 times. This degree of optimism could be good news for the stock, however. Historically, when the equity's SOIR reaches a percentile ranking in the 23-28 percent range, ANF has moderately outperformed its typical price action over the ensuing 20 trading days.

Click the following link to see the Daily Chart of ANF Since September 2003 With 10-Day and 20-Day Moving Averages:

http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=8854 .

2. Oil and gas behemoth Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was upgraded earlier today from Goldman Sachs Group, who lifted its rating on XOM to an "outperform" from an "in line." The shares subsequently gapped higher and are approaching a test of resistance from their 10-day moving average, below which XOM declined on October 21. Checking in on sentiment indicators, Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for XOM has been on the rise since early September, as puts build at a more rapid rate than their call counterparts. The indicator presently stands at 0.50, which is higher than 71 percent of the past year's worth of SOIR readings. The bears are slowly building among the short-selling community as well, as the number of shorted XOM shares rose by 31 percent last month to 30.8 million. Giving the hefty average daily volume of XOM (10.7 million), this amounts to a fairly paltry short-interest ratio reading of 2.88 days to cover.

Click the following link to see the Daily Chart of XOM Since August 2003 With 10-Day and 20-Day Moving Averages:

http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=8854 .

3. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) is one of the most-active equities trading on the Nasdaq Composite today, as well as one posting the most hefty percentile losses. Yesterday evening, the firm announced a third-quarter loss of $1.12 per share, wider than the 44-cents-per-share-loss swallowed the previous year. Excluding items, the firm lost 58 cents per share, missing analysts' estimates by nearly a dime per share. In other news, VRTX officials said they are suspending trials of the company's rheumatoid arthritis drug, citing disappointing results from animal testing trials. The stock suffered no fewer than five high-profile downgrades this morning, including ones from J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lunch In midday trading, VRTX has lost nearly 40 percent and is trading in territory not seen since August 1998. Short-sellers may be collecting some profits, as there were over 3.5 million VRTX shares sold short after a 20-percent gain in this figure over the last reporting period. This represented a short-interest ratio of more than five times the security's average daily volume. On the options front, Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) for VRTX stands at 0.55, in the 44th annual percentile. In today's session, the most-active strikes are the April 7.5 and 10 call positions.

Click the following link to see the Daily Chart of VRTX Since May 2003:

http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=8854 .