The market has been very nasty the last two days. It's been merciless. Believe me, most investors have been taking gas. When these kinds of market forces are at work, mothers should take their children off the street so they won't have to see the carnage.

It looks like choppy markets are in store until the next earnings season kicks in around July 10, starting with the banks. The market's preoccupation with all things negative means you should be especially careful during this period. This is like stock Lent. No buying on margin, no goofy Internet stocks that quadruple in four days and then go down where they came from. No buying on rumors, like Friday's, that Amgen was supposedly being bought out by DuPont for 95; the stock went up 3 3/4 to close at 65 9/16. Gee, the market was so considerate to let in the small investors so they could make 30 points! Wow! Wall Street sure loves the little guys!

Uh oh - it's Tuesday and there's no confirmation of the rumor. What a shock! Amgen was down 4 15/16, closing at 60 5/8. My goodness - that's lower than when the rumor came out. Darn it. There's no mercy. Hell no there isn't. Never buy on a rumor, as you most likely will be the last guy in and the first guy to get killed.

You'll never guess what I think is great fun to talk about regarding today's action. You're right! It's Pfizer and Viagra! I love it. I feel like Jay Leno and White House humor. There's a good lesson today about the price of panic. Pfizer closed Tuesday at 103 3/16 down 2 1/4, which wasn't too bad for a Dow down 150 and a Nasdaq down 26. It opened today at 102, down another 1 3/16, and a few minutes later it hit the day's low of 101 1/4. A weak market and stories of Viagra deaths were taking their toll. Six guys out of one million plus, and there is no definite proof of what they died of. Don't get stampeded with the crowd, especially when you own good stock.

You can expect more unsettling news over the next few weeks or months as the Indians, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Koreans, Russians, Japanese, etcetera try to get their act together. Outside of the Japanese, it looks like Third World revenge. In Brazil, two men died recently after taking Viagra; cause of death is uncertain at this point. What is certain is that one of the men had heart disease, took his first dose of Viagra, had sex twice consecutively and died shortly thereafter according to his widow.

Today, Pfizer went from the low of 101 1/4 to close at the day's high of 108, up 4 13/16. These seven point price swings are rough, but if you acknowledge they can happen, it's not so shocking when they do. I still love this stock, and although I can't tell you when it's going to move up, it has too much potential to be held down for long. To make the really big money in the market, you buy quality stock and hold for the long term. Like I told you Monday, a stock like this at these prices requires a lot of patience, and rewards should follow. Stay tuned.

The Market Pro - May 27, 1998