SHORT INTERESTS: TIPS, TRENDS, OBSERVATIONS

Testing the White waters

If you thought Jack White & Co.’s Third Annual National Advisor Conference last month was an innocent little gathering for clients, think again.

It was tire kicking time.

Of the 550 advisers who attended, 225, or 41%, weren’t currently using Jack White. Good chance they were clients of competitors like market leader Charles Schwab & Co. or Fidelity Investment Advisor Group.

At the first Jack White adviser conference two years ago, only 25% of the 400 or so attendees were just browsing. A spokesman for the San Diego-based discount brokerage says it doesn’t have a conversion goal in mind at each conference. Still, one can hope.

Hubers humbled

Are all you proxy junkies wondering why the pay of American Express Financial Advisors CEO Dave Hubers wasn’t included in Amex’s most recent proxy filing? Mr. Hubers got nosed out of the company’s top five with the 1996 hiring of Richard Goeltz as chief financial officer. Each received $1.3 million-plus in stock options and other incentives last year, but the big difference was Mr. Goeltz’s $1.61 million salary package. Mr. Hubers made only $1.18 million in salary and bonus. The grand totals: Mr. Goeltz, $2.9 million; Mr. Hubers, $2.5 million. That’s chump change compared to the $7 million raked in by Harvey Golub, AmEx’s chairman and CEO, and the $6.9 million, including a $2.7 million restricted stock award, taken home by Kenneth Chenault, president and chief operating officer.

High on earnings

Forget that old Asia crisis. Executives in developed economic markets worldwide predict first-quarter sales levels will remain healthy – despite small declines in nearly every category, says a report from Dun & Bradstreet Corp. in Murray Hill, N.J.

“Overall, expectation levels remain quite high, and well within range of all-time highs. Strong productivity levels, relative political stability and an overall low inflation environment seem to argue against fears that the economic problems in much of Asia will provide a significan
t drag on the global economy, at least in the short-term,” says Joseph W. Duncan, the company’s chief economic adviser. Nevertheless, optimism levels dropped most significantly in Hong Kong. Execs in every region except Europe expect sales growth to dip a bit in the first quarter.

Boom from doom

It takes a lot to shock emerging markets maven Mark Mobius, but even he admits Asia’s current financial morass is a doozy. “It’s the worst crisis I have ever seen,” Mr. Mobius, the president of Templeton Emerging Markets Group in Singapore, tells InvestmentNews sister publication Pensions & Investments. He likens it to the 1929 market crash.

But the troubles present a golden buying opportunity – especially in liquid large caps that had become pricey. “The best time to find opportunities is when the markets are as bad as they have been.” Now, 75% of new cash flow is going to Asia, says Mr. Mobius, who sees bargains in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. He has 20% in bank stocks like Thailand’s Farmers’ Bank, Bangkok Bank and Korea’s Hana Bank.

Sandy Hock, Steve Daniels

and Marlene Givant Star