======================== THE MOTLEY FOOL ========================
                   B R E A K F A S T   N E W S
                    Tuesday, October 9, 2001
benjamin.rogers@enron.com
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IN THIS ISSUE
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- TOP STORY: First Data Charges Ahead
  http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512586

- NEWS TO GO: D.R. Horton, Benchmark Electronics, and Pepsi Bottling Group
  http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512587

- POST OF THE DAY: Samsung and Rambus
  http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512588

=================================================================

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"The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and
put it in your pocket." -- Elbert "Kin" Hubbard

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TOP STORY
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FIRST DATA CHARGES AHEAD

Paper or plastic?

Dour economy or not, we continue to move toward a cashless
society and electronic payment specialist First Data (NYSE: FDC)
is leading the charge. The country's leading processor of credit
card transactions, as well as the parent company of Western
Union, reported operating earnings of $0.69 a share. That
surpassed even the highest of the analyst estimates as the
company trounced the consensus projections calling for a $0.69 a
share showing.

>>FULL STORY: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512590

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NEWS TO GO
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Home stocks, sweet home stocks. Housemaker D.R. Horton (NYSE:
DHI) reported record backlog levels as net sales orders
surpassed the billion-dollar mark for the fourth quarter. Given
the buoyant real estate market and dirt-cheap mortgage rates, it
was no problem for the company to drum up orders for 22,179
houses through the entire fiscal year.

Benchmark Electronics (NYSE: BHE) is comfortable with its
benchmark. The Texan-based maker of electronic parts for various
components announced that it would meet consensus cash earnings
estimates for the third quarter. However, not immune to
weakening demand, the company will be taking a $50 million to
$60 million charge in an effort to downsize and consolidate its
operations.

Give me an earnings sign. Hit me baby one more time. Pepsi
Bottling Group (NYSE: PBG), months deep into its Britney Spears
marketing campaign, did what any thirsty soul would do with a
bottle of Pepsi -- it topped it. The company reported earnings
of $0.96 a share before a one-time tax gain, a penny ahead of
market expectations. With a 3% increase in worldwide case
volume, the world's largest Pepsi seller also reiterated its
comfort with analysts' targets of $1.87 in earnings for the
year.

The red ink will run south for the Borders (NYSE: BGP) bookstore
chain. Due to soft comps since the September 11 attacks, the
retailer is now expecting to report a loss of $0.04 a share for
its fiscal third quarter. That's three cents steeper than Wall
Street was expecting. The company remains "hopeful" that the
seasonally strong holiday shopping period will pan out, but it's
not ready to commit to turning the page to reveal this year's
ending just yet.

It seems that Fair, Isaac & Company (NYSE: FIC) was a good
credit risk after all. The California company, which develops
credit scoring systems for the consumer credit industry, is
looking to top fourth-quarter forecasts calling for earnings of
$0.55 a share. The company now expects to earn $0.56 a share on
revenue of nearly $90 million. Last year the company earned just
$0.39 a share on a $78.7 million top-line performance.

Sometimes, it's hard to make the rent. Housestuffs lender
Rent-A-Center (Nasdaq: RCII) will miss its quarterly profit
targets despite healthy store-level sales growth. The company,
which rents out home appliances, computers, and furniture, is
looking at earnings between $0.50 and $0.52 a share. Last week
the projections were running as high as $0.70 a share. While the
company had a decent 4.6% uptick in same store comps, the
increased traffic was due to margin-crunching sales promotions.
Rent-A-Center had been a solid performer through the years by
taking advantage of a fragmented rental market to build out a
chain that is now nearly 2300 units strong. For now, though, the
company's leader may be leasing out a recliner: Chairman and CEO
Ernest Talley announced his retirement, effective immediately.

Rick Aristotle Munarriz believes that breakfast is the most
important meal of the day. So eat up! His suggestion for today
is apple French toast. Insert sweetened stewed apple slices into
thick loaf bread, batter, and pan fry. Then cover with caramel
maple syrup. Rick's stock holdings can be viewed online, as can
the Fool's disclosure policy.

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POST OF THE DAY
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SAMSUNG AND RAMBUS
"This has to be very troubling news for the memory manufactures
betting heavily on DDR. This graph clearly shows that Samsung
expects 4i RDRAM to actually become smaller than DDR in the very
near future, with the exception of 8-bit wide DDR devices. In
this case, the difference is expected to be less than 1%.

Sumsung definitely appears to be in a Gorilla position on this
one and Rambus is along for the ride."

>>FULL POST: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512591

=================================================================

SPONSORED BY: Jos A. Bank
Special Offer for Motley Fool Members!
Jos. A. Bank Clothiers is offering all their Pinpoint Oxford
shirts at 2 for the price of 1 (Limit 2). Click here for this
and other offers!
http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=512592

=================================================================

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