The meltdown in IBM shares serves as fair warning that Y2K worries are still alive and may be a bigger threat to American business than anyone cares to admit. They'll find that time in the market and not market timing pays off. Smith Barney, a heavyweight in its own right on The Street, is among those who believe that IBM's Y2K problem may be an isolated problem. Nearly two-thirds of the managers surveyed say it's unlikely that Y2K concerns will create enough outflows to trigger a severe correction. And 23 percent said that the potential for a Y2K disruption already has been factored into the market.
Many analysts share that view.
They say that as much as the stock market is generally regarded as a barometer of future business cycles, that it has already taken into account any future troubles that Y2K could present. Whether the Y2K bug ends up merely supplying more material for David Letterman and Jay Leno than it does for Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve Board is still is open to conjecture. Ignore short-term events. Unfortunately, many investors are already liquidating part or all of their portfolios thinking they can play it safe for now and repurchase their shares at lower prices when the market drops in December and January. That kind of logic can cost some serious money.