In This Issue:

•Cracking the Correlation Conundrum: Increasing correlations don't tell the whole story.

•Intelligencer: Headlines, Highlights, and What's on Our Minds

•The Observatory: Selected actions for May 7 through May 11.

•Media M&A Explodes: Murdoch, Thomson, Gates seek a leg up on the competition.

•Taking Stock In Tech

•A Royal Flush: France Turns To The Right

•Reader Q&A: You ask. We answer.

•A United Front: Diversification and cost controls drive profits at UnitedHealth.

•Top Ten Portfolio: This focused list, launched December 31, 2001, had a total return of 49.5% from inception through April vs. a gain of 41.9% for the S&P 500.

Some of the Companies Featured:

Abercrombie & Fitch
Apple
Carlisle
Citrix Systems
ExxonMobil
Franklin Resources
Goldman Sachs
Harris
Laboratory Corp. of America
McDonald's
MKS Instruments
Movado
Oracle
Pike Electric
Western Digital

S&P Information Products

Browse S&P industry research products by category:

S&P Industry Surveys
S&P Industry Stock Reports
The Outlook
Search Engine Survey
Pocket Guides
Power Picks

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's is one of the world's preeminent providers of credit ratings, and for such globally recognized financial-market indices as the S&P 500®. S&P also provides a wide range of other products and services designed to help individuals and institutions around the world make better-informed financial decisions with greater confidence.