This Day In Financial History – Jan 18

2000: Its impossible to pay too much for a good stock, a leading investor tells The Wall Street Journal with a straight face. Its a new world order, says Robert Froelich, vice chairman and chief investment strategist at Kemper Funds. He says investors should own Cisco Systems, Motorola and Intel at any price and not worry about the valuation. We see people discard all the right companies with all the right people with the right vision because their stock price is too high — thats the worst mistake an investor can make. The people who have missed the bull market are the people who are on the sidelines trying to figure out how to value these things as opposed to getting into the market. Theyre also the people who miss the destruction of overvalued stocks that begins just weeks after Froelichs remarks.

The Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2000, p. C1.

1956: After more than a half-century as a private company, the Ford Motor Co. goes public when the Ford Foundation sells 10.2 million shares at $64.50. The largest IPO then on record, the offering puts 22% of Henry Ford’s company into public hands.

Peter Wyckoff, Wall Street and the Stock Markets (Chilton Book Co., Philadelphia, 1972), p. 103; http://www.ford.com/en/heritage/centennial/default.htm