ITW is a multinational manufacturer of highly engineered products and specialty systems. The Company primarily serves the construction, food retail and service, automotive, and general industrial markets. For the nine months ended 9/30/00, revenues rose 9% to $7.45B. Net income rose 14% to $756.5M. Results reflect increased engineered products sales, acquisitions, and improved productivity in the food equipment and welding businesses.

January 7, 2001

Illinois Tool Works, Inc. manufactures and markets a variety of products and systems that provide specific, problem-solving solutions for a diverse customer base worldwide. The company produces plastic, metal and laminate components, fasteners and assemblies; industrial fluids and adhesives; tooling for specialty applications; welding products; packaging machinery and related consumables; food service equipment; and industrial spray coating equipment. We are adding ITW as one of our new momentum plays ahead of their next earnings release scheduled for January 30th. The stock has been making daily, consistent gains since December 20th and recently conquered short-term resistance at $61.00. In fact, the recent up surge has taken the stock above a seven-month basing pattern. On December 14th, ITW issued a statement warning of expected profit short falls in the 4th quarter as a result of the economic slowdown that had affected its customers. Investors took the stock lower on the news, but since then the stock has recovered on strong volume. On Friday, the stock made advances on volume of 1.3 million shares or roughly 30% higher than its average 3-month volume. We are looking for more upside leading into earnings from here. The technical picture looks like this; support can now be measured at the 5-dma at $61.10, then the 10-dma at $59.84 and finally the 20-dma at $58.95. Resistance is up at $64.00 for now. We will place our stop loss order at $58.00 on this new play.

Picked on January 7th @ $63.25
Change since picked 0.00
Stop Loss at $58.00

January 11, 2000

On Thursday, Illinois Tool Works slipped 1 percent on lower than average volume. The stock opened higher but almost immediately began a rapid descent, which came to a halt at 10:30 EST. The stock traded 777,000 shares for the day, which is about 29% lower than the its average 90-day trading volume of 1.06 million shares. We have this momentum play on our earnings watch for this month. ITW will report their fourth- quarter results on January 30th. The company has consistently reported earnings that either beat or were in line with estimates for the last five quarters. Ahead of this report, we are looking for the momentum to increase and a bullish trend to ensue. We would like to see the stock rise on good volume over 1.06 million shares as an indication of buyer enthusiasm. A look at the chart shows us that as of Thursday, ITW is now sitting just above support on an area of recent consolidation at $60.00. Below that the 20-dma at $59.36 and the 50-dma at $58.12 should offer some support. Resistance now exists at the 10-dma at $61.28 and then the 5-dma at $62.23. If you are considering a new play on ITW, possible entry points could be a bounce off a moving average or a strong move up through resistance on volume over the 1 million shares. As a reminder to all, we will drop this play by the January 28 if our stop loss is not triggered at $58.00.

Picked on January 7th @ $63.25
Change since picked -2.31
Stop Loss at $58.00

January 9, 2001

On Tuesday, Illinois Tool Work traded down on higher than normal volume. ITW produces plastic, metal and laminate components, fasteners and assemblies; industrial fluids and adhesives; tooling for specialty applications; welding products; packaging machinery and related consumables; food service equipment; and industrial spray coating equipment. Intra-day the stock formed a double-top pattern when it tried to conquer the $64 level on two attempts. The negative pull of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) probably didn't help the stock's attempt to move higher. Tuesday’s losses came on volume of 1.4 million shares or about 40% higher volume than its three-month average. We are looking for this momentum play to move higher as we near its Q4 earnings report date of January 30th. Today that date was confirmed and the conference call with analysts will begin on that date at 1 PM CST. As for trading, the first level of resistance to conquer tomorrow will be the $64.00 level. Under the stock's present position look for support at $62.00 followed by the 10-dma at $60.79 and finally the 20-dma at $59.30. When considering opening a new position on this momentum play look for a bounce off support followed by a move upward on good volume, 1 million shares or better. We are going to keep our protective stop at $58.00.

Picked on January 7th @ $63.25
Change since picked -1.06
Stop Loss at $58.00