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Updating Industry Information

There are numerous sources available on lexis.com that provide the ability to locate and update industry information. While we each may have our own favorites, I have found that the Standard & Poor’s Monthly Industry Review achieves this outcome quickly and with consistent accuracy and currentness.

The Reviews offer current and regularly updated snapshots for 10 major sectors and 124 separate sub-sections.  These reports, which are updated monthly as their name suggests, cover the following sectors:

• Energy
• Materials
• Industrials
• Consumer Discretionary
• Consumer Staples
• Health Care
• Financials
• Information Technology
• Telecommunications Services
• Utilities

Each report, delivered in PDF format, includes a brief industry overview and a chart showing five-year trends for the industry’s performance, with comparisons to the S&P 500 Index. 
The report includes the investment outlook for the segment, expectations for demand/need of service, and estimated increases/decreases in sales.

For example, I can use the INDUSTRY segment and focus specifically on consumer electronics:

1. Log on to lexis.com
2. Select the Legal source tab
3. Click the following links in the order listed:  Reference / Business / Standard & Poor’s Monthly Industry Review
4. Enter industry(consumer electronics) in the search field.
5. Click Search.

Here’s an example of some of the results extracted from the report:

• Investment outlook for the consumer electronics sub-industry is positive

• Buy recommendation for Harman International

• Demand to be driven by technology innovations

• Extent to which technology standards are adopted and accepted will have a bearing on which products succeed

• Disappointed by the pace with which new digital video-on-demand programming (in formats other than prerecorded disks) has been rolled out

• Lists sales volume for 2004 and 2005, and estimates for 2006

• 5 year chart of consumer electronics compared to the S&P 50