The soaring U.S. stock market in 1996 paid off for two more executives who speculated in late 1995 on the direction of the Dow Jones industrial average.
John E. Thompson Jr., trust investments manager for Texas Utilities Co., Dallas, and Kenneth Browning, vice president for business and finance for Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill., were closest in estimating where the Dow would be at the end of the third and fourth quarters, respectively. The guesses were part of a survey of fund executives jointly conducted by Pensions & Investments and Putnam Investments, Boston.
Mr. Thompson said he's happy with his third quarter prediction of 5802 (the Dow ended at 5882), but wasn't as close for the end of the year, anticipating a downturn.
Mr. Browning said his tendency toward optimism resulted in his guess of 6300 for year-end 1996, the highest as well as the winning guess, which fell short of the Dow's finish of 6448.
Both executives won a weekend at a luxury hotel. Mr. Thompson said he is likely to stay at the Mansion in Dallas. Mr. Browning already took a trip north to Chicago for a weekend at the Ritz-Carlton.
First-quarter winner Richard W. Purucker, administrator of pension plans for Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Milwaukee, repeated in the second quarter, but hasn't collected on his prizes yet.
Paul G. Barr
