四大顶尖科技品牌称雄美股市
Top tech boom brands among best US stocks
随着新经济生活模式继续普及，高科技泡沫中一些最大的品牌已跻身于过去一年美国表现最好的股票之列。
Some of the biggest brands of the technology bubble were among the best performing US stocks last year as the new economy lifestyle continued to spread.
就好像大家都坐在星巴克(Starbucks)店里，听着苹果(Apple)的iPods，检查雅虎(Yahoo)上的电子邮件，看看自己在电子湾(eBay)上的某场拍卖中进展如何。
It was as if everyone was sitting in Starbucks, listening to Apple iPods, while checking their Yahoo e-mail to see how they had fared in an eBay auction.
所有四支股票的表现，都位列标准普尔500指数的前20名，其中苹果电脑位列第2，升幅超过200%，该公司制造的便携式音乐播放机在市场上独领风骚；星巴克股价几乎翻了一倍，表现与2003年一样；而电子湾上涨了近80%，雅虎上涨近70%。
All four stocks were in the top 20 performers in the Standard Poor’s 500 index with Apple Computer, maker of the leading portable music player, at No 2, with a gain of more than 200 per cent. Starbucks shares almost doubled, as they did in 2003, while eBay was up almost 80 per cent and Yahoo nearly 70 per cent.
投资银行Jefferies首席市场分析师亚瑟•霍根(Arthur Hogan)说，这些股票的表现反映了“市场对这些公司的奖赏，它们已成为日常生活的有机组成部分”。
Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies, the investment bank, said the stock performances reflected “the market’s reward for companies that are an integral part of everyday life”.
苹果和星巴克等品牌成为“新经济一代”日常活动的显著特征，就像西尔斯(Sears)、可口可乐(Coca-Cola)和通用电气(General Electric)在过去所做的一样，而后面提到的这些品牌中，2004年没有一个进入标普500指数股价表现的前100名。
Brands such as Apple and Starbucks define the daily routine of the new economy generation in the same way that Sears, Coca-Cola and General Electric did in the past. None of those companies made it into the top 100 performers of the S&P in 2004.
去年并不全是新经济公司的天下。两个旧经济品牌，固特异轮胎橡胶(Goodyear Tire Rubber)和布莱克戴克(Black Decker)，也进入了前20名。固特异在亏损两年后开始复苏，它受到美国市场对卡车轮胎需求强劲且价格上涨的推动。美国市场重型卡车的强劲销售提升了柴油发动机制造商康明斯(Cummins)的业绩，其股价劲扬逾70%。
Not that it was all about the new economy last year. Two old economy brands, Goodyear Tire Rubber and Black Decker, made the top 20. Goodyear, which is recovering after two years of losses, was helped by higher prices and buoyant demand for truck tyres in the US. Strong sales of heavy duty trucks in the US drove up Cummins, the diesel engine maker, whose shares rose more than 70 per cent.
今年的其它两个趋势也推动了某些股票的出色表现。这两个趋势就是油价飙升，以及中国对原材料需求日益增大所产生的影响。标准普尔指数成份股中，涨幅前20名的股票里有4家是能源公司，其中包括TXU能源和瓦莱罗(Valero)能源公司。同时，由于钢铁价格翻倍，美国最大的钢铁制造商Nucor去年也大获丰收。
Two other big trends of the year, the surge in the oil price and the impact of China’s growing appetite for raw materials, propelled some of the other stock winners. Four of the top 20 stocks in the S&P were energy companies, including TXU and Valero, while Nucor, the biggest maker of steel in the US, had a bumper year thanks to the doubling of the steel price.
对大型制药公司来说，今年是糟糕的一年。默克公司(Merck)在指数成份股中排名481位，原因在于其股价下挫了30%。不过生物科技类股的表现要好很多。
It was a bad year for large pharmaceutical companies Merck was 481st in the index thanks to a 30 per cent fall in its share price but much better for the biotechnology sector.
全球领先供应商Autodesk是一大赢家，其股价上涨213.8%。Autodesk为个人电脑提供电脑辅助设计软件。
The winner, with a gain of 213.8 per cent, was Autodesk, the world’s leading supplier of computer-aided design software for personal computers.
股价下跌近50%的Ciena是一大输家，这家光学电信设备制造商仍在亏损，其客户仍然极端谨慎。
The loser, with a decline of almost 50 per cent, was Ciena, the loss-making optical telecommunications equipment maker whose customers are still extremely cautious.
译者/张征