Periodically, Dutton Associates will issue particular industry and sector pieces of interest to investors. When released, these sector reports will be listed in chronological order in this section.

Fiber Optic Communications to the Home
By: David P Soetebier, CFA
March 2005. The replacement of traditional telephone networks with fiber-optic systems in American communities offers a multibillion dollar business opportunity for equipment suppliers and potentially a huge opportunity for investors. We believe the changes at the FCC, which have removed the need for the regional Bell operating companies to share the bandwidth, coupled with the move by the CATV companies to begin marketing telephone services, will accelerate the demand for fiber installations. Anything but fiber is a stopgap in meeting the inevitable growth in demand for high bandwidth to the home. Industry consolidation in the RBOCs area, and now SBC's planned acquisition of AT&T (with its nationwide network), has reduced competition and should aid the quick deployment of these systems. We believe the most attractive investment opportunities will be in companies that win business for their signal switches and routers.
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Aging of America and Its Impact - Summary Review On Arcadia Resources, World Health Alternatives, and IntegraMed America
By: David Riedel
December 2004. There are a number of major sector themes for investing today, not the least of which is the aging of America. In a summary sector review, we look at the impact of this trend on three of our covered companies (J.M. Dutton published research available), and how this trend benefits these three companies. In this report we reemphasize these companies for consideration by investors. Interestingly, one of the major beneficiaries of this trend is in vitro fertilization (IVF), because women are waiting later in life for children. Practices affiliated with IntegraMed America (Nasdaq: INMD) performed about 20% of all IVF cycles in the U.S. Arcadia Resources (OTCBB: ACDI), a fast-emerging company managed by experienced healthcare executives, provides healthcare staff and durable medical equipment services to the growing population of older Americans. The third company, World Health Alternatives (OTCBB: WHAI), is fast becoming one of the largest medical staff providers to U.S. medical institutions. All of these companies are fast growing, well managed, and have strong trends sustaining the outlook for their growth. We believe that these companies provide investors with high-quality exposure to the aging of America.
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Natural Gas & Energy Industry Report Released; Outlook For Prices and Demand; Companies Who Are Most Probable to Benefit
By: Les Childress
February 2004. We have released our 2004 Energy Outlook by our well-known energy analyst, Les Childress. Looking back at our year-ago Outlook (January 2, 2003), we forecasted that the average price for U.S. natural gas in 2003 would continue the strong price environment of late 2002 driven by a colder than normal winter and an increase in industrial demand. We further expected a surge in oil prices from an Iraqi war, which would also act to push up energy prices, based on BTU equivalency. We envisioned that, collectively, these demand forces would result in a bigger drawdown of gas in storage than commonly expected. In turn, this would likely cause an acceleration in gas prices to what we believed would be an average 2003 price level of $4.50 per mcf. The most recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) data through eight months of 2003 indicate the average price to be $5.14 per mcf. With the front end of the heating season in Q4'03 yet to be posted, it appears the average price for the year will be above $5.14 per mcf. While we left a little on the table, our outlook compared favorably to some of the $7.00-$8.00 per mcf prognostications of others. A look back at 2003 provides the background for our assessment of 2004 and beyond. The index of natural gas prices on both a five-year and one-year basis indicates a rising trend. For 2003 the price index rose 50.1% from 146.12 to 219.36.
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U.S. Natural Gas Price Outlook
By: Les Childress
January 2003. We believe the average price for U.S. natural gas in 2003 will continue to increase from the strong upward trend established in late Q4 2002. In fact, we believe natural gas prices may spike to $6.50 per mcf during the 2002-2003-winter season. Looking further out, we forecast that the secular trend in the average price for natural gas in the U.S. will move upward to relatively high levels. A price plateau of $3.50+ per mcf, which is well above recent history and the sub-$3.00 per mcf levels of 2001-2002, could soon be established. In the short term, determinants of a sharp uptrend in gas prices are: 1) a colder winter and 2) tight supply conditions for gas in storage.
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