Economic/Sector Analysis

[dp13368]

Spring semester just started here and I am part of the team that is running a student managed portfolio with ~$350,000 in assets in our Financial Portfolio management class.

This assignment isn't due for another 3 weeks but I wanted to get some ideas in my head. My team (myself and 2 others) were assigned the Telecommunications services and the Information technology sectors.

Our first task is to conduct an economic analysis and sector analysis on how our sectors will likely do in the next 6 months -> 1 year. Any hints to help get me started on this (general topics for discussion)?

I was thinking of looking at sites like bls.gov bea.gov for the economic analysis.

Also, it just so happens that the IT sector is the worst performing sector in the portfolio. We have to make recommendations on what do do with our sector?

Current holdings:

IT (9.66% of overall portfolio):
(company, purchase date, # of shares, % gain)
DELL, 10/23/03, 140, -20.04%
Electronic Arts, 12/3/03, 160, 22.96%
Microsoft Corp, 11/6/00, 300, -20.61%
Canon, 4/7/06, 200, 10.59%

Telecom sector(7.21% of portfolio)

Telekomunikasi(TKL) 11/3/05, 300, 33.61%
America Movil(AMX) 11/3/05, 250, 27.59%
West Corp(WSTC), 9/30/04, 200, 37.97%