EXECUTE INTO on 8.2

I'm seeing some strange behavior with the following code.  It compiles and runs but returns an error on the Execute statement:

List index out of bounds(0)

 

DECLARE

   srec record;
   v_formula varchar;

   v_result varchar;

 

BEGIN

   v_formula = 'select 4 as val';
   EXECUTE v_formula INTO srec;
END;

 

However, the old school version runs w/no problem:

 

BEGIN

   v_formula = 'select 4 as val';
  
   FOR srec IN EXECUTE v_formula LOOP
       v_result = srec.val;
   END LOOP;

END;

 

Any idea why the new syntax isn't working?  (I'm running 8.2 on a Windows dev box.)