Interview: Tokyo market
>> welcome back. it is 9:12 a.m. in sydney. time changes this week so they’re working a little wit early―bit earlier than usual. the back of the sydney opera house. showers, partly cloudy, high temperature 23 in new south wales today. watch out for these stocks in asian markets today. n.a.b., or national australia bank will book ad 205 -- $205 million provision for the period ending in march because of its plans to reduce its work force. indonesia satellite’s profits rose in the last year. the number two telephone nnk operator signing up more mobile phone users as faster growth in the economy has boosted income. profits rose almost 4%, excluding a one-time gain in the year earlier when they sold down a stake in p.p. telecom cellular. the company restated 2003 profits to 6 trillion and 80 billion rupiah to 1.6 trillion to account for the extraordinarily large gains. faster economic growth has encouraged demand for telecommunications in the country where about one person out of six has phone access so plenty of room for the market to grow, say some. india’s economy probably slowed in the fourth quarter because of falling farm output. economists we surveyed forecast growth slowed to 6% from 6.6% from the previous quarter. while farmers suffered the second lowest rainfall in at least 17 years, hurting crop profit. in order to boost growth, the prime minister is relying on manufacturers like a carmaker and service companies like infosys. the government is targeting growth of 6.9% this year, making it the second fastest growing major economy behind china but so far it looks like, if the forecasts are correct, they’re running something behind that clip. at least nine companies are bidding to buy the biggest producer of jinro, south korea’s best-selling liquor. creditors are trying to gain back $2.7 billion for jinro. c.j. corporation, doosan and lolte, among the companies that made offers. merrill lynch is argating the sale and the seoul district court will choose one of the winning bidders. that decision may come as early as today. jinro controls over half of the korean market for sojy, a clear alcohol, usually distilled from sweet potatoes and reportedly packs quite a punch. for world news, ron madison joins us from tokyo. we haven’t done the joji thing yet―sojy.
>> welcome back, bernie. the death death toll from monday’s earthquake in indonesia rising, 518 people confirmed dead in sumatra as well as outlying islands, including nias and simeulue, the hardest hit there. u.n. officials say the death toll is expected to rise. assessment teams are surveying the magnitude 8.7 quake struck areas already devastated by the december 26 earthquake and tsunami, the disaster that left some 270,000 dead. a u.s. appeals court has again refused a request for a hearing by the parents of terri schiavo. the hearing was seen as a last-ditch effort to restore a feeding tube for their brain damaged daughter. yesterday, the appeals court granted the parents more time to file the request. there’s no word about when a decision on that was suppose to have come. 41-year-old schiavo is in her 13th day, now, without food and water. the schindlers have been fighting a seven-year legal battle with this man, terri’s husband, michael schiavo, over whether she should be kept alive. terri schiavo suffered brain damage after a heart attack 15 years ago. the u.s. nominee to lead the world bank meets with european officials in brussels. paul wolfowitz hopes to procure european support for thursday’s world bank vote. the promise to recruit a multinational management team to run the global development lender.
>> look forward to having a truly multinational senior staff, if i am president of the bank. there’s great talent here in europe, there’s impressive people in the developing world and i am going to need all the help i can get so i’m looking forward to that.
>> wolfowitz’s nomination has received a chilly reception in some european capitals. that is the latest look at world news. more “bloomberg live” coming up. we’ll take a quick break.
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Listen Market briefing --- Bernie (slow)
Crude Oil --- Su (fast)
good thursday morning from hong kong, i’m bernie lo. this is “ live.”% coming up on the next 60 minutes of the program, the dollar hasened its latest rally that culminated over the last couple of weeks. we’ll speak with a currency strategist from investors bank and trust. what comes next for the u.s. dollar? we’ll also talk about china and its insatiable appetite for metals and copper. we’ll speak with a natural resources splecialist from anz banking corp. we’ll look at where stocks are headed for the coming quarter. economists have concern that growth may be stalling with worse-than-expected industrial production figures yesterday on top of employment and household spending data the day before that disappointed views, as well. hans goetti from citigroup will be here. a.i.g., american international group, says it engaged in false accounting practices over the past 14 years. the biggest insurance company in the world says it may have inflated the company’s net worth by as much as 2%. a.i.g. says it structured transactions with reinsurers, including berkshire hathaway, to manipulate the company’s accounts. a.i.g. is delaying its annual report for the second time and may restate earnings or book a couplative expense―cumulative expense in the fourth quarter of last year. hank greenberg is stepping down as chairman. arthur levitt blamed the insurer for misleading investors.
>> i think when the smoke clears, the viability of the company is not at issue but i think the predictability of its earnings, if you look back over time, will be a lot less so than it would have appeared using these and other devices to smooth earnings.
>> a.i.g.’s statement prompted the ratings agency, standard & poor’s, to lower the company’s aaa debt rating to aa-plus. we’ll speak to the individual at s&p about the cut. u.s. stocks had their biggest rally of the year so far after a report showed that crude oil inventories in the united states rose for a sidenth week running. we’ll look at how u.s. markets closed -- among individual issues on the move, micron led computer shares higher after it reported net income for the second quarter 17 cents a share, beating new ysts’ estimates. and a.m.r., parent of american airlines, raised to a buy from neutral. the benchmark 10-year note rose before reports on inflation later on today in the u.s. the jobs picture on friday, last year, the jobs’ report triggered six of the 10 biggest daily price changes for the 10-year note. the dollar ended its nine-day rally against the japanese currency after a u.s. report showed the economy grew less than expected in q-4. the commerce department reported that g.d.p. expanded 3.8% in the fourth quarter against a 4% expectation. against the euro, we have 1.2915, unchanged. crude oil futures tumbled and then they recovered. a bit of a yo-yo rollercoaster after the latest u.s. report shows the biggest buildup of u.s. supplies since july of 2002. on the new york mercantile exchange, crude futures plunged more than 3% to below $54 a barrel before staging a comeback in the final hours of trading. natural gas, gasoline and heating oil as well as other distillates ended the day higher. su keenan has more on the story. it started as a rough day for you.
>> traders were taken by surprise initially, supplies of crude oil increased for a seventh straight week, double what traders and analysts forecast in terms of a gain. the latest department of energy report in the u.s. shows an almost 5.5 million barrel gain in u.s. supplies. fimat’s john kilduff predicts supplies will continue to rise saying that higher oil prices have encouraged producers to pump at a faster rate. alaron trading’s phil flynn predicted today’s drop in oil prices would be temporary. by the end of today’s session, crude oil had erased all but .5% of its 3% loss.
>> here we are, gasoline is at an all-time record high, it’s not even the summer driving season but yet we’re not seeing demand collapse. i think this is very significant. it tells me the average consumer is used to paying high gasoline prices so they’re not going to be shocked when prices edge up another dime or 20 cents.
>> and they are, indeed, edging up. retail prices for gasoline reached the never before seen price of $2.15 at the pump in the u.s. as of yesterday, according to a.a.a. as for the bigger risk to global demand, risk mueller―rick mueller says there are still bullish factors, including opec’s rising production raising concern about the lack of spare production capacity. nymex crude oil futures have risen 24% in the past three months. bernie?
>> su, thank you very much, su keenan, new york city. in this neck of the woods, asian stocks rose in u.s. trading for the first day in eight. we’re talking about the a.d.r.’s. the slide in crude oil prices easing concern that higher energy costs will lead to a global economic decline. companies including kyocera, toyota, china eastern air leading the gains among the depository receipts. the bank of new york indexes were all three ahead on the session with the winners, the china a.d.r.’s, despite warnings from chinese authorities about a further clamp down on property speculation. we’ll speak about that just ahead. nikkei futures look something like this. chicago pit traders pricing in a start of 11,630, north of osaka and singapore closes yesterday. stocks to watch for in the japanese market today, number four drugmaker in japan has applied to the european medicine agency for approval to sell an anti-seizure drug. and nippon oil raised its full-year profit forecast thanks to increased sales and higher prices for crude oil products. sony has received approval from the european union antitrust regulators for a planned nearly $3 billion purchase of metro-goldwyn-mayer, or m.g.m., that would clear the way for sony to acquire one of the world’s biggest film libraries. a couple of companies owned by hong kong tycoon li ka-shing scheduled to report results today. hutchison whampoa expected to report second-half earnings fell around 67% because of continued losses at the mobile phone businesses like 3g which wiped out and offset gains from asset sales in earnings from reports of the retail division and may have hurt profits at the flagship developer cheung kong. we’re looking for a 37% decline in second-half profits despite a rebound in property prices. second-half earnings at c.k.’s-property-related units like the rose―likely rose 49% li’s five-year gamble on 3g has yet to pay off. we’ll speak to wu mengfei later in the program regarding his expectations for hutchison. china tel comearnings probably slowed because of lower subscriber growth. the company operates one out of every four fixed phone lines in china. analysts surveyed by bloomberg expect net income rose .8%. a growth in the number of subscribers for internet and fixed line is slowing. some say average revenue per user may also continue to fall, as well. after the break, the official toll from the march 28 earthquake off the sumatra coast earlier this week mounts as aid efforts increase. world news coming up.
