European stocks --- Jeremy (slow)
Asia Pacific markets --- Gene (slow)
>> european stocks finish the week higher. insurance stocks leading the way after allianz had better than expected third quarter profits. what can investor expect next week? here’s a preview from our london bureau.
>> time to look at week ahead in europe. vodafone’s first half earnings are published on tuesday. the world’s largest mobile phone company last week gave a target of more than 10 million 3-g phones by 2006. mm 02 may not now be paying a dividend for 2005 because of capital reconstruction. u.k.’s third largest supermarket chain, j. sainsbury, reports this week. they say the recent takeover speculation surrounding the company is silly. this week in the u.k., sabmiller h.m.v., g.u.s., and b.o.c. all reporting. vivendi universal’s third quarter numbers come in this week. third quarter earnings also in on monday from the steel giant, arcelor. world’s biggest steel maker. expecting a four-fold increase after raising steel prices for four consecutive quarters. zurich financial reports its third quarter numbers as well. news on friday that the company suspended some of its u.s. work force following a review of its business with insurance brokers including marsh & mclennan. a look at what we have in terms of economics this week. the bank of epg land releases the minutes of its last meeting. inflation report last week gave insight saying the economy has lost some momentum in the last month or so. we have consumer prices, unemployment and retail sales data for october as well as a snapshot of growth in the third quarter. a look at week ahead here in europe. stay tuned to bloomberg television.
>> jeremy naylor in london. the setup for london. we preview the asian markets next week. this report filed from our tokyo bureau.
>> grow domestic profit is out this week. shows slowing exports are hurting asian economies. taiwan’s economy probably grew at slowest pace in nine months in the third quarter. high oil prices mean customers in its major export markets have been buying less. figures out on friday. the same day, south korea will probably say third quarter growth slowed along with weaker exports. rising credit card debts mean koreans are spending less at home. overseas sales for companies including the semiconducter means singapore’s economy probably shrank more than expected. they may say g.d.p. fell further than the first estimate of a 2.3% contraction. the biggest perform computer maker will probably report higher first half profits. lenovo cut losses at its hand set unit. it reports tuesday. asia’s second largest steel maker, j.f.e., may say profits nearly doubled in the first half. higher prices may mean the japanese steel maker raises its forecast above september’s $1.1 billion estimate. expect that out on wednesday. surpbling steel prices are forcing up costs at korean’s dock yard. hyundai may report lower third quarter profit on monday. korean air may say profits rose monday. world’s second biggest air carrier has benefited from rising shipments of electronics and korean computer chips. several stock markets in the region are closed monday and tuesday. those are some of the week’s business highlights in asia. back to you.
>> bar khraeus unveiled a new instrument for americans to invest in china. it’s a fund which tracks 25 of china’s largest and most liquid companies.
>> most investors are taking a long-term view on china. it’s the world’s most populous country. short term you might have an opinion long or short. you could express that. long-term audit people believe china is an important part of any basket of foreign equities.
>> barclays fund trades in the u.s. it’s an exchange-traded fund meaning it’s like a mutual fund but reprices throughout the day like a stock. investors can go short as well as long if they think the chinese stocks will fall. up next, the business of sports. baby boomers reliving their college days. more and more 40 and 50- somethings are buying homes in football-crazed areas. we’ll tell you where and why on the other side of this break.
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Listen Market briefing --- Mike (fast)
Nasdaq --- June (slow)
>> welcome back to “world financial report.” i’m michael mckee. recapping the day on wall street stocks finishing with a flurry closing the day at session highs. dow jones industrials on the day up by about .6%. right now 69 points at 10,539 for your close. the seven-month high for the dow not quite matched by the s&p 500 it’s up three weeks in a row. finishing at about 10 points higher, 1,184. nasdaq up by 24 points on the day. your close, 2,085. the federal reserve has released the minutes of its september 21 meeting and here are the headlines. officials agreeing the economy had strengthened somewhat after going through a soft patch in spring and early summer. data suggesting solid growth ahead. labor markets had improved but they didn’t see october jobs spurt coming. members expected gradual improvement in labor market conditions as the economy expanded. there was also concern expressed about the large and growing u.s. trade and current account deficits. bottom line, policymakers and rate decisions would be increasingly keyed to incoming data. market participants expect them to pause in raising rates. faking a look at how the markets viewed the economic and other data today, the benchmark 10- year treasury notarizing for the first time this week as yields neared a three-month high. now it is down by seven basis points to 4.18%. on the shorter end of the curve, two-year falling 1/16. yield 2.81%. as for currencies, the dollar was lower across the board. yen posting its biggest gain in five weeks. euro and british pound also higher against the dollar as investors speculate the u.s. may tolerate a weaker dollar hoping the trade deficit will get smaller. gold futures surged to a new high as the dollar fell. up 2.90 to $438.30 an ounce. gold has risen four weeks in a row. back on wall street, talk about a nice winning streak, the nasdaq up for a fourth week in a row. dell pacing today’s gains. internet stocks also rallying. june grasso has the story from the nasdaq market site in times square.
>> dell, the world’s number one personal computer maker led gains in technology stocks. its shares rose after chief executive kevin rollins said demand for computers and printers is quite healthy, keeping the company ahead of schedule on a plan to reach $60 billion in sales by 2007. world’s largest maker of personal computers announced third quarter results yesterday and said low component prices and growing demand for p.c.’s and printers will fuel profit and lift sales 17% in the january period. pixar was one of the leading movers by percentage on the nasdaq 100. the maker of animated films including last weekend’s “the incredibles” said third quarter profit jumped 70% as the companies sold more home video copies from its library, particularly “finding nemo.” shares rose to 38 cents a share from 23 cents a year earlier and much higher than the 24-cent average analyst estimate. the company also listed its 2004 forecast based on the strong performance of “the incredibles.” look at sirius satellite radio and competitor x.m. howard stern, host of the top- rated radio show for young men in new york and los angeles, may leave viacom’s liberty broadcasting sooner than expected to move to sirius according to the “wall street journal.” it’s a little more than a year before he can legally move from -- to sirius. he is negotiating contracts to get the new show started earlier. internet shares are higher. a rise in october retail sales, better than expected jump in consumer confidence index and oil falling indicating a boost in consumer spending. if you look at amazon, one of the leaders by a percentage in the nasdaq 100. aim june grasso of bloomberg news at the nasdaq market site in times square.
>> other stocks gaining today, merck, after they said enough is enough. chief executive ray gilmartin took out full-page newspaper ads defending their handling of vioxx. he says merck acted quickly when it decided to pull vioxx off the shelves worldwide in september. the painkiller linked to heart problems and strokes. gilmartin said critic vs. used misleading information to question merck’s integrity. this afternoon, he agreed to testify to a senate committee looking into the vioxx affair. the hearing is thursday. separately, merck says its dividend is safe even with the higher legal costs associated with the vioxx recall. merck investors are still going to get $1.52 a share. friday’s session for merck up more than 1%. down more than 40% this year. novell has filed an anti-trust suit against microsoft claiming the world’s largest software maker tried to eliminate competition to keep rival products from getting out into the marketplace. microsoft allegedly withheld technical information about the windows operating system. it is difficult for novell to come up with new versions of its word processing software known as word perfect. novell paid a billion dollars for word perfect in 1994 and sold it two years later at a loss. word perfect lost market share to microsoft word. earlier this week novell settled another anti-trust suit with microsoft. word perfect is not included in the settlement. shares of novell staying down. microsoft shares lower. still to come, asian stocks rallied. the nikkei 225 posts its biggest gain in three months. european stocks also finishing in the plus column. we’ll recan’t numbers and look ahead to next week. that and more when we return.
