Interview: Citigroup --- Chief executive
NYSE --- Julie (slow)
>> 9:12 a.m. in sydney, a hot and rainy wednesday in sydney, a fire warning has been issued for fire danger. clouds increasing in the afternoon with a chance of a thunderstorm with high temperature at 39 degrees celsius. china’s banking regulator may talk about plans to help the nation’s lenders fend off overseas competition. the regulator speaks at a finance conference today in beijing before addressing the media and may help china’s banks to compete with citigroup. they can start taking yuan deposits from chinese individuals in two years. stephen engle is at the beijing conference and will bring us a report. citigroup says it will review all past transactions with individuals in japan. the country ordered citigroup to close its private banking business after it failed to make proper checks against money laundering. citigroup japan chief executive chiefer appeared before the financial committee of japan’s upper house.
>> we acknowledge there were fundamental flaws in the organization, in the private bank in particular. we experienced a weak culture of compliance and internal controls due to a lack of awareness and lack of training.
>> peterson says the bank will work with customers to ensure they were treated fairly.
>> i wish to assure you that citibank banks these matters seriously. as the new c.e.o. of citibank japan, it is my mandate to fix these problems.
>> peterson said he has signed 100 employees to conduct checks and past transactions and will file a report to regulators next year. he may offer customers compensation. u.s. consumer confidence fell in november to its lowest level in eight months. high energy prices hurt optimism among low income americans. the government said spending helped the economy expand at a faster-than-expected 3.9% annual rate.
>> energy prices rose 54% this year and put that together with slower-than-expected job growth and you have a recipe for a drop in consumer confidence. the conference board’s confidence index fell to 90.5 for november, the lowest since march and a surprise to economists who expected it to go up.
>> it is due to the energy prices and nerveness about energy prices and energy prices, obviously gas but heating and natural gas are involved in this, too, as winter comes. and so people are worried about it.
>> that concern was felt by most people at the low end of the wage scale. americans said they would spend less in coming months. as for previous months, specifically july through september, the economy grew faster than many people thought. according to numbers released today, the gross domestic product or so-called g.d.p. grew at a 3.9% rate in the third quarter, faster than the initial estimate and more robust than the second quarter.
>> third quarter, we had strong contributions from the consumer side and also from the business capital spending side. we look for those themes to continue in the fourth quarter and expect construction to add significantly to the fourth quarter.
>> today’s report also gives us our first look at corporate profits in the third quarter and they’re 2.4% lower than the second. earnings were hurt by the four hurricanes that sweat through the southeast. back to you.
>> u.s. retailers declined for a second day on growing worries about the holiday shopping season. looking at how the benchmarks closed on wall street, the s&p 500 losing about .4% along with the dow jones and nasdaq down nearly .5%. julie hyman reports from the new york stock exchange.
>> retail stocks were hit once again in today’s session, really a couple of reasons contributing to the drop. we had, first of all, that worse-than-expected consumer confidence number, mainly because of the higher price of gasoline. that hurting consumer confidence and hurting retail stocks, as well, leading, again, to concerns about the holiday shopping season. also today, we had the international council of shopping centers saying it expects a gain in november same-store sales of no more than 2.5%, lower than the previous forecast. as you can see, the decliners within the retail group, radioshack, circuit city, big lots as well as dillard’s. we also saw wal-mart decline for the second day in a row, the biggest two-day drop in more than a year’s time. yesterday, wal-mart said its november sales were also coming in below expectations. semiconductor stocks also hit in today’s session. yesterday, they gained on optimism about sales of consumer electronics over the holiday season. today, declining because that optimism seemed to be going away with the consumer confidence report. teradyne, l.s.i. logic, intel and national semiconductor among the decliners there. although it was a losing day for the dow and s&p, it was a winning month. the s&p 500 up 3.9% on the month, the biggest gain this year, sixth winning month in seven. on the dow, a gain of 4% for the month, snapping a two-month losing streak. looking at the internals to see the best and worst performers on the month, individually within the s&p 500, shares of calpine were up over 50%. they had news today that they will be building a power plant with g.e., that helped shares in today’s session. novell was the worst performer on the month, down 15%, though, not as much as calpine’s 50% gain. material stocks were the best performers in terms of groups and pharmaceuticals the worst performers, down 1%.
在线播报
Listen Market briefing --- Cathy (medium)
Asia pacific regions --- David (medium)
welcome to “ live” from% hong kong, i’m catherine yang. we’ll learn how shares of asian exporters may react to u.s. consumer confidence numbers. also, we’ll be talking to a currency strategist in 20 minutes who will explain why the dollar is setting new lows against the euro while recovering a bit versus the yen also, beijing city government cancelled a contract with microsoft 10 days after awarding the deal. we’ll have the story in 10 minutes and speak with a technology analyst in the following hour. south korea releases inflation numbers and australia puts out g.d.p. figures this morning. we’ll have the reports as they break, as well as reaction from seoul and sydney. learn what china’s bank has in store. the dollar resumes its descent against the euro, falling to a new low. comments from european central bank president jean-claude trichet sent the dollar lower on speculation trichet won’t take steps to halt the euro’s rise. he said financial conditions are favorable in the euro zone. that’s a reversal from the previous remarks that the currency market fluctuations could be brutal. the dollar traded as low as 1.3336 against the euro in new york before bouncing back somewhat. the dollar gained against the yen after japanese economic numbers for industrial output, unemployment and consumer spending came in weaker than expected. it’s still trading in the 102 range. the bank of japan refrains from selling the currency. on wall street, stocks fell after the u.s. consumer confidence report dropped in november to its lowest since february. the index consumer confidence report dropped to 90.5. economists surveyed by bloomberg expected the index to rise to 96. the dow, s&p and nasdaq fell .5%. retailers like wal-mart, target and home depot fell. the conference board says low income earners are not buying much this christmas season and discounters are hurting. u.s. treasuries fell after the government reported better-than-expected g.d.p. figures for the july to september period. the u.s. economy expanded 3.9% in the third quarter, forecaster than predictions. german bunds rose after jean-claude trichet said the bank will probably cut its forecast for economic growth. oil futures fall with milder weather and rising inventories, which mean there may be enough supply of oil and natural gas for the winter. the national weather forecast is forecasting higher-than-normal temperatures in the northeast next week. a u.s. energy report is expected to show supplies of distillate fuel rose 1.5 million barrels last week. asian stocks fell in u.s. trading. japanese exporters, including toyota and kyocera led declines. the bank of new york’s index tracking asian a.d.r.’s fell. nikkei futures point to a lower start when the tokyo stock exchange opens in less than two hours. four asian stock market benchmarks begin the session at record highs. major stock indexes in india, indonesia, new zealand and australia reached records tuesday. we’ll go to our stock market editor in sydney, david tweed. what will likely are the focus of early trading across asia today?
>> good morning. you’ve stolen my thunder. i wanted to talk about the records of markets in australia, india and indonesia. new zealand just off its record, trading .2% lower although it seems to be inching toward the benchmark 3,000 mark or the mark we think will be a benchmark. across asia, it will be retailers back in focus. you’ve mentioned exporters but when you think about the reason why the conference board said that retailing, retail spending dropped was because they’re looking at the higher fuel costs and the fact that some lower income earners, earning $35,000 or less, are feeling the pinch because of higher fuel costs. we’re seeing the discount companies in the u.s. falling by wal-mart and also watch out in japan, for example, watch out for ito-yokada shares and 7-eleven. it was a similar reason we saw a pullback in household spending and retailing fell in australia when it was expected to rise.
>> staying with australia, i gather that csfb downgraded b.h.p. billiton. what are the reasons?
>> that’s right. csfb cut b.h.p. billiton to underperform from neutral. they’re looking at the recent share price gains. if you look at a graph of b.h.p., it’s up about 9% since november 22% a 2.6% rise for the rest of the market . we’re look at the fact that there is money coming into the market from the b.h.p., 2.2 billion dollar buyback, the money to be deposited into the accounts of investors today. also, watch out for telstra, the country’s biggest telecommunications company. the “australian financial review” reports its c.e.o., zigy switkowski may resign today.
>> south korea consumer prices probably fell last month because the rising currency made exports cheaper. that would be the first month to month drop since may. the south korean won is up 13.7% against the dollar this year. that’s cut the cost of imports for asia’s number three economy. c.p.i. figures are due in 30 minutes. also in south korea, exports probably rose at their fastest pace in three months. companies including hyundai motor and samsung electronics sold more goods overseas. economists surveyed by bloomberg expect south korea’s experts rose 26% in november from a year ago. the figures are due at 10:00 a.m. today in seoul. australia’s economic growth probably slowed in the third quarter because higher fuel prices hurt consumer spending. economists we surveyed expect australia’s economy expanded half a percent, down from .6% growth in the previous quarter. in news outside the business world, u.s. homeland security secretary tom ridge resigned after two years in the job. paul gordon has more on that story from the hong kong newsroom.
>> homeland security secretary tom ridge was first person to hold the post created three years ago by president george w. bush in response to the terror attacks of september 11, 2001. ridge integrated 20 federal agencies with 180,000 employees. he also set up the color-coded terror alert system and started fingerprinting foreign visitors to the u.s. the president of the largest civil rights organization in the u.s. is also stepping down. quasy mfume led the national association for the advancement of colored people for eight years and denied speculation he’s quitting to run for a maryland senate seat. mfume says policy differences with president bush forced him out. ukraine’s parliament may try to pass a no-confidence street on―vote on prime minister viktor yanukovich. lawmakers last week rejected the results of ukraine’s presidential election which showed yanukovich winning. international observers say there was evidence of widespread voter fraud. opposition candidate viktor yushchenko says there is a crisis forming and it’s now only a matter of time before it explodes. yushchenko supporters say talks with yanukovich over a compromise have broken down. the supporters say they’ll resume blocking government buildings. poland’s president leads the european delegation to ukraine today. ukraine handles 1/4 of the gas exported by russia to central and western europe. in iraq, two attacks north of baghdad killed four civilians and injured 20 others, including lee u.s. soldiers. the military says the attacks took place north of the down town of beiji. a rocket attack injured one u.s. soldier further south. back to you.
>> after the break, citigroup’s top japan executive tells lawmakers he will fix the problems that hurt the company as private banking widens in that country.
