Market briefing --- Matt (slow)
Asia-pacific region--- Gene (fast)
3G --- Carmen (fast)
>> welcome to the “world financial report.” i’m matt nesto. let’s recap the day that was on rallies. the dow, the s&p both down on the day and the week. the nasdaq up on the day and for the week. checking treasuries right now, we saw bonds rising ever so slightly, though, pretty much a stalled-out market until the fed next week. the 10-year yield at 4.65%. for a preview of next week’s pacific rim action we bring in gene otani from tokyo.
>> topping the business headlines for the coming week, japan’s central bank will release the quarterly tankan survey. economists say record exports fuel sales and profits and confidence among retailers and non-manufacturers and probably the highest since 1992 92 as consumer spending bowl bolsters the economy. unemployment probably remains at a near three-year low. household spending probably fell after rising in april as bad weather stopped people from going to the shops. hong kong’s export growth probably slowed last month. a government clamp-down on industrial expansion in china damped the appetite for foreign goods. companies such as merck and chartered semiconductor manufacturing produced fewer computer chips. india’s economy probably grew at its fastest pace ever in the quarter ended march 31. record winter crop harvest and tax cuts helped consumer consumer spending. and gloria arroyo sworn in for a sixth―six-year term. she made little headway in her first three years having come to power in a disputed military civilian revolt. that’s a look ahead at the new week in the asia-pacific region. back to you.
>> remember the promise of 3-g wireless phones that could surf the internet, play movies, take pictures? is that promise is taking a step closer to reality this week. sprint is accelerating a billion dollar rollout of its 3-g wireless network, trying to catch up to verizon. carmen roberts is on the 3-g beat and joins us with details.
>> 3-g is materializing as we speak. 3-g stands for third generation wireless and is expected to bring all the things we do at our home and office computers out into the cell phone world, meaning executives will have high-speed access to corporate networks while consumers get movies and sports and advanced gaming. sprint says it’s building a 3-g network based on the same technology verizon is using, called evolution data only, or evda, for short.
>> not only do they see promise in the enterprise market , one of one of sprint’s key strategic objectives with the wireless product, but also the evolving handset marketplace in markets like korea, et cetera, demonstrating real consumer promise for the product, as well.
>> the excitement is returning again because importantly it helps them increase capacity, even for a voice call. secondly, it helps them cut costs and that’s very important moving forward with more traffic, and third, in the most interesting part, but still not quite there yet, are interesting applications that develop.
>> verizon is the one to catch in the 3-g race, spending $1 billion building the network. already testing it in washington, d.c. and san diego. one analyst says that will probably surge to 100 markets by the end of next year yet analysts say 3-g won’t generate profits for the cell phone companies for years. instead, they recommend the equipment builders―lucent, nortel, the makers of the advanced cell phones―nokia, motorola and ericsson, and the companies that make the chips inside the phones, qualcomm and texas instruments.
>> i think it’s fair to say that the dollars will have to go to the investment vendors before going to the service providers so the shortest way to play it, that’s the safe bet.
>> among the phone companies that analysts say that verizon is rolling out 3-g the fastest and should be the first to make money with the service. 3-g is at least a year away for many of us but carriers are laying the foundation for the next evolution in wireless and it is a step they cannot ignore.
>> i’m still struggling to get 1-g to work for me, going from the living room to the kitchen. 3-g, i look forward to that day.
>> technology challenged here, yes.
>> thank you very much. well, we talked to the guys out at pimco earlier and asked bill gross and paul mcculley whether they think if low interest rates are fueling a bubble in the housing market in the u.s. interesting question, what with housing gains, we’ve seen record moves in the new home sales and existing home sales. we’ll have the answer to that question and more in part two of our interview with pimco coming up.
