Market briefing---Matt (slow)
World Economic Report---Mike (fast)
>> a drop in demand for cars sends consumer spending lower. this after consumers helped drive the economy to its biggest gain in two years. officially, personal spending slid 0.3% in september after posting its biggest gain the month before. still, other statistics released today continue to reflect the belief that things are getting better. the university of michigan’s consumer confidence index came in slightly higher than expected. confidence has been rising since the stock market began to rally in charge. and factories in the midwest are cig flaling an expansion in their neck of the woods. the national association of purchasing managers says its chicago manufacturing indeck rose to 55 this month. remember, any reading above 50 means manufacturing is expanding. brian roseboro has been chosen to become financial markets undersecretary. charles baden is the next treasury deputy for the u.s. and a nominee for the position of deputy treasury secretary has wither spoon drawn her name, susan schwab is a university of maryland dean an former commerce department official. she cited personal reasons. den neth lee earlier in the week is a director of goldman sach’s also wither spoon drew his name. eports today show the u.s. economy is continuing to pick up steam. europe, however, continues to struggle. michael mckee has the latest economic news for us.
>> unemfloiment france, europe’s third biggest economy, rose to a 3 1/2-year high in september, suggesting an economic recovery just isn’t strong enough over there yet to create jobs. joblessness grew to 2.6 million people. the unemployment rate rose from to 9.7% from 9.6%, using the french government measure, which is considered more accurate by many analysts. the number of job seerks rose by 25,300 to 2.436 million. the national statistics office says the jobless rate should climb as high as 9.8% in france next year. the french jobless rate will average 9.7% in 2004 and fall to 9.4% in 2005. still ahead of the u.s. rate currently at 6.1%. on the good news side, executives in the dozen countries sharing the euro were at their most optimistic in almost 2 1/2 years in october. buoyed by expectations that exports will spur the economy’s recovery from weakest growth in a decade. business confidence survey based on a survey of 25,000 companies rose far third month to minus eight from minus nine in september. that according to the european commission. consumer confidence in the euro countries held at minus 17 for a third month. that was in line with expectations. after the good news and bad news, some news that’s neither. ier man retail sales were unchanged in september after declining the previous two months.
