Nasdaq --- Robert (slow)
H.P. --- Derek (slow)
floor trading at the new york mercantile exchange is ending, that’s where they trade energy futures. today, the futures are down, inventories coming in better than expected last week. so crude oil close down 93 cents. we’ll see where they settle out but that’s where we are at the moment. other energy futures lower, as well. unleaded gasoline is down. heating oil and natural gas all lower on the day. updating the situation on wall street and speaking of lower, lots of red there. today’s c.p.i. report raising inflation concerns, sending stocks lower. 200 points down on the dow jones industrials right now. the s&p 500 down by about 18. and the nasdaq lower by 25, call it 26. heightened inflation concerns from today’s c.p.i. report sending the nasdaq lower for the sidenth straight day. robert gray is at the nasdaq with details.
>> that’s right. this is the seventh consecutive session. that’s the longest losing stroke for the nasdaq composite we’ve seen since june 2001, down 1%, close to the lowest levels of the session. as we mentioned, seven straight declines, been falling and now wiped out all of the gains so far year to date. of course, many traders have been telling me over the past several weeks and months that the rallies we’ve seen taking us to multiyear highs in the belief that the fed would pause or stop, with the c.p.i. number, traders saying that may not be the case. pete macquarie with keefe bruyette & woods telling me until we get clarifications on the direction of the fed, the short-term bias to buy stocks not there for him. he said we were mired in a fog with greenspan but with bernanke’s clarity, everyone is jumping on every word and every number. that seems to be the case in today’s session with truly widespread declines throughout the industry groups, heading into a seasonally slow time and concern that if the markets fall, there will be less participation by a number of individuals, slowing down trading during a seasonally slow time. texas, transports and internets moving lower. some of the large caps selling off, leading the way lower since we’ve seen the rotation since the end of april. microsoft shares falling to their lowest since march of 2003. ebay, lowest since december 2003. electronic arts down, its lowest since december 2003. microsoft down 16% since it reported earnings at the end of april. and new hoes for the likes of amazon.com, urban outfitters, dell computer―dell inc., now, touching its lowest since february 2003. the stock has been bouncing between gains and losses today but clearly we’re seeing a continued selling of these large cap tech names that we’ve seen all this month.
>> robert gray at the nasdaq. if your prices are going up, what do you do about it? among other top business stories this hour, the world’s second largest personal computer maker looking to save $1 billion. derek davis joins us with the latest on that.
>> that’s right. and hewlett-packard says it will consolidate 79 data centers into six large facilities to do that. closing facilities will help hewlett-packard slois costs as it battles to overtake dell as top p.c. producer. any job reductions will be part of the c.e.o.’s plan to cut the work force by more than 15,000. mark hurd is almost halfway through that process. yesterday, hewlett-packard posted a 51% jump in profit, outpacing dell. shares of hewlett-packard up over 3% to $32.11. moody’s will roll out its new loan rating system later this year and the change could help corporate borrowers save billions of dollars. the ratings agency has been reviewing the system for the past two years. when it is all put in place, most of the ratings on loans will rise by one or two levels on average. moody’s says loans deserve higher ratings because lenders are paid more than twice as much as bondholders when companies default. the small upgrade could mean a lot for the 1.2 trillion worth of loans now monitored by moody’s and could save u.s. corporate borrowers as much as $4.6 billion a year in interest payments. mcclatchy says it has at least three bids for its philadelphia newspapers. mcclatchy, the sixth largest u.s. newspaper publisher, says the sale of the “philadelphia inquirer” and “philadelphia daily news” is part of a planned takeover the knight-ridder. so far, the papers are among 12 that mcclatchy plans to sell as part of its acquisition of knight-ridder. the deadline for bids was last night. finally, cbs is unveiling a new fall lineup to help win back viewers. the third largest broadcaster will add a comedy and a few new dramas to the schedule, one drama by spike lee. cbs is following schedule makeovers by nbc and abc as they revamp. the broadcaster is taking on four new shows, fewer than the 15 added by abc and the 12 series picked up by nbc. cbs had previously renewed 14 of its prime time series including the dramas “criminal minds” and “numbers” so a revamping of the two, mike.
>> derek davis. speaking of numbers, we have some on mortgage application, request for home loans rebounding across the u.s. last week, a bit of a surprise. still, levels are at a level showing softness in the housing market .
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Listen Focus: Enron
>> 12 houston residents are deciding if ken lay and jeff skilling should spend several years in prison. they face charges of security fraud that led to the collapse of enron. for ken lay, today is the start of another courtroom battle. and june grasso is in houston to give us more on it.
>> thanks so much, suzy. as the eight men and four women continue to deliberate, ken lay starts a new trial that has nothing to do with enron, but with his personal finances. he is facing bank fraud charges. one charge of bank fraud. and that alleges he defrauded three banks to obtain lines of credit. he’s also charges with three charges of making false statements to banks on forms pledging that he would not use the proceeds of credit lines for margin stock purchase which is the prosecution alleges he did. the first witnesses on the stand a personal banker of ken lay’s, and he has testified that he claimed to ken lay that the line of credit was not to be used to buy margin stocks. the prosecutor john houston who is handling the case has introduced loan documents and letters which have lay’s signature on them to the same effect. this is a very technical charge and the loans are repaid and the banks were not injured in this case. but the technicalities of the law according to the prosecution were violated. the judge is trying the case himself. it it’s a bench trial. he is going to give the verdict in this case, so it’s very different. we haven’t heard opening statements because the judge know what is the law is. we have gone right into the testimony of the first witness. and this is one reaso
