Japan's market---Catherine (slow)
>> welcome back, unilever’s u.s. traded shares fell as much as 10% today after the company cut its full year sales forecast. the maker of dove soap and nohr soup x pekts revenue for its 400 leading brands to grow 4% this year, down from previous estimates of 5 to 6% growth. the world’s largest maker of food and soap expects to miss its second quarter forecasts.
>> heineken said its profit growth stalled in the first half as french, dutch and u.s. customers cut back on beer drinking. shares had their biggest decline since october, 1997. you see they are down 12.25%. shares of anheuser-busch, the industry leader and number two sab miller also dropped on concern that demand not revive. demand for beer is falling. heineken said citing the war in iraq, u.s. smoking bans and the euro’s rise against the dollar and sars, consumers have also been turning to other beverages like wine. sars, attributable for a beardy kline apparently. well, japan’s stock benchmarks may fall for the first time in six sessions when trading starts in tokyo. catherine yang has more from our bureau there. catherine.
>> well, lowered profit forecasts in the u.s. and recent gains on the nikkei 225 may weigh on japanese exporters like sony. the nikkei 225 at the chicago mercantile exchange closed lower than the nikkei singapore. the bank of new york japan a.d.r. index fell. investors say recent gains in shares of exporters like sony may already reap the benefit of a rate cut. shares of the second largest consumer electronics maker have risen more than 10% since the start of may.sony gets 67% of its sales from outside japan. the manager of equivalent of $3.6 billion in assets bearing management japan said gains in japanese stocks have been dependent on the strength in the u.s. e added he can’t find anything else domestically that could be a reason for this. the nikkei 225 gained 16% since may 1st. topix is up 15% this quarter. the dollar drop against the yen may limit losses for nissan. overall the second biggest initial public offering starts trading at the tokyo stock exchange. i’m talking about seiko epson shares. japan’s big of the maker of ink jet printers sold more than a billion dollars of shares. the asset management manager said we may get a taste of the shares he applied for. he said the timing of the sale is appropriate because the market is gaining momentum. philadelphia international advisors is not as interested. he e-mailed this morning to say he thought seiko epson shares were too expensive. fujitsu’s investors made demand for changes at the top after the company post twod consecutive quarters of losses. japan’s big of the maker of business computers holds its shareholders meeting today, and some investors say they may demand for the resignation of its c.e.o. honda motor shareholders will approve the resignation of its chairman at a shareholders meeting today. investors of japan’s second biggest automaker will promote fukui as c.e.o..
>> i want to ask you about computer memory chips. i understand prices have climbed recently and i suppose this most affects south korean markets. which stocks will we be watching related to memory chips?
>> i’ll be watching south korea’s two biggest chip makers. samsung electronics and hynix semiconductor. dram exchange.com says the rise in the spot price of the benchmark chip rose 2.3 person. the bank of korean, bank of new york korean a.d.r. index fell. i’ll be watching tech exporters as well as japan exporters here in asia. back to you.
>> cathy yang from our tokyo bureau. global coverage from tokyo continues with bloomberg international live at 6:00 6:00 p.m. new york time, 3:00 p.m. california time, 18 minutes from now. a report from germany’s central bank says the country face as small risk of deflation. germany’s economy is stagnated for a third year and the bun does bank said the europe’s largest economy is likely to detear your aircraft further. germany’s inflation rate last month fell to 0.7%. the central bank said inflation may temporarily touch zero while there is no acute sign of deflation at present. legg mason plans to expand in europe by making acquisitions just as it’s done in the u.s.. the head of its british unit said it expects to triple the asset it overseas in europe to $5 billion by building other firms there over the next two years. the u.s. brokerage and money manager more than doubled its assets under management in the states after buying rival firms in new york and florida. it’s trying to expand its european businesses by offering versions of top performing u.s. funds like the $9 billion legg mason value trust. well, the new york stock exchange and the nasdaq stock market have agreed to trade each other’s stocks in case of disasters such as the september 11th attacks. both are rivals for company listings and trading fees. of course, the s.e.c. urged the world’s biggest stock market to develop reciprocal trading plans. this is in case either of the world’s biggest stock markets were unable to operate from their primary and back location. after the september 11th attacks u.s. markets were shut down for four days, the longest closure since the great depression.
>> when we come back we’ll preview the federal express earnings which are out tomorrow. greg burns, senior transportation analysts at j.p. morgan securities will tell us why he’s so bullish on the transportation shipping company, and that story is up next.
