Mobile phone---Su (fast)
Market briefing---Matt (slow)
NYSE---Deb (fast)
seems like more now use cell phones. also expressing an interest according to people familiar with the matter, the world’s second largest mobil phone operator and biggest at&t wireless shareholder. and nextel communications. the fifth largest u.s. mobil phone carrier. the chief executive aaron saren told analysts he is discussing whether buying another u.s. operator would suit vode i can’tfone better.
>> no question. thanks. appreciate it in other news today or related news, i guess we could say, in the telecom sector, ericsson reported its first quarterly profit since 2001. the world’s biggest maker of wireless networks. also says demand may increase this year. ericsson expects sales in the current quarter to expand by as much as 9% from a year ago. according to research firm gartner. the cell phone industry set to grow about 10% this year. this after hand set sales reached a record 510 million units in 2003. today’s jobs report was the hot topic and helped push the dow and s&p to weekly gains. zeb down at the big board with the latest.
>> it’s kind of like the goldilocks theory after today’s jobs report feeling like severing just right for stocks . of course, the job report that the job growth was below forecast. but it turned out to be good news. anl an analyst saying just fast enough for good earnings. and another saying the growth is just slow enough to cool any ideas that the economy is overheating that could force the fed to raise interest rates. as a result, one of the things we saw today, we closed the books on our broadest rally since october 1. and with renewed hopes for that good economic growth and also low rates, really kind of lit a fire under technology stocks . they were the biggest gainers in the s&p 500 in particular, chip stocks . they soared especially cell phone-related companies after that news on ericsson saying that their demand is improving. also, a robust economy is clearly also good news for company that actually supply raw materials and industrial equipment. we did see that morgan stanley cyclical index soaring to its biggest one-day gain since october 1 as well. and low rates, they were also a boom for many of the home builders. not only home builders but also mortgage companies today. pulte had its best day in a month. home depot in about two months. countrywide had its biggest gain in about two weeks. and hoe hawk industries soared to a record high after reporting record prices. it was a pretty big week for pepsico. it its best week in seven months jumping 7%. earnings topped forecast yesterday. and today credit suisse first boston upgraded that stock to outperform.
>> our next guest has found a way to get more defensive within the same sector. we’re going to talk to russ, the chief equity strategist at state street court. he’s going to explain how he’s gone from semiconductors to software within the tech industry.
