Martha Stewart---Alan (slow)
Alan Greenspan---Deb (fast)
>> we’re back. in the martha stewart trial today, securities and exchange commissioner testified about lies the government was told by martha stewart and her former merrill stock broker, peter bacanovic. also on the witness stand, ann armstrong, martha stewart’s personal assistant, who broke down in tears yesterday, but held up under questioning today. bloomberg’s alan dodds frank was in the courtroom and joins us now with the details.
>> this afternoon’s testimony from helene, an assistant regional director of the securities and exchange commission, was aimed at establishing the prosecution’s contention that martha stewart and her co-defendant repeatedly lies to government investigators. questioned by the prosecution, she outlined statements given to the s.e.c. by stewart, her co-defendant peter bacanovic, and his former assistant at merrill lynch, douglas faneuil. faneuil, the prosecution’s star witness, has already told the jury that on december 27, 2001, he was instructed by his boss, bacanovic, to give martha stewart a secret stock tip. when stewart, during an airplane refueling stop en route to mexico, telephoned merrill lynch, faneuil told her that another client, her friend sam waksal, then c.e.o. of imclone systems, was trying to sell $7 million worth of his company’s stock . glotzer testified that on february 4, 2002, the s.e.c. asked stewart who she talked to when she called merrill lynch during that refueling stop at a texas airport on december 27, 2001. glotzer said, i asked if she had spoke ton mr. bacanovic? or it was his assistant, and she said she was sure it was mr. bacanovic. today’s first witness was ann armstrong, stewart’s personal assistant for the past six years. she testified that at the end of january 2002, stewart spoke to her attorney about the upcoming february 4 meeting with the s.e.c. and asked to review her telephone logs kept on armstrong’s computer. stewart then sat down at armstrong’s computer and saw that armstrong had taken a message from bacanovic, which said, peter thinks imclone is going to start trading downward. armstrong then testified, martha saw the message from peter and instantly took the mouse, put the cursor at the end, and highlighted back up to peter’s name and started typing over that. armstrong testified that stewart almost immediately ordered her to restore the original message. glotzer testified that at a second meeting with the s.e.c. in april 2002, stewart was asked about whether she had gotten any information about imclone during that december 27, 2001 call. she said, glotzer testified, she said she had no recollection being told that any of the waksals were selling their stock . testimony continues tomorrow.
>> and i know you’re going to be there, as always. thanks, allan. in other news today, the food and drug administration says wyeth and other makers of hormone replacement treatments must warn doctors about the risk of dementia. a government study found that women who are age 65 and older who took wyeth’s hormone treatment had a greater risk of developing dementia, which is described as a progressive decline in intellectual function. earlier research linked hormone replacement to cancer and heart disease. well, as we said, stocks ended the day higher, but as deb kostroun tells us, it was a cautious trading day ahead of you know who, alan greenspan. deb?
>> we had some pretty small moves today on just average volume today. that was, to many traders that i talked to, a pretty clear sign this market is waiting for alan greenspan’s wisdom on the economy and also interest rates tomorrow. traders say his comments actually could be the next catalyst for the market. one of the things that we have right now, earnings. they’ve been coming out very strong. the economy seems to be doing fine. so if greenspan says that interest rates will stay low, that could help lift stocks further. and a lot of mix of stocks that were really kind of moving today, we saw insurer a.i.g. moving the s&p 500, the index the most. they’re expected to report a quarterly profit tomorrow morning. as for viacom, they are spinning off blockbuster, which analysts have long argued would send viacom stock higher. then we saw exxonmobil and other energy stocks jumping on opec’s decision to cut production. also, verizon, it was higher on a “wall street journal” report which said the company might get a takeover offer from vodafone. now the idea behind such a deal is rather than selling their verizon wireless stake. vodafone would actually be better off buying verizon. of course, we heard yesterday that vodafone is also considering a bid for at&t wireless. getting back to energy, because that was the biggest percentage gainer on the s&p 500 in the 10 economic groups. this was on the opec decision, that sent oil prices higher, which also could mean rising profits for many of these companies. we saw gains across the board in the industry with many integrated oil and also those oil service companies really kind of registering the biggest gains. we saw schlumberger at its best level since 2001. also transocean, its best level since june of 2002. also, we saw aluminum and copper stocks . they were on the move today. j.p. morgan raising their earnings forecast for alcoa, also alcan and inco, while lehman brothers raised their forecasts for phelps dodge. the theme pretty much the same, less supply metals mean higher prices and also higher earnings. matt, back to you.
>> deb, thanks very much. coming up, we’re going to preview the latest from australia. we’ll get a look at newscorp and hyundai. we’ll tell you which of these models may have pushed profits.
