China's oil industry and Warren Buffet---Lane (medium)
Japanese market---Catherine (slow)
>> welcome back. the second largest u.s. mutual fund company is betting on china’s oil industry four months after warren buffet did the same thing. vangaard group’s wellington fund has become the fourth biggest investor in china’s biggest petroleum company. the oil company says vanguard’s 1.4% stake is valued at $327 million. at the current price of the hong kong traded stock . now, buffett’s burke hath recently said it owned 1.3% of the top local competitor petrochina. that sparked speculation that buffett’s investment would spur interest in other chinese oil companies. speaking of warren buffet, news out after the bell. clayton holmes has been barred from completing his transaction with bust’s berkshire hathaway. the mobile home maker trying to finish a $1.7 billion sale. an appellate court will not let the sale go through until it hears arguments about the fairness of the shareholder vote approving that deal. shares of the world’s largest watch maker fell to a five-week low. skywatch group’s chief executive officer told the swiss business weekly the second quarter was very difficult. he said the swach and radio brands were the worst performing in the three months in june. they said switzerland’s watch sports fell 6.6% in the first half of 2003. concerns about the sars virus and war in iraq said to sap demand for the time pieces. nintendo will introduce a points system by the end of the year to reward those who buy its games. japan’s second largest maker of video game machines will ask for comments on what people like or dislike about the titles. this new system will award points similar to mileage programs operated by airlines, going to buyers of games playable on nintendo’s gamecube and game boy players. nintendo will accept the points as payment for part of a new game the company has under development.
>> asian exporters may be among companies to track amid more evidence of a pickup in the u.s. economy.catherine yang has more ahead of the market open in tokyo.
>> well, better-than-expected-sales at u.s. retailers and the unexpected fall in jobless claims, may help shares of asian exporters like japan’s can nonand south korea’s samsung. nikkei futures for september delivery closed higher in chicago compared with both osaka and singapore. there is an indication they expect stocks to open higher when trading begins in tokyo. the bank of new york japan a.d.r. index also rose. canon gets 70% of its revenue from outside of japan, and samsung electric derives about a fifth of its sales in the u.s. recovery of the u.s. economy may mean a pickup in sales for canon’s printers and samsung’s computer memory chips. kirby daily says an improving labor market will be a big boost to u.s. equities. japanese exporters he says will benefit from that. n t docomo reported a fiscal first quarter profit. docomo fell. it’s parent n.t.t. declines more than 1%. the second largest mobile phone operator said group net income totaled 1.63 billion. docomo added subscribers to send picture messages and spend more for high speed internet access. docomo says it’s on target to more than double profit this year.
>> we are keeping the current full year forecast for now. but we don’t know how much we are spending this year, so there is a possibility that we might change our forecast around the second quarter when we have a more clearer picture of this year’s costs.
>> docomo shares have risen 23% since january 1st. lane.
>> cath rirngs investors get a clearer indication of capital spending when japan releases its machine orders dated for june. what’s the expectation there?
