Nasdaq--- Julie (fast)
Asia pacific markets--- Sheby (fast)
>> a live shot of the sydney opera house. it’s 9:12 a.m. in that city. a mix of clouds for the day for dwellers and visitors in the air. high temperatures to reach 21 degrees sell yuss. you are watching “ live” in hong kong. u.s. stocks fall on thoughts of what the federal reserve may say about the increase in interest rates. a gain in basic materials and auto stocks was offset by a drop in energy shares. looking a t the indexes t s&p 500 closed lower by about .1%, along with the dow jones. the nasdaq up nearly .25%. bloomberg’s julie hyman reports from the new york stock exchange.
>> a lackluster session today in terms of both price action and in terms of trading volume. the dow today and the s&p both having gains of just 0.4% at one time or another, and losses of no more than .2%. pretty tight trading range. volume this week, by the way, is down 20% compared to average volume last week. a couple of themes in today’s session. people looking forward to the fed meeting tomorrow. not taking a lot of action ahead of that. also, oil declining to a seven-week low. because of that, we saw groups gaining. the materials and the auto groups and the energy index, on the other hand, was the big decliner in today’s session, creating a lot of pressure. some of the big decliners within that were rowing company, amerada hess, burlington, and apache. also today helping stocks is a big merger in the health insurance industry between wellpoint health and anthem. this merger has been already announced. it got the final barrier to i a prufle from the racra insurance commissioner with a $64 billion acquisition there. and as psych, wellpoint and anthem gaining in today’s session and the health care group as a whole gaining as the other health insurers doing well. aetna closing at a high. cigna gaining because of a recommend dation boost at j.p. morgan. cardinal and humana also on the downside. infineon predicted an industry slowdown because of higher inventory and declining prices, certainly not something new we have heard from the industry. the u.s. shares of the german company down 1.33%. health care did well today, but merck certainly did not. drug makers fell today. merck was cut by moody’s. the debt was cut by moody’s after newsed about the vioxx painkiller. an investigation by the justice department. i’m julie hyman, bloomberg news, at the new york stock exchange.
>> chief financial officer at mazda says the profit growth will be driven by continuing strong overseas sales.
>> momentum in europe is just outstanding. we see that continuing. as far as the united states is concerned, we’re putting absolutely the right measures into place. stronger session substantially and i believe in asia pacific we can see growth including in china.
>> first quarter profit grew 68%. earnings releases continue in japan. we have more from tokyo with a preview of today’s trading.
>> you are right. with the mazda story as well, we see it’s a story about earnings in a japan. starting with the technology stocks, murata used to regulate electricity in mobile phones and computers. the company cut the full-year net income forecast to a% to 48.5 billion yen and cited the communication equipment inventory adjustment in china. the company is also saying in a statement that inventory adjustments of telecommunication equipment and related products in china is taking longer than we’d expected. and it’s also saying that weakening demand growth has made the future more difficult to predict. so far the stock is down 13% compared to the electronics index. that index is down 3.5% for the same period. take a look at daikin industries. japan’s biggest maker of air conditioners raised the full-year forecast to 38.5 billion yen. the company is citing expanding sales and cost cuts. among the auto maker, news of honda and the plans in the u.s. honda motor will spend $270 million to build an auto parts plant in georgia and expand to other u.s. plants to boost profit by countering currency fluctuations. asia’s largest car maker including toyota, nissan, honda, they are adding or expanding production in north america t largest auto market . they’re doing that in order to increase sales and reduce the affect of currency shifts on profit. the vice president of equity research at national city corporation in cleveland says honda’s decision is consistent with a trend of supplying local products to meet local needs and he says it’s usually best to build vehicles and parts where products are sold. honda’s a.d.r.’s rose in u.s. trading and you can see that it’s traded higher by about .7%. and that’s how it’s looking right now, cathy. those are some of the stocks i’m looking at. back to you.
>> thanks, shoby. the euro falls against the dollar from a record high. i’ll talk with a strategist about what he predicts for later today.
在线播报
Listen Market briefing --- Catherine (fast)
Cisco--- Bob (fast)
>> good morning and welcome to “ live” from hong kong. i’m catherine yank. we have plenty in store on “ live.” we have reporters ready to break down cisco’s numbers. reports from the new york stock exchange and nasdaq are also headed your way. also coming up, chief executives gather from beijing. bloomberg’s steve angle is there where we spoke with the head symantec. we’ll also hear from the head of the world trade organization who issued a warning to the united states and other industrialized nations. oil falls to a seven-week low. traders say a u.s. report out later today may show an increase in oil inventories. oil dropped 3.5% in new york trading. the price you see on the screen is after-hours trading. oil is down about 15% since reaching a record on october 25. cisco system shares are lower in extended hours nasdaq trading after the company reported fiscal first quarter earnings out. we go to bob bowdon now in our new york office for details on that company. what’s the latest, bob?
>> thanks to that, cathy. let us get to the numbers. cisco meeting expectations reporting 21 cents a share. that is better than the 17 cents a share from a year ago. and that met the 21 cent expectation for cisco. revenue for the company coming in at $5.97 billion exceeding the $6.02 billion―excuse me, falling just short of the $6.02 billion thomson financial estimate. there were a couple of other issues related to the share repurchase program. cisco saying it will allocate $10 billion in additional share repurchases. it had $ 5 billion which had not been use sod far, bringing the total to $15 billion for share repurchase. no time line on when that must be exercised. but the current total is $15 billion for additional share repurchases. also, the company reporting the head count in the first quarter rises by 715 to a total of 35,686 employees. cisco shares down in extended hours trading. the stock closed at $7.95 in the regular session. the latest trade is $19.17. again, down from $19.75 at the close of trading. there you see the operating earnings as i reported a minute ago. 21 cents a share up from the 17 cents a year ago. and here we have the revenue. there you have it there, $5.97 up 17% from the $5.1 and the same quart err year ago. fiscal first quarter 2004. and we’ll round out the rest of the graphic there is for you by showing you also the once again $10 billion in share repurchases. there you have the fiscal first quarter gross margin at 67.2%, down from 68.7, but nevertheless, still at 67% gross margin. that number is quite high. that is the latest on the cisco news. cathy, back to you in hong kong.
>> thanks for that, bob. the fall in the oil prices didn’t do much for stocks. the dow and the s&p 500 both closed slightly lower, but the nasdaq gained .2%. microsoft shares rose 1.5% after shareholders approved plan farce $32 billion special dividend. health insurance companies also did well after anthem received clearance from state regulators to buy wellpoint in a takeover. the bank of new york a.d.r. index slipped .2%. in the treasuries market , high yields drew investors to the 10-year note. demand for treasuries increased because of the $51 billion debt auction this week. the dollar continues to gain against the euro after more criticism from the european central bank that further gains in the euro will be undesirable. the federal reserve meets today in the u.s. all economists we surveyed expect the raise will raise short-term rates by a quarter point to 2%. marsh and mclennan plans to cut 3.5% of the work force as it plunged to a seven-year low. third quarter net income fell 94% after marsh set aside $232 million for a possible settlement with new york attorney general elliot spitzer. spitzer sued marsh last month, accusing the broker of rigging bids and taking kickbacks. the suit resulted in the ouster of the company’s chief executive and wiped out 42% of marsh’s market value. national australia bank profit falls 20%. the country’s largest vendor says revenue fell as customers switch to rival, while costs increased as it invested in the businesses. net income fell to $3.18 billion or $2.4 billion u.s. asia pacific’s biggest bank excluding japan is spending more on marketing and selling cheaper loans and offering higher interest on deposits. it wants to keep customers after a currency trading scandal damaged the reputation. higher fuel costs probably hurt australia’s consumer confidence in november. the sentiment figures are due at 10:30 a.m. in sydney. also today, economic data from china may show industrial production growth slowed in october and that china’s import growth probably held near a two-year low. japan’s current account surplus probably narrowed in september as higher oil prices boosted the cost of imports. economists we surveyed estimate the adjusted surplus shrank to 10% to $1.5 trillion yen. japan reports current account figures at 8:50 a.m. today in tokyo. first half profit fell 37% at n.t.t. after competition hurt sales at japan’s largest phone company. analysts we surveyed estimate n.t.t. earned $2.3 billion in the six months through september. and n.t.t. reports the results today along with rival south bank. south bank are probably say the first half loss narrowed as they challenge n.t.t. in the high-speed internet market . taiwan semiconductor manufacturing and united microelectronics dropped after sales growth slowed last month. the bank of new york’s indexes closed low we are the asian a.d.r. index down .2%. japanese a.d.r. index losing nearly .5%. china a.d.r. index up .7%. and among the japanese shares, cannon fell after rival hewlett-packard introduced a new low cost copier. taking a look at the differentials, seeing nikkei futures at 10,98 5 compared with the stock closed 10,980 at osaka and singapore’s 10,970. in news, u.s. troop and iraqi troops bat toll gain control of the 2/3 of fallujah that is not under their control. they are in the second day of wry trying to wrest control from insurgents. the military spokesman reports house to house and room to room fighting. dubbed operation phantom fury, it is the biggest ground assault since march 2003 in iraq. the commander of multinational forces says about a dozen u.s. soldiers have been killed in the operation. elsewhere in the country, the u.s. military reports forces coming under attack in the town of ramadi west of fallujah. they are report nothing casualties in that incident. french official stays prognosis for palestinian leader yasser arafat is doubtful. doctors say arafat has slipped deep sbeer a coma in the french military hospital where he is being treated for a blood disorder. news of his failing health comes as palestinian officials say they have reconciled with arafat’s wife. they had been in public disagreement over access to the ailing president. she had earlier told al jazeera television that they wanted to bury arafat alive. palestinian authority prime minister cariya said arafat’s wife received the palestinian leadership and embraced them. and they were allowed to visit the 75-year-old palestinian leader. u.s. health officials say they are distributing 11 million doses of flu vaccine to end a supply shortage. the centers for disease control says it aims to supply the doses to high risk groups. a vaccine shortage arose after drug maker chrion was unable to deliver shots because of contamination concerns. the flu causes about 36,000 u.s. deaths each year. columbia and opec member venezuela may build a pipeline to run from the west coast in the pacific ocean to allow venezuelan oil to be shipped to asia without using the panama canal. venezuela is the fifth biggest exporter of crude. after the break, investors are concerned about the fed’s decision tomorrow on interest rates and the outlook for further increases. the s&p 500 index dropped for a second day. ke tails up next.
