Focus: Median salary
>> health and human services secretary michael leavitt is on capitol hill discussing details of the bush administration’s plan for combating avian flu.
>> we don’t know whether the h5n1 virus will be the spark that will set off a global pandemic. we do know that at some point in time a pandemic is likely to happen. history makes that very clear. there may be those, if h5n1 does not become the spark, that look back and say we overericked or there may be some who would say we cried wolf but this is about long-term pandemic readiness.
>> in an announcement at the national institute of health yesterday, president bush called for $7.1 billion in funds dedicated to flu vaccines, research and training for public health officials. a global flu epidemic may, are rise―arise if the virus circulating among birds transmits to a version transmitted to people. more than 121 people in asia have been infected with bird flu as a result of contact with the birds. chief executives at u.s. companies pocketed a 30% average pay increase last year. a survey by the corporate library revealed the median salary was $2.4 million in 2004. margaret popper has more on the story.
>> the corporate library, a corporate governance research organization, surveyed more than 1,800 companies and found median c.e.o. pay rose by 1/3 last year. c.e.o. pay rose faster than earnings and faster than the pay of average americans. jom chamber―john chambers at cisco led the list, getting the biggest raise in the survey because he went without pay in 2002 and 2003. he made money on options that bested. the survey notes cisco shareholder underperformed its―shares underperformed peers but company spokeswoman points out that cisco’s market cap has risen from $10 billion to more than $110 billion in the past decade. the second biggest raise went to rich fairbank who made almost 83,000% more. mac crawford got the third biggest raise, more than 4,000 percent. crawford got $70 million from exercising stock options. paul hodgson says options figure heavily in the top 10 pay increases.
>> many of the largest increases were driven by stock option profits with c.e.o.’s exercising stock options they’ve held for the last four or five years and these are left overs from sort of the prenew age in corporate governance and economicative compensation. however, i’m not predicting a slowdown yet.
>> that may surprise some given how much money the highest paid c.e.o.’s took home last year. yahoo’s c.e.o. socked away almost $231 million, more than any other s&p 500 c.e.o. unitedhealth group’s william mcguire got the second fattest paycheck, $125 million. the median base salary of c.e.o.’s rose 4.1% among the survey group, that’s double the pace of u.s. wages overall. back to you, lori.
>> thank you, margaret. someone somewhere had a big pay day, too. they are sharing it with yale university school of music. the school says an anonymous donor has given it
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Listen Focus: Holiday shopping season
>> welcome back. imclone lost a fifth of its market value today after competitor to the company’s cancer drug erbitux showed promise in laboratory testing. imclone tried to downplay the news saying just 9% of erbitux sales would be lost to the new drug. take a look at a six-month chart of imclone to see how steep today’s drop is. the stock fell to a 1 1/2-year low. the erbitux competitor made by amgen and abgenix who say it showed promise in late stage testing. abgenix shares were up 38% today. october sales came in better than analysts expected for many of the major u.s. retailers. suzanne o’halloran has more on the numbers and what it means for the holiday shopping season. suzanne?
>> thanks very much, lori. october was the best month for u.s. retailers since june. a drop in gas prices combined with colder weather boosted demand for clothes. that helped lift sales by 4.4% according to the international council of shopping centers. that’s better than a year ago and better than what analysts were predicting.
>> the analysts had expectations too low. everyone was too busy planning the consumer’s funeral to realize they were out spending and not dead. and beyond that you had the fact that there have been a lot more home refinancings. than anyone expected. and gas prices have dropped significantly.
>> wal-mart, target, jcpenney and nordstrom, all beat expectations. retailers catering to teens such as abercrombie, have blowout numbers, up 31%. ditto for american eagle sales. up 17%. saks and costco posted strong results. retail investors were pleased today. they were looking for a report like this. shares of jcpenney, abercrombie and nordstrom all gaining 2%. jcpenney also listed its third quarter profit forecast eight cents. october was not a good month for everyone, however. federated, owner of bloogedails and macy’s, said―of bloomingdale’s and macy’s, said sales dropped. sales at dollartree and dollar general were weak as well.
>> some of the discounters that are not great discounters, some of the dollar type stores, are especially weak. they don’t have quite the allure that like target and wal-mart would have. in terms of selection.
>> and it may seem early but many retailers have already started rolling out the holiday items. wal-mart has already unveiled its holiday campaign. the earliest ever. sales this season, which represents a fifth of their annual sales are expected to rise by as much as 3.5%. and industry watchers say it should be a promotional one for consumers. lori, analysts say the retailers will have to work hard to get those sales numbers and inflation is the wild card. just today, fed chairman alan greenspan saying he’s even uncertain about where inflation is heading. back to you.
>> suzanne, thank you. wile we’re on the subject of retail, c.v.s. had a big day. shares of the drugstore chain were up 8%. after c.v.s. reassured investors with its forecast. the stock had taken a hit over the last month or so. c.v.s. expects revenue to rise 22 -- 20% to 22% this year and some of that top-line growth will come from its existing locations. same store sales could rise as much as 8%. thanks to stronger demand for generic drugs. c.v.s. also maintained its 2005 earnings estimates. analysts have a median forecast calling for profits of $1.37 a share. so if c.v.s. makes those numbers, profit would rise 33% from last year. talk about crashing in and the rise in oil prices, we’ll tell you about one stock market that rose nearly 4% today. the world’s biggest mover. and plus world and national news. all when we come back.
