Market briefing---Matt (slow)
NYSE ---Bob (fast)
Nasdaq ---Greg (slow)
Expansion of corporate spending---Su (fast)
>> welcome to “world financial report.” i’m matt nesto. let’s get right to those numbers that we said right at the top of the hour―there you go, folks―the day’s numbers not nearly as impressive as the weekly ones, the dow up .3% here, the s&p and the nasdaq―the s&p really almost unchanged on the day, half a point there, folks. five points for the nasdaq. that works out to a quarter of a percent. the volume for the new york stock exchange, above the 1.3 billion average. 14% above average for you number types at home. nasdaq volume there 1.8. that is also a pretty strong number for the nasdaq as well. wilshire 5,000 you see little changed on the day. three points down. if we look at the bond market you’re going to see the 10- and five-year note deadlining down, haven’t seen that in long, the big picture the weekly story for bonds loving that low inflation figure earlier in the week adding to their best week we’ve seen―or rather their second week of gains. moving along, here, bob bowdon passporting down at the big board―pinch-hitting for a wrap-up.
>> we closed out a winning week with a session that was just barely higher. i wanted to point out kawasaki s. &g cowan trader. the dow closed at a 19-month high, the fourth day in a row we hit another 19-month high. some investors saying it’s time to wait and see if the earnings reports are good enough to justify the gains of the last four weeks. what hasn’t changed is the dow jones industrials sill in the lead outperforming the s&p and the nasdaq as investors moving into those stocks that will do well as the economy―the economic recovery matures. one of those, alcoa. morgan stanley upgraded the stock to a weighting of overweight today. aluminum prices could rise over the next three years according to the firm, in part because of strong demand from china. alcoa shares up 2.5%. morgan stanley also raised its earnings estimate for 2004, forecasting profit growth of 68% for alco―for alcoa. turk to―turning to ibm, it did not participate in the dow gains the last two days but rallied today almost a half% on the day, ibm’s chip business will lose less money and it’s booking more service contracts, especially overseas.
>> devon rising also for the week. rising for the day. and closing today at a pook high.
>> bob, thank you very much. moving on here we did have a story acrossing the wires. oracle said it’s going to extend its hostile take-over bid for peoplesoft to february 13th. that original offer was set to expire december 31st. interestingly, oracle shares were down in regular trade today about 24 cents. that works out to about 1.8%, and were pretty much where you would expect it to be in the extended hours as well, at 13.09, same exact action in the after-hours so the trade isn’t the story, the story is the extension of that bid. speaking of four-letter stocks let’s go down to the land of all the four-letter stocks and the man who has been following them here today our second pinch-hitter down at the nasdaq marketsite, mr. greg miles.
>> in the world of four-letter stocks , the nasdaq marketplace on times square, the nasdaq ended down about .3%, not all that much but still the nasdaq competence is down 2% thus far in the―the nasdaq competence
>> if you look at the internals of the nasdaq 100 it shows you weakness. today 73 stocks in the nasdaq 100 were down in daily trading, 27 stocks up. a big contrast when you look at the whole year where virtually every stock in the nasdaq 100 is up for the year. if you talk to investors such as george jacobsen, chief investment officer at trevor stewart burton and jacobsen talking about the tech stocks and the overall market he said the market has risen too far, too fast, we need a digestion period to take place at the first part of the year. despite that there were a number of stocks that did nicely in daily trading. red hat, the distributor of lin, operating systems up 22% -- the distributor of lin,, -- the distributor of lin, -- of linux operating systems.
>> activision down 3-4% in daily trading, no special reason for that other than valuation, it’s traded at 40 times earnings, up 106% for the year. paychecks fell 6% -- paychex fell 6%. wave systems the target of an s.e.c. probe. back to you, matt.
>> stocks are up 23% year to date, all year long we have been hearing the question when is the corporate community going to kick in with their buying and their confidence like we’ve seen the consumers? now there appear to be signs that maybe corporate investment may finally be on the rise, companies including u.p.s. and gap are boosting their capital expenditures after a two-year-long dry spell. su keenan joins us.
>> economists say this expansion in corporate spending could mark a new stage in the economic rebound. two examples for you, u.p.s. plans to shell out $2.2 billion next year on aircraft and other equipment. and gap will set aside half a billion to open and remodel stores. that’s more than double what the companies spent last year. gap the largest u.s. clothing retailer plans to set aside money so it can open stores and remodel ones it already has. in the words of ethan harris, chief economist at lehman brothers we’re at a point where firms are showing they are ready to spend. he says the growth story is filtering into the mindset of corporate america. united parcel―it had seen capital spending drop to $1.7 billion, last year. this year, it spent $2 billion. back in may federal reserve chairman alan greenspan said this kind of pickup in capital spending was the essential question facing the economy. business investments account for 12% of the $11 trillion u.s. economy and the benefits spread by lifting employment, productivity and profits. the chief operating officer of a.t.i. technology, this is their stock chart this year, says he’s starting to feel some of those benefits. a.t.i. is the second biggest maker of computer graphics chips and just reported a six-fold increase in first quarter profit after sales of makers to first quarter computers rose.
>> we’re seeing some of that in the q4 it tends to be more of a consumer spend so it’s harder to extract where they’re going to go. everybody is anxious about what january and february really pan out for in corporate spending.
>> shares of his company are up more than 200%. worth noting, his company expects a slight slow-down in january. loew’s, the―lowe’s, the second largest hardware chain. the economists say the expansion in corporate spending that is now under way is something to watch closely. matt.
>> su keenan, thanks a lot. we’re going to talk to a money manager who is selling technology and bullish on industrials and energy.
