Market briefing --- Lane (medium)
NYSE --- Julie (slow)
Google --- Su (fast)
>> welcome to “world financial report,” i’m matt nesto. there are more signs that the economy could slow down. the trade deficit ballooned to a new record in june and came in much higher than economists had been expecting. treasury secretary john snowe says slowing growth around the world has reduced demanled for american made goods. lehman brothers senior economist joseph lombadi called the trade report shockingly dismal saying it poses some significant wore riss for the economic outlook. officially t trade deficit slumped or ballooned to $55.8 billion as imports of crude oil surged slowing grothe of demand in europe, demand for exports there. the u.s. exports, i should say, the g.a.f. in goods and services follows a 46.9 billion shortfall in may. on the inflation, the wholesale prices held closer than expected. it’s up .1% in july, held back by cheaper cars and a big drop in food prices. but if you back out food and energy price t core rate also inching up just .1%. consumer confidence report showed it fell for the first time in three months in august. higher oil prirkse again, the culprit, as well as slower job creation, both weighing on the university of michigan’s monthly sentiment index pushing it to 94 instead of the increase that economists had been expecting. the price of oil above $46 a barrel in new york trade today. venezuela, among many concerns. the south american country can be holding a referendum sunday on president hugo shavezz -- oil outport exports and revenue were slashed last year because of a nationwide strike designed to force him from office, plus fighting in iraq as well as the ongoing situation in russia with yukos and their battle may also limit oil supply. you see, the 2.4% increase in oil today. the survey done by bloomberg traders and analyst show crude oil futures will probably rise again next week as well as continued supply concerns. 28 of 49 respondents predicted that the rally will continue. 10 expect prices to fall. and 11 say oil futures could be little changed. last week―replies were split on whether prices would rise or drop. they turn tout be wrong and the price is up 6% this week. you can see, up almost 4%, the price of gasoline today -- heating oil, 2% higher than natural gas also about 1.7% higher today. we’ll talk about the markets . it was little changed come the end of the day for the dow and the s&p. just .10% higher. also, the nasdaq up. a little better. a quarter of a percent higher today. the volume, wow, noticeably light. 1.1 billion shares trading up. but the rising stocks outpacing those on the slide -- 1.3 billion shares done at the nasdaq. again below average. bonds were up following that producer price index data. and the trade deficit. you can see the yield there, 4.23% on a 10-year note. five yielding now at 3.42. and the two-year at 2.45. the only thing not up today, really, was the dollar. the dollar index also down. you bought less yen and the euro and the pound both up against the dollar. it’s a mixed market for the stocks as well. oil stocks gained and inshufereers fell. for more on today’s trading action, julie hyman has this report from the big board.
>> the dow and the s&p little changed for the day as well as for the week. we were looking for the seventh down week in eight for both indices. but they managed to recover a little bit in the day’s sessions and end with a gain on the day. property and casualty insurers did limit the gain. hurricane charley does approach the coast of florida and cost to these insurers could potentially increase from the damages from that storm. some of the decliners, safeco, st. paul travelers, progressive, allstate all falling. another element was the price of oil approach ago record once again. because of that, we saw the energy stocks doing well and giving a lot of support to the market t. energy index one of the best performers in today’s session. some of the best performers, valero, burlington, apache and transocean. the group getting beat up because of cisco and hewlett packard gained in today’s session. i’m talking about the tech hardware index. companies like i.b.m. or lexmark gained. gateway was still declining. adulent technologies, the company had a profit versus a loss a year earlier. sales coming in ahead of forecast. a quick look ahead to next week. 21 s&p 500 reporting, including home depot as well as lowe’s and cisco, the food services company, not the technology company. so we’ll look forward to those next week and bring them to you. back over to you.
>> well, before today, the main question about google’s i.p.o. is whether investors are willing to pay $100 maybe $135 per stock. the owners of the most used internet search engine appeared to have a new concern. that is whether an article in playboy magazine may have opened u.s. securities lots. su keenan has more.
>> another wrink until the much-watched i.p.o. the person familiar with the situation said google’s initial public offering will not be delayed by the s.e.c. because of the playboy interview. google said it may still be vulnerable to lawsuits for shareholders. google could be forced to buy back shares sold if it was deemed to have violated the so-called quiet period. the interview with playboy features the founder -- 32-year-old sergei brand and 31-year-old larry page. the company said in the filing today with the s.e.c., this article may be violate rules as what companies may disclose before they offer a share offering. google said in the filing that it did not believe the interview that was conducted back in april institutes a violation. all of this comes as bidding for google shares began today. google opened the auction at 9:00 a.m. new york time, testing with the investors are willing to pay $108 to $135 a share. in that range, it would value the internet company at more than $30 billion. charles davonis said before what the s.e.c. might do, in the interview, cause a threat to google’s image.
>> my biggest krp is not if the offer gets delayed a few weeks but it’s just a question of brand again. does it hurt the brand image of google that they made a blunder like this. it’s a p.r. issue more than a financial issue.
>> to the financial issue, google’s underwriters may cross the i.p.o. as early as monday. cascade yeah capital michael butler, many investors are reassessing in the i.p.o. because the company has not come out with a clear financial plan as the company.
>> that and the fact that there’s a very short lockup period here. and some other structural issues with the deal have caused some investors to pull it back. in a raging bull market , they would overlook the issues. as the market stumbled here a bit, i think the markets would struggle with the difficulties of this deal.
>> google is offer ago stock at a time when 10 other companies have recently canceled or delayed the i.p.o.’s all in the last six weeks.
>> the google saga. it’s interesting.
>> stay tune.
>> all right, su. thank you. president bush’s tax cuts are helping the rich more than any other americans according to a congressional report. the highest earners will lower the share of national taxes they pay in the next decade to 62.8% from 64.4% in 2001. the tax burden will increase for 80% of americans. taxes are a key issue in the upcoming election. president bush will cut $1.7 trillion in taxes since taking office and wants to make the tax cuts permanent. his challenge, john kerry, says he wants to repeal the taxes for those earning more than $200,000 a year and give more breaks to so-called middle-class families. hurricane charley could cost insurers over $10 billion according to risk management solutions. we’re going to talk to that company’s chief executive, emmitt shaw, up next. woo
