Tokyo market --- Gene (slow)
European market --- Mark (slow)
>> Welcome back. asian stocks closed the week% -on the down note with the benchmark indexes lower across the board. exporters paced the decline. gene otani has details from tokyo.
>> japanese stocks fell for a sixth day as oil prices traded near $55 a barrel, renewing concern it will leave consumers with less money to spend on retail products. senior strategist with u.f.j. asset partners management says oil prices are making investors cautious, exporter’s stocks to take a hit on concerns profit growth will slow as demand wanes. samsung electronics shares dropped in south korea, the world’s second biggest computer chipmaker reporting its slowest pace of profit growth in year in the third quarter as semiconductor and flat-screen prices slumped. samsung electronics still had net income rising 46% from last year to $2.4 billion in the three months ended september 30. g.m., daewoo, auto technology expects production and sales will increase 10% next year to over a million units helped by rising exports to europe president the automaker expects to sell nearly 900,000 vehicles by the end of this year. exports are the main source of sales from south korean automakers because of a slump in domestic demand. g.m. daewoo more than doubled exports in the first nine months of the year. china’s car sales rose almost 14 % in september from the previous month as a halt to discounts prompted customers waiting for price cuts to return to showrooms. the gains in sales and production maher ald the end of an earnings slump for volkswagen and other carmakers which had been slashing prices to attract buyers. china’s automakers had been reduceing prices and introducing new models to cope with competition.
>> across the atlantic from new york, the european benchmark stock indexes were mostly lower. mark barton has details with a look ahead.
>> the european earnings season gets into full swing next week. last time around, 68% of the stoxx 600 companies beat estimates. according to market researcher j.c.f. group, third-quarter earnings at companies on the stoxx 600 will increase an average 21%. in france, rexel reports third-quarter sales in september, the world’s biggest distributor of electrical equipment reported a 64% rise in first-half earnings on rising demand and lower costs. chief executive jean charles paul has shut outlets and cut 10% of the work force since january 2002 to cut costs and boost earnings. rexel, each year, provides about 7% of the world’s 100 billion euros of electrical gear and sees demand advance after a two-year slump. in norway, north hydro releases third-quarter earnings. the world’s second largest fuel producer will probably say profit rose, benefiting from crude oil prices rising 44% to average $40.65 a barrel in london. that’s in the third quarter from $28.17 a barrel a year earlier. the company also gained from aluminum prices that jumped 30% on the london mental exchange from a year earlier. turning to economic data and euro zone consumer price data released. economists surveyed by bloomberg expect the annual figure to show an increase of 2.1% in september. month on month, that equates to a rise of .2%. stagnant consumer spending makes it harder for companies to pass higher fuel costs on to consumers. i’m mark barton in london.
>> back to the united states. stryker says third-quarter profits fell 87%. costs related to the acquisition of spine core led to that decline. backing out the costs, stryker’s earnings rose 27% to 33 cents a share, in line with analysts’ expectations. the c.e.o. of the company says he does not see any more deals ahead.
>> i don’t―do not contemplate any deal of the magnitude of the deal we just did. that was one of those once-in-a-life lifetime deals that came along and we felt it filled out a section of our spine program that would really, really help us so we jumped on it.
>> shares of stryker finished the day on friday down $1.84, or more than 4% on the session. billionaire malcolm glazer has set his sights on buying england’s successful football club, manchester united. they call that soccer. we’ll have that news on “money & sports” when we return.
