Interview: Nasdaq marketsite
>>ukraine’s opposition leader calls for a national strike after the country’s disputed presidential election. paul gordon has details on that story. paul?
>> cathy, yes, viktor yushchenko and supporters say rail lines and airports should be blocked and schools and universities closed in the ukraine. yushchenko alleges fraud in the election board’s decision that prime minister viktor yanukovich won the presidential election. the authorities will not stop at anything, anything illegal to complete their ultimate goal, a political coup. i want to swear to you that my actions to combat the current regime will be more consistent and powerful.
>> the united states and germany also rejected the results. u.s. secretary of state colin powell warned of consequences for u.s.-ukraine relations if the vote count is not reviewed. gerhard schroeder says there has been massive electoral fraud. the election standoff as u.s. president george w. bush in opposition to russian president vladimir putin. putin spoke out in favor of yanukovich and said the official election results are valid. former central bank governor yushchenko wants closer ties with the european union. prime minister yanukovich wants closer ties with russia. he was picked as candidate by the ukraine’s former president. the united nations says the security council panel should be increased, recommended to be divided into the americas, europe, africa and asia. each group would have six members. the proposals do not dilute the veto power of the five permanent members of the security council, china, france, russia, the u.k. and u.s. the u.n.’s principal policy making body was last expanded in 1963. in the middle east, syria’s president says he’s ready to reopen talks with israel over the golan heights. the press says the united nations envoy met the syrian president in damascus to discuss piece peace in the region. the president reiterated he is willing to go to the table with israel without continues. syrian peace talks with israel collapsed four years ago. that’s world news.
>> thank you, paul. back to business. the nasdaq closes higher led by shares of apple computer. june grasso has that report from the nasdaq marketsite.
>> apple computer was one of the leading gainers by percentage on the nasdaq 100. it led the nasdaq 100 higher today. apple shares have almost tripled this year with the popularity of the ipod. the computer index has been one of the leading economic groups here at the nasdaq today. some of the top advancers there, in addition to apple -- microsoft, yahoo and intel. internet stocks in general have been advancing today on news of google. goldman sachs advised investors to buy the owner of the the world’s most used internet search engine, rating shares of% -the stock outperform in new coverage. the analyst wrote that the company will generate 25% growth in earnings per share from 2006 to 2009. internet stocks higher today in general. yahoo, ask jeeves, ebay, amazon. to the ongoing saga of oracle’s $8.8 billion hostile takeover bid for peoplesoft. a delaware cancery court judge said oracle must submit written briefs as well as peoplesoft and return to court for two days of testimony in december before deciding whether to invalidate peoplesoft’s anti-takeover defense. this comes five days after oracle won the backing of 60% of peoplesoft shareholders, contingent on the removal of the poison pill. some of the stocks leading the nasdaq 100 were education companies including career education, apollo group on news that devry adopted a shareholder rights plan in response to a possible takeover, allowing shareholders to buy shares at half price if 15% of the company is acquired. education stocks tend to advance and decline as a group. i’m june grasso, bloomberg news, at the nasdaq marketsite in times square.
>> after the break, the head of australia’s monopoly wheat exporter discusses its business strategy.
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Listen Interview: Retail forecasting
the f.b.i. investigates a.i.g.’s chief, hank greenberg. a person familiar with the situation says the fed is checking whether he improperly influenced the company’s stock price. u.s. stocks rise the day before thanksgiving. better-than-expected jobless numbers supported the market . u.s. retailers officially kick off the holiday shopping season friday, the day after thanksgiving, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. u.s. stores call it black friday. many of the products on the store shelves are made in asia but prices may not be as low as they were a year ago. for more on the outlook for u.s. retailers during this holiday shopping season, i’m joined by the president of retail forecasting in new jersey. how are sales shaping up for retailers in the holiday shopping season?
>> the holiday shopping season will be fairly decent, from decent to good. certainly a lot better than we anticipated, say, two or three months ago.
>> many of the biggest discounts will be offered the day after thanksgiving, known as black friday, as retailers try to get shoppers into stores early in the season. what sort of sales turnout do you expect?
>> we expect some sales and we expect quite a few sales but not as deep as we saw last year. and there’s good reason for that. when last spring and summer when retailers were building up their inventories, they proceeded cautiously in anticipation of a very grim economic climate towards the end of the year in the united states. this, of course, is now proving to be not the case. as a matter of fact, the labor market , the employment market seems to be very much on the mend and while it is not exactly robust as yet, it is―it does create the perception that jobs are far easier to obtain and far easier to keep than was the case only recently. and that is what will propel a very decent consumer spending pattern.
>> what kind of consumer goods will consumers spend on for holiday presents and which will they cut back on?
>> almost everything related to the home will go very well. consumer electronics will do very well. as a matter of fact, we are already seeing things such as the ipods and plasma tv literally flying out of stores. and very upscale stores will also do very well simply because the customers who buy in those stores have decent―fairly decent incomes and are prepared to spend money. you know, we have to keep one thing in mind and that is, in retailing and consumer spending, everything is driven by one thing and that is what we call a four-letter word, jobs. when jobs are perceived to be plentiful, consumers are willing to spend. and jobs are now perceived to be more plentiful than they have been in a long time. so this augers very well for the shopping season this year.
>> is it still likely that retailers will have to resort to clearance sales near the end of the holiday season to move unsold goods?
>> very unlikely, although there is always something left over after the holidays but i think this time around, if i had to give advice to a consumer, today, i would say, when you see that sale, go and you like the product, go and buy it because if you wait for another sale, you’ll come back next week and it will be gone forever.
>> what performance are you seeing among discounters, kurt, compared to those serving the high-end consumer?
>> the discounters will feel the impact of the high price of gasoline and home heating oil. and for them, a dime difference in the gallon will make a major difference. while a dime difference for those people who go to the upscale stores is not going to be very important at all. so we are going to see a divergence between the upscale consumer and the more modest income consumer. but that is inevitable in companies.
>> ok. kurt, we have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining us. kurt barnard of retail forecasting on the phone. let’s get a preview of the start of the u.s. shopping season on friday with greg miles.
>> friday, the shopping day after thanksgiving, will give investors a glimpse of how much american consumers may spend in the holiday season. last year, shoppers spent $7.3 billion, making it the biggest sales day of the year. retailers in recent years have slashed prices and offered eye-popping promotions to lure customers including discounts as much as 70%. analysts say that stores such as wal-mart will have to have a more balanced approach this year. marketing executive says retailers over time have taken potentially one of the best-selling days of the year and turned it into a financial disaster. -- he says hopefully retailers are taking a more rational approach to the day. nordstrom is ordering fewer goods this year to keep inventories low and limit clearance discounts to protect margins. u.s. retail sales at stores open at least a year are projected to increase 3% to 4%. record oil prices could hurt consumers and retailers now facing higher shipping costs.
>> we’ve had a challenging year but at the same time our volume is increasing and we’re getting smarter about where we place the goods. we have a distributed network of a lot of places we ship from and have kept costs down.
>> the good news is that not every retailer is doing away with promotions. j.c. penney will give away free disney snow gloves with each purchase. sears is tripling the number of items on sale compared to last year. thomson financial forecasts this will add up to profit growth of 11% in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago. pretty strong. back to you.
>> here’s how retail stocks closed in the u.s. markets overnight -- general electric agrees to purchase ionics for $1.1 billion in cash to tap rising demand for water treatment in developing countries. the purchase will add salination and filtration to g.e.’s industrial water business. g.e. says it will expand financing for ionics customers in china and the middle east. coming up, ukraine’s opposition leader calls for a national strike after the country’s disputed election.
