Saddam Hussein's banned weapons --- Ron (slow)
>> coalition forces and their hunt for saddam hussein’s banned weapons. that story and more in world news.
>> good morning, cathy. the white house says the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in iraq came up empty so it is now over. scott mclellan says there’s no longer an active search for chemical, biological or nuclear arms. george w. bush used the threat of iraq’s banned weapons as a reason to go to war. the chief u.s. weapons hunter is going to deliver his final report on the search next month. in september it was reported that saddam hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, nor the ability to make them. bush insists that the invasion of iraq was justified. he has appointed a panel to investigate why the intelligence about iraq’s weapons was wrong. the indonesian government is reasserting control over foreign troops, relief workers and journalists in areas devastated by the sue thauply. marines scaled back plans to send hundreds of troops ashore. the marines have agreed not to carry guns while on indonesian soil. most of the troops return to ship stations off the coast after each day’s operation. aid workers have been ordered to declare travel plans or face expulsion from aceh. this underscores sense activities to having foreign military forces operating there even if a humanitarian effort. they come amid warnings from the indonesian military that areas of aceh province may not be safe for aid workers. the world’s wealthiest nations are finalizing plans now to temporarily forgive billions of dollars owed by the asian countries devastated by the tsunami. a french official says a proposed moratorium on debt repayment is endorsed by the 19 creditor nations that make up the paris club. details are still being worked out but the goal is to give the asian countries breathing space while they recover from the disaster. cathy, the latest look at world news. another update coming up in about an hour. back to you.
>> i’ll see you then. thanks, ron. back to business, motorola says its president has resigned. the announcement comes 13 months after he was passed over for the c.e.o. position. the world’s second largest mobile phone maker says he won’t be replaced until after he leaves on january 31. the company says the heads of the company’s four division also report directly to the chief executive officer, ed zander. after the c.e.o. said in september 2003 that he would% -presign. oil rises to a six-week high after crude oil stockpiles fell% -pmore than expected. inventories dropped 3 million% pbarrels to 289 million. steel demand growth may slow from a record over the next two years. the organization for economic cooperation and development says industrialized economies are slowing, reducing demand for the metal. the metal rose 5% this year and 3.5% in 2006. the group expects economic growth for the 30 members to average 2.9% less than the forecast made six months ago. members do not include faster growing india, china or brazil. pospo is the world’s most profitable steel maker and benefits from rising prices. analysts expect fourth quarter net income more than doubled to $961 million. rising profits give posco money to expand overseas. posco reports national results this afternoon. tata will probably report rising profits. that after more orders were placed with the india number one software maker. expected it rose 33% in the three months ended in december. that’s $140 million. tata reports third quarter results this afternoon. two asian central banks meet today to set interest rates in south korea. policymaker also probably keep borrowing costs at a record low to revise spending―revive spending in asia’s number four economy. a decision is due at 11:00 a.m. in seoul. economists surveyed by bloomberg expect policymakers will leave the key interest rate at 12-year lows in the philippines. the peso is slowing filipino inflation. expect a decision this afternoon in manila. australia probablyed a jobs for a fourth straight month az ricing profits led companies to hire. expected payrolls grew by 3,500 last month after employers pwaosd jobs by 24,000 in november. the increase may keep australia’s jobless rate near a 28-year low of 5.2%. australia reports employment figures at 11:30 this morning in sydney. coming up, the dollar drops by the most in five weeks against the euro. we’ll ask a strategist in san francisco if he expects further dollar weakness in coming weeks.
在线播报
Listen Market briefing --- Cathy (fast)
Weak dollar --- John Snow (slow)
Outlook and earnings --- Su (fast)
Australian market --- David (slow)
welcome to “ live” from hong kong. i’m catherine yang. the u.s. trade deficit balloons to a record. commerce secretary donald etches addresses concerns. we’ll have more in 50 minutes. investors ignore reports for a stronger dollar. we talk to a currency strategist live in 20 minutes. shares of cosco rise ahead of earnings from south korea’s largest steel maker. we preview the results of posco. the dollar lower in new york. the dollar posted its biggest loss in five weeks versus the euro and dropped back into the 102 range. you are looking at live market quotes. the kwraoro at 1.3254. the yen at 102.45 to the dollar. the u.s. trade gap widened. a bigger than expected 7.7% to $60.3 billion in november, biggest monthly deficit on record. the deficit with china accounted for more than a quarter of total deficit. the u.s. trade gap with the european union and japan grew in november despite dollar’s drop last year. treasury secretary john snow says he is counting on those countries an not the weak dollar to help close the gap.
>> we’re growing faster than our trading partners. whenever you grow faster than your trading partners, you create more disposable income and part of that disposable income that we’re creating is being used to buy goods and services from our trading partners. by the same token, our trading partners growing more slowly are generating less disposable income and are not buying as much from us as they would if they’d get their economies growing faster.
>> and taking a look at other deficit. narrowed in december to $3.4 billion. still, that’s bigger than economists surveyed by bloomberg. more on apple computer earnings. shares surge more than 13% in extended trading in the u.s. the company says first quarter profit more than quadruple thanks to record sales of its ipod digital music player. su keenan breaks down the earnings and outlook. what’s the latest, su?
>> the latest is the stock just began trading and we’re seeing it jump $7 to an all-time high. the latest trade, 72.42 for apple. it hasn’t traded above $72 since march of 2000. let’s talk about what is happening here. apple’s latest earnings report easily beat the most optimistic of analyst forecasts. all of this coming as c.e.o. steve jobs makes ipod not just a priority for the company but the must have item for many young adults. the ipod is now apple’s fastest growing product with the company saying today 4.6 million units were shipped during this past quarter. analysts say it is play ago big role in the reports. let’s look at numbers. net income rose $295 million or 70 cents a share that. from $63 million or 17 cents a year earlier. sales topped well over 60% to $3.49 billion. that compares with just over $2 billion in sales this time last year.% pand it compares with a $3.18 or $3.2 billion expected by the 19en lists surveyed by thomson financial. the popularity of the ipod is translating into higher sales of apple’s macintosh personal computers. sales of the imacs surged to 460,000 units shiped in the quarter, roughly an increase of 26%. now just yesterday apple’s c.e.o. unveiled a new version of the ipod to capitalize on its popularity. this is the lower cost ipod shuffle as it is called. runs for $99. jobs also introduced the new mac mini, lowest priced computer in the company’s history. munder capital’s analyst is concerned that this could shrink apple’s operating margin but he says the payoff could be worth while.
>> i think there’s an opportunity for them to make an investment here at low end of the market and to turn that market up into perhaps buying other a.m. products where they’ll be more profitable.
>> as for apple’s stock, it tripleded in the past year making it the 17 s&p 500’s best performer in 2004. analysts, at least before today, were divided on the stock. over half rated a hold, mainly on the concern that the stock was too expensive. harris & company’s analyst expected the rally to continue. she’s looking good at this hour saying the music products of the ipod are just the beginning.
>> i think there’s still a lot of momentum here.
>> you think that apple is really addressed and there’s several more to come down the pike. we view digital media as becoming increasingly important in consumers’ lives as more content becomes digital. we are used to digital photos, digital music. we’ll become accustomed to making our own d.v.d.’s, etc. apple is right there providing consumers the tools they need to create, manage, share.
>> again, she rates apple a buy. the conference call taking place that the hour. and one thing that appears clear with the stock trading 13% higher in extended trading is that this will definitely be a driver for tech stocks going into thursday’s trading.% pstay tuned.
>>> digital media gadgets are getting smaller. thanks. u.s. stocks rose before the release of apple’s earnings. the dow and nasdaq gained .6%. s&p rose .4%. intel boosted semiconducter shares after it said yesterday sales this quarter will beat forecasts. treasuries were little changed after the government auctioned off $15 billion of five-year securities. international investors accounted for almost 40% of the bidders, down from 66% in the previous sale. traders now fear foreign investors may be avoiding the u.s. debt market . today’s auction is the first of eight this month and next. $10 billion of 10-year securities will go on sale tomorrow. asian stocks rise in u.s. trading. investors are optimistic oil prices at six-week highs will boost profits at cnooc and petrochina. futures point to a mixed start for futures. the tokyo stock exchange opens in less than two hours. bank of australia’s a.d.r. is up .7%. s.p.i. 200 futures up .3%. let’s go for more in sydney. what are investors looking at in australia before the open?
>> first of all we might see gains in mining stocks. b.h.p. and rio tinto. we had crude rising to a six- week high. also rio tinto could be higher. a big copper producer in australia. we had an increase in the copper price in overnight trading as well. the third reason we might see gapes there is both of the mining stocks were raised to buy from hold by the broker in the u.k. which cited confidence about robust earnings when they reported in february and also the fact that they’ll probably have some pretty positive outlooks when they report those earnings. so have a look out for mining stocks. the big story of the day could possibly be network 10. this is one of australia’s three commercial television networks. there was an―a report in the australian newspaper that said john fairfax holdings, publisher of the “sydney morning herald” may be interested in buying a $1 billion stake. back to you.
>> thanks for that, david. and coming right up, the paris club of creditor nations agrees to allow countries hit by the tsunamis to suspend repayment that. story and more world news after the break.
