Market briefing --- Matt (slow)
Europe's markets --- Matt (slow)
Asian markets
>> welcome back to “world financial report.” i’m matt nesto. financial markets closed in the u.s. on friday for the funeral of former president ronald reagan. but all three major stock market indecks rose for the shortened trading week. here’s a look at their performance. the dow rising 1.6%. s&p 500 up just over 1%. nasdaq 1.1% higher. well, the u.s. markets closed friday. other global markets were opened for trading. here’s a look at how some of those markets fared. london’s ftse 100 fell slightly. germany’s dax slightly lower whaoeult nikkei is down as well. for the week, the ft-se and dax both gained more than 1% and the nikkei rose about 4%. for more on trading in europe’s markets , matt miller filed this report from our london bureau.
>> mergers and acquisition marked the trade in europe today with two major transactions involving french companies. first the owner of red roof inns and fourth biggest hotel owner in the world, paris-based accor, agreed to buy a 29% stake of club med. the purchase will join club med’s 95 famous holiday resort villages and two yachts with accor’s 4,000 hotels worldwide. accor selling convertible bonds to fun the purchase. shares fell 4.7% on the cac while club med shares rose 8.2%. another french company, a speciality chemicals maker rhodia, agreed to sell its north american phosphates unit. the unit has more than 1,000 employees and and had 2003 sales of half a billion dollars. rhodia shares rose to 2.7% in paris. moving south now to italy. the largest airline there, alitalia may need to consider liquidation because it cannot stem widening losses. that according to deloitte. they refuse to certify the 2003 figures unless the rome-based% -pairline takes adequate measures to restore profitability. that’s a direct quote. without ruling out insol srepb they’re seeking emergency financing, possibly from the government. shares fell 3.5% in milan. european markets closed down led by chip-related shares. pan european indexes gave up the first losss in eight days. dow jones stocks 50 finished up almost 1.5%. ft-se, cac and dax made moderate gains for the week while the dax gained more than 1%, though they all closed down slightly today. europe’s two largest chip makers s.t. micro and infineon -- fell after u.b.s. advised investors to trim holdings of semiconducter shares. they cut their rating from overweight to neutral. deutsche bank’s analyst got bearish on chips saying industry growth will slow in the second half because of higher inventories. that’s all from london. back to you in new york.
>> well, from london we go off to asia where the bank of japan will probably refrain from pumping extra cash in to the economy as an accelerating recovery hasn’t ended a six-year bout of deflation. here’s more on the story as well as a preview of the asian economic business events.
>> tkopg the business headlines in the coming week, a report by a researcher may show tokyo bankruptcy falling. fewer companies are going under. the country’s central bank begin as two-day meeting on monday taer policy on monday. economists surveyed by bloomberg say the bank of japan will probably refrain from pumping extra cash into the world’s second biggest economy for a fourth month. the governor and his colleagues will likely decide to leave the upper limit of the target of 5% and keep interest rates at almost zero. in hong kong, jobless figure force may are out unemployment probably reached an 18-month low as a pickup in the economy prompts companies to expand. sliding unemployment is helping to boost consumer confidence in a city where retail sales last year slumped to an 11-year low. the philippine jobless rate probably fell in the three phobts ending april 30. a bumper harvest of agricultural produce and pickup in construction spurred hiring across the nation. the country’s unemployment rate is currently the highest in asia. malaysian consumer prices probably rose at a faster pace in may. the government raised gasoline prices by 1.5% to reduce its fuel subsidies. new zealand retail sales probably fell in april. the country’s central bank raised interest rates for a third time this year to ward off inflation. economists surveyed by bloomberg say retail sales likely fell .9% for march. economists say new zealand’s pace of retail sales will slow this year as the housing market and the pace of immigration declines, reducing demand for homes, cars, household appliances and furniture. the reserve bank of new zealand increased the benchmark interest rate in january, april and this month and said further increase this is year look likely as inflation accelerates to a four- year high. that’s a look ahead at the new week in asia pacific region. back to you.
>> and onward we go, folks. our next guest will give us some tips on how to invest in inflationary environment. jon noonan of appleton will talk taos about tips, treasury inflation protected securities. you have heard a lot about them. we’ll get the details when we return.
