NYSE--- Julie (fast)
Asia pacific markets--- Shoby (fast)
>> peoplesoft rejects oracle’s hostile takeover attempt for a fifth time. the company’s board called the latest $8.8 billion offer inadequate saying it substantially undervalues peoplesoft. oracle issued a statement just before peoplesoft announcement saying the current $24 a share offer will be the best and final offer. and it will expire november 19. peoplesoft also announced today it expects fourth-quarter earnings will beat current thomson financial estimate, but revenue might come in below the expectations. shares of banks and insurers gave a boost to stocks today, but markets were pushed down by technology shares. taking a look at the benchmark and how they closed. the s&p 500 down .21%. the dow jones little changed. nasdaq down by .4%. bloomberg’s julie hyman reports from the new york stock exchange.
>> stocks closed mixed after today’s federal reserve decision, even though it was widely expected. we did see a bounce up in the markets right after the decision came out, but really then they came down to close mixed. traders were saying that was partly because oil closed higher and the recent runup we have had in the s&p 500. interestingly enough, however, interest rate-sensitive stocks did do well in today’s session. insurers climbing after allstate announced a stock buyback. banking stocks doing well and real estate stocks strong in today’s session. we earlier spoke to bob altsberg, chief economist with amsouth bank, who said the hike in the fed funds rate will caused increased borrowing by customer, consumer, and businesses as folks rush in to get loans before interest rates actually rise more. so that could be some of the reason we saw those stocks gain today. also, bank of america closing in a record high today. incidentally, after it released earnings on october 14 t c.f.o. said the company would be positioning its balance sheet so interest rate increases would not be a negative factor. it looks like some of these companies are trying to hedge against the eventualty of higher interest rates. motorola also a big gainer in today’s session. of course, not related to interest rate increases. the company said it expects very strong handset sales in the the current quarter, so getting a bump off that. also a split trade in a couple of drug makers today. merck gaining in today’s session, 1.6%. traders were telling me it was rebounding. still down 46% since it pulled vioxx off the market . pfizer declining after a story in the “new york times” pointed to a study that highlighted risks in the beckstra painkiller. pfizer for its part says that study on bextra draws unsubstantiated conclusion on the affects. semiconductors falling today after cisco said sells were slowing in the current quarter. semiconductor makers provide cisco with many of the supplies. i’m julie hyman, bloomberg news, at the new york stock exchange.
>> bloomberg’s shobi periera is in tokyo. soft jbjoon bank is attracting new subscribers to yahoo and one way is offering video games and television program access through the internet. a manager of $2.1 billion in tokyo says the business expansion strategy has really paid off and is headed in the right direction. that’s going to be a threat to n.t.t. and n.t.t. also announced earnings after the market closed-here is how it is dealing with the competition. japan’s largest phone company cut annual forecast for spending and sales as they try to reduce costs to fend off competition from kddi and softbank. a drop in spending may hinder the plan to upgrade fixed line services and boost revenue from more profitable broadband internet connections. first half profit more than doubled as it sold more plastic injection molding machines at sumitomo. they raised the profit forecast by 33%. so far it’s up 32%, outperforming the machinery indexes 9% for the same period. the earnings were bolstered by stronger demand nor plastic injection molding machines used to make d.v.d.’s and cellular phones as the market for digital consumer products grows. among technology stocks, like at the world’s largest makerer of videoset recorders said net income rose 28% more than forecast. and for the full year, they expect net income to come in less than its own forecast. that’s all for now, cathy. back to you.
>> more earnings coming your way. thanks for that, shoby. the european union plan to impose tariff of more than $135 million on american exports. they are retaliating against a u.s. law that has violation of rules. the world trade organization ruled in august that the e.u., japan, and six other countries can slap levys on u.s. imports after the u.s. congress failed to repeal the law to distribute import duties to the companies which is known as the bird amendment. coming up l the fed go for another rate insbrees in december? we’ll ask a custodian of $1.1 trillion in assets next.
在线播报
Listen Market briefing --- Catherine (fast)
Crude oil--- Su (fast)
>> good morning and welcome to “ live” from hong kong. i’m catherine yang. full coverage of the fed’s meeting is coming your way. we’ll have live reaction. plus a currency strategist will tell us what it means for the dollar. and also today, starbucks boosted the quarterly profit 49%. the coffee chain stock closed at a 52-week high. we will be talking to the c.e.o. in about 45 minutes. later, more of the interview from the c.e.o. foreman of beijing. among our guest who is makes ryobi power drills in china. and we will discuss china’s technology industry. the dollar posted the biggest gain against the yen in six months and rebounds from a record low against the dollar. the dollar surged early versus the yen on speculation the bank of japan might sell the yen to weaken the currency. it added to the gains after the federal reserve’s decision to lift interest rate and leave the door open to more rate increases. the yen also weakened against the euro, trading 138 yen to the euro for the first time in eight months. the dollar plunged against the euro, surpassing $1.30 per euro. the dollar rebounded from a new low and strengthened further after the fed’s statement of plans to move interest rates higher at a measured pace. the u.s. raises the benchmark by a quarter point. not united in what the fed might say in the policy statement. they kept to the reconsistent plan saying the pace of future rate increase will be “measured.” former atlanta president bill ford says there is a high possibility the fed will increase rates again at the next meeting.
>> i still feel in light of that statement, wills a better than even chance they go again in december assuming that the next employment report which comes december 3 is reasonably robust one, and that we don’t see any price pressures changing dramatically or a dramatic change in oil prices.
>> this is the fed’s fourth increase this year which would suggest central bankers are confident the u.s. economy will continue growing despite higher oil prices. u.s. stocks didn’t react much of the fed decision to increase interest rates. the dow and the s&p 500 were unchanged and the nasdaq rose almost half a percent. the 3% rise in oil prices weighing on wall street. cisco shares fell after the chief executive said sales growth will slow this quarter. the bank of asia’s a.d.r. index fell 1.37%. and u.s. treasuries fell after the fed raised the benchmark interest rate. the results, though, of a government auction selling $14 billion of new 10-year notes. the treasury department delays next week’s auction of four-week bills as it waits for congress to raise the nation’s ceiling. the total national debt reached a record $38.7 billion and allows an act of congress to allow more borough. the news came as the government reported the budget deficit narrowed last month, down 17% from the same time last year. the u.s. trade deficit narrowed as well, drop 3g.7% in september. declining prices of oil in september helped shrink the trade gap. still t trade deficit with china grew .8% to a record $15.5 billion. the new york crude oil futures rallied for the first time this week on concern that the supplies won’t meet winter demand. a government showed the eighth straight weekly drop including heating oil and diesel. this raises concerns that supplies will not be enough to meet winter demand. su keenan has detail.
>> cathy, analysts and investors expected to see the latest u.s. energy department report on nation’s oil supplies ease winter supply concerns. it did the opposite. the distillate fuels number was the focus of the report and stockpiles of distillate fuels fell by 137,000 barrels. analysts surveyed by bloomberg had predicted we would see the first gains in eight weeks for home heating oil and diesel fuels.
>> the all-important winter fuels aren’t building. we’re seeing pressure and increases in demand on jet fuel and obviously this time of year we’re seing the first bit of cold weather, so seeing some pressure on heating oil in terms of demand as well. so the market got disappointed. we see the inventories build and we are seing a bit of a reaction. i think it will be temporary.
>> well t market ‘s disappointment was played in a 3% gain for crude oil which is the biggest one-day gain in eight weeks. killduff, a former bull turned bear, says oil futures may drop to between $40 and $42 a barrel by year’s end and this confirms his view, he says, because it shows u.s. stockpiles of crude jumped 1.9 million barrels last week. that is shy of analysts expectations and refineries boosted the utility i willization to more than 90% of capacity. that is first time that’s happened since hurricane ivan hit the gulf of mexico. that said, a.g. edwards bill o’grady predicts oil and home heating prices continue to rise.
>> the heating oil situation is really n my opinion, pretty critical. and really at this point t only thing you have keeping you from significantly higher heating oil prices would be weather. so again f the weather is mild, we might dodge this bullet.
>> well, o’grady is predicting oil will return to record prices above $55 a barrel. in other words, not dodging the bullet. in his view, a short-term bet on oil prices is now a bet on the weather here in the u.s. a cold blast of air is already hitting the north eastern part of the country, which uses 80% of the nation’s home heating oil. according to current forecasts, demand will be 15% above normal during the next seven days. heating oil for december delivery rose 4% to just under $140 a gallon. cathy, back to you.
>> a big variable. thankses for that, su. iraqi and u.s. forces say they are now in control of at least 70% of insurgent stronghold of fallujah. the u.s.-led force pushed into the center of fallujah capturing strategic positions, conducting searches, and fending off fire from insurgents. military officials say the mayor’s office and the main east-west road are now in their hands. but they say there is still areas of resistance and even in places already captured by the coalition. iraqi prime minister allawi gave the authorization for the military operation on november 8 to bring faurge under government control before national elections set for january. the prime minister’s office sayings several insurgent groups in fallujah have approached a government in the past day to cooperate and surrender. elsewhere in iraq a spokesman for prime minister allawi says two of his relatives have been kidnapped from their baghdad home. the spokesman said the kidnapped victims are a 75-year-old cousin and an aunt’s daughter-in-law. the group is threatening to kill them in 48 hours if the iraqi government doesn’t release all prisoners jailed in iraq and halt the u.s.-led assault against fallujah. islamic extremists may be threatening attacks in japan. extremists are threatening japan because of the support for the u.s. in iraq. kyodo says it’s written an islamic website of known terrorist. it says they are there for humanitarian purposes. australia’s economy probably added jobs for a second month in october as rising profits encouraged companies to hire workers. economists we surveyed estimate employment rose by 20,000. they report payroll figures at 11:30 a.m. today in sydney. the unemployment rate in asia’s number three economy probably rose as weak customer spending made companies reluctant to hire. they hold the policy meeting as well today. economists we surveyed suspect the bank of career ya will leave rates steady for the third straight month at the bank of korea. economists we polled forecast production rose 8% from a year ago with a slower demand for motorbike, car, and homes. the figures are due at 2:30 in new delhi. and expect those figures at 2:00 p.m. today in tokyo. after the break, peoplesoft shares decline after the software maker rejects oracle’s $8.8 billion takeover bid. you’re watching “ live.”
