Crude oil --- Su (fast)
>> expect a cloudy morning with areas of drizzle in sydney, chiefly around the coast, warmer and sunny in the afternoon. the high temperature, 24 degrees celsius. cattle prices rise to a 16-week high in chicago as a suspected case of mad cow disease turned out to be a false alarm. the test result may help u.s. efforts to revive beef exports, which sales collapsed 11 months ago after a cow was found to have the disease. there have been three false alarms since then. cattle prices for february delivery rose 2.4% to their highest since july 28. shares of the biggest u.s. beef producer, tyson foods, rose more than 3%. mcdonald’s shares rose .6%. crude oil rises in new york for the fourth session. the energy department reports u.s. stockpiles of natural gas fell for the second week. su keenan has more details.
>> fimat’s john kilduff predicted the bulls would sweat more than turkeys today as temperatures in new york rose almost 20 degrees above normal. analysts say this is the time of year where weather is more likely to drive oil prices than supply. today’s latest government report on crude oil and home heating oil supplies was seen as bearish.
>> the crude oil is coming on strong, another week of 10 million barrel-a-day plus imports can only spell lower prices.
>> initially in the trading, we did see lower prices. the numbers, the nation’s crude stockpiles rose by 85,000 barrels. the big surprise came in the one million barrel gain in supplies of distillate fuel, including home heating oil and diesel, the first gain in 10 weeks. the report initially caused crude oil to tumble from their highest prices in two weeks before rebounding on concern over the drop in natural gas supplies. in the words of marshall steeves, a serious supply reduction or drop in temperature could put oil back above $50 a barrel in a heartbeat.
>> if we have a cold december, that could be very problematic and bullish for prices and if we get an arctic blast in the northeast, where a lot of home heating oil is consumed, in december, i think we could revisit the highs in heating oil we saw in october.
>> heating oil futures have rallied 76% in the past year and crude oil has rallied 65% in new york trading. back to you.
>> su keenan in new york. a.i.g. agrees to pay $126 million to settle allegations it helped clients inflate profits. the world’s largest insurer says it’s paying an $80 million fine to u.s. regulators. a.i.g. will return $46 million it earned helping p.n.c. financial services remove bad loans from its books. a separate probe by new york attorney general eliot spitzer looks into whether a.i.g. colluded with insurers to win business. a.i.g. shares fell as much as 24% when spitzer announced the probe. time warner may pay as much as half a billed to settle―half a billion dollar to settle probes whether it improperly booked sales to the america online unit. the world’s biggest media company may agree to settlement next month. time warner and regulators still disagree on whether any employees may be accused of wrongdoing. oracle has to return to court with peoplesoft. a judge―delaware chancery court told lawyers representing the companies to prepare for additional trial dates on december 13 and 14. the ruling will determine whether oracle’s chief executive, larry ellison, will be able to proceed with the offer to peoplesoft. peoplesoft has rejected oracle’s offer five somes since june 2003, saying it wants more money. a.i.g. and eight other investors will buy an 18% stake in hong kong’s first real estate investment trust. the city’s government says the nine institutional investors will buy $572 million in shares. hong kong will raise money selling shares in what would be the world’s biggest property trust. the city’s property market has rebounded after an extended slump. air inia plans to buy 50 aircraft from airbus and boeing to expand capacity and fly to more cities. the state-owned airline says it will ask the aircraft makers to make bids. indian carriers are buying planes as rising income and expanding economy is increasing demand for air travel in india. coming up, the dollar falls to a record against the euro for the seventh time this month. we’ll ask a currency strategist in boston whether he thinks the e.c.b. will move to stem the currency depreciation.
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Listen Market briefing --- Cathy (medium)
Tokyo market--- Shobi (slow)
Ukrainian --- Paul (slow)
good morning and welcome to “ live” from hong kong. i’m catherine yang. there’s plenty in store for you in this edition of “ live.” we’ll go live into the top story, the dollar’s tumble. coming up, the holiday shopping season kicks off in the u.s. some say it will be the strongest year of christmas sales in four years. we’ll speak with the head of a u.s. firm that specializes in retail forecasting. australia predicts a smaller wheat harvest this year. we’ll hear from the man in charge of the nation’s wheat monopoly. we’ll wrap up u.s. stock market action with reports from the nyse and nasdaq and set the agenda for asia with live market reports. the dollar fell as far as 1.3184 against the euro, its seventh record low this month. traders say the lack of action from the european central bank continues to push the euro higher against the u.s. currency. one portfolio manager says the e.c.b. remains silent since the bank’s president called the move brutal. the dollar fell against the yen as the bank of japan failed to step into the market . the bank of japan has not sold yen in the market since last month. the falling dollar boosts gold prices. gold futures rose for the third session in the past four, hitting a 16-year high in new york on wednesday. the falling dollar makes the precious metal cheaper for investors who can buy gold with non-dollar currency. on wall street, a government report showed an unexpected fall in the jobless rate last week and the markets rose. jobless claims fell by 12,000 last week to 323,000, the lowest in almost three months. one analyst said that profited the labor market . durable goods orders unexpectedly fell to $196 billion on slowing demand for car and computers. rising cost of oil, fuel and other raw materials may have caused manufacturers to cut orders. u.s. markets will be closed on thursday and reopen on friday for a shortened trading day. asian stocks traded in the u.s. rose led by commodity stocks like cnooc and b.h.p. billiton. the bank of new york a.d.r. index rose .4%. the benchmark two-year note yield rose above 3% for the first time since june 2002. an improved labor market may mean the fed will continue to raise interest rates at a measured pace, which may hold down bond prices. natural gas prices jumped 17% as u.s. supplies dropped more than expected. that raises concerns about possible shortages of the fuel for the winter. it was the biggest rise in gas prices in 21 months. falling prices may increase be demand for oil. earlier in the session, prices declined after reports showed growing stockpiles of crude and heating oil. crude closed at $49.45 in regular trade. japan’s trading surplus probably widened at a slower rate last month as exports cooled. economists surveyed by bloomberg expect japan’s surplus expanded 2.8% in october, less than 1/5 the average rate of expansion. the rising cost of oil makes imports more expensive. japan imports almost all of its oil. japan releases october trade figures this morning. japan stocks start trading 10 minutes after the trade report. shobi pereira is in tokyo with a look at the stocks to watch in japan.
>> u.f.j., let’s start with banks, u.f.j. widened its loss forecast to 750 billion yen or $7.3 billion. the bank is trying to clear bad loans before merging with mitsubishi tokyo next year. u.f.j. has not posted an annual profit since it was formed in 2001. the bank is also the subject of a criminal investigation for hiding bad loans. mitsubishi tokyo yesterday reported a 43% decline in first-half net income and said its bad loans rose by more than 1/4 in three months. both banks announce earnings after the markets close. mitsubishi tokyo’s a.d.r.’s fell .6% overnight in new york. the equity% at societe general asset management says mitsubishi tokyo has to explain how it’s going to improve profitability going forward on the basis of the merger with u.f.j. mitsubishi tokyo wants to buy u.f.j. to expand in osaka, cities outside of tokyo, and reducing bad loans at u.f.j. would allow merger partners to boost its more profitable consumer banking business. the “nihon keizai” says shinsei bank and rakuten securities will ally on online brokerage services. the report says that in january shinsei will allow visitors on its website to open brokerages accounts with rakuten. turning to nissan, amongst the automakers, the “nihon keizai” newspaper reporting that nissan will suspend three of its four domestic factories because the company has difficulty obtaining steel materials. the closure is for five days over the next two weeks and the report says that nippon steel and its other main supplier are unable to increase output. what this means in terms of cars produced is a delay in the production of 25,000 popular vehicles. the report says that nissan will make up the lost production by operating the factories for extra hours after january. that’s how it’s looking for now, cathy. back to you in hong kong.
>> may be worth buying a second-hand car for now. asian commodity stocks rise in u.s. trade. korea’s biggest steel maker, posco, advanced after chinese rival increased steel sheet prices. china’s biggest offshore oil producer, cnooc, also advanced. ukraine’s opposition leader calls for a national strike after the company’s disputed presidential election. paul gordon has more on that in world news. good morning, paul.
>> very good morning to you. viktor yushchenko and supporters say rail lines and airports should be blocked and universities closed in the u.k., alleging fraud in the election board’s decision that prime minister viktor yanukovich won the presidential election. the united states and germany also rejected the results. u.s. secretary of state colin powell warned there would be consequences for u.s.-ukrainian relations if the vote count is not renewed. 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 and prime minister yanukovich wants closer ties with russia. he was picked as the candidate by the former president, kuchma. iran has asked the united nations nuclear watch dog to partially exempt it. iran wants to operate 24 centrifuges for research. iran agreed to suspend all uranium enrichment programs. the international atomic energy agency meets to review the country’s compliance. syria says its ready to―it’s ready to reopen talks with israel over the goal golan heights. the u.n. envoy reiterated he has an outstretched hand to israeli counterparts and is willing to go to the table. syrian peace negotiations with israel collapsed in 2000. that’s it for world news. back to you? the studio.
>> thank you, paul. after the break, cattle prices rise to a 16-week high after the u.s. finds no evidence to support suspicions of the case of mad cow disease. details to come.
