SUSIE GHARIB: Another shocking warning for investors; this time, from Intel. Just after the market closed today, the world's largest computer chip maker warned that its sales will miss its third-quarter goal. Intel said that revenue will rise only 3 to 5 percent from the $8.5 billion that it generated in the second quarter, and that's because of weak demand in Europe. In after-hours trading, the stock fell over $12 to $49. This could set the tone for trading tomorrow.

DAVE POWERS, SR. TECHNOLOGY ANALYST, EDWARD JONES: Intel is seen as a bellwether in the industry, and then people use the company as a gauge of the overall health in the technology sector. So to the extent that Intel is having problems, people are going to look at other companies, specifically in the PC sector, like the box makers. But it also will cause concern with the overall technology market. So I would suspect tomorrow morning that a lot of technology names are going to be selling off pretty sharply.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.


09/20/2000: The Blue Chips See Green Leaving The NASDAQ In The Red

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, even before the Intel news, tech stocks got whacked today. The NASDAQ lost 70 points, but the blue chips pulled out a win. The Dow gained 77. Investors have been worried about earnings, the euro and oil. But as Suzanne Pratt reports, many pros on Wall Street are still bullish.

SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: For most stock investors, so far, 2000 has been a big disappointment. All of the major indexes are in negative territory for the year, and any recent rally attempts have, for the most part, fizzled. A bleak landscape of surging oil prices and a sinking euro are responsible for much of the negativity. And even some Wall Street pros say oil prices, at current levels, have probably become a temporary roadblock for the stock market.

TOM GALVIN, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, DLJ: It is impacting profit margins, which are already being paralyzed by slowing revenues and other higher costs of labor and materials. So I think it is an issue on the profit side of the equation. I don't think it's going to derail our economy. But in a market today which remains very anxiety-prone, energy is certainly at the forefront.

PRATT: Others think the pervasive pessimism over oil prices, a weak euro, and corporate profits won't last. Goldman Sachs' strategist, Abby Joseph Cohen said today in a note to clients, that, "We conclude that the reaction to these [concerns] has been somewhat overdone and that the intermediate and longer-term view remains quite bright." Cohen also reiterated her year-end price target for the S&P 500 of 1575. That's nearly 9 percent above today's close. Other experts make similar bullish forecasts, dismissing concerns about what the euro and energy costs will mean for corporate profits.

ALFRED GOLDMAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, A.G. EDWARDS: We think the overall market is about 10 percent undervalued. We're looking for third-quarter and fourth-quarter earnings to be quite positive. For the year, earnings up about 15 percent; and I don't think investors will ignore that. The outlook for the economy is positive, and the market is deeply oversold. That's a combination that should result in a good market between now and year-end.

PRATT: Wall Street pundits can make all the rosy predictions they want, but if investors don't buy it, and sentiment remains negative, 2000 could prove to be the first down year for the Dow in a decade. Suzanne Pratt, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

09/21/2000: Presidential Hopefuls Argue Over Oil

SUSIE GHARIB: Oil prices dropped today to around $34 a barrel. The presidential candidates turned their focus to oil prices today. Candidate Al Gore proposed tapping strategic oil reserves to ease prices. But as Stephanie Woods reports, that would be a controversial move.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With heating oil storage tanks as a backdrop, democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore called on President Clinton to release the nation's strategic oil reserves. In full campaign style, Gore took a swipe at oil companies, saying they are profiting at the expense of consumers.

VICE PRES. AL GORE, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:And you should never have to depend on the good will of the big oil companies just to heat your home or to drive down the highway.

WOODS: Gore proposes releasing five million barrels at a time out of the 580 million barrel reserve until prices stabilize. Republican presidential nominee, George W. Bush quickly condemned the proposal as an election year ploy.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIALCANDIDATE: The strategic reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices, right before an election. It should not be used for short-term political gain, at the cost of long-term national security.

WOODS: But even within the Clinton administration, tapping oil reserves is controversial. Treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers reportedly wrote in a memo September 13, that doing so was a "major and substantial policy mistake." But in a statement today he said, quote, "…there are a number of approaches for prudent use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that are now on the table, including those that the Vice President proposed that could be appropriate under current circumstances." Energy secretary, Bill Richardson told members of Congress the president is weighing different proposals.

BILL RICHARDSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY: The president is actively considering that right now. At this very moment, a decision is imminent. He may decide not to tap it.

WOODS: Energy expert, Robert Ebel says it's unclear if releasing the reserves will bring down prices. And there's a risk the government could drive prices up when it replenishes the reserves.

ROBERT EBEL, CSIS ENERGY & NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM: Governments love to get involved when there's - with a crisis - and it's been my experience that more often than not, that their involvement tends to expand the crisis.

WOODS: The question the administration must answer now is, whether the market risk of tapping into the reserves outweighs the political risk of doing nothing. Stephanie Woods, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.


09/21/2000:Immigration Via The Internet

SUSIE GHARIB: The nearly insatiable demand for high tech professionals is forcing many American companies to reach beyond U.S. borders for help. But hiring foreign workers can be a long and expensive process. Diane Eastabrook introduces us to one company using the Internet to streamline the job.

DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: While Joy works on a client project for Dunn Systems (DNCC) in Skokie, Illinois, her green card application winds its way through the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Dunn Systems applied for Joy's green card on Visanow.com (ph), a two year old Internet company that streamlines the immigrant application process.

WILLIAM DUNN, PRESIDENT, DUNN SYSTEMS: We were spending quite a bit of time on the paperwork required for the visas internally and so that was taking away time from my people doing other things.

EASTABROOK: Applying to the INS for a visa or green card can be a long, onerous and expensive process for employers. For a flat fee, VisaNow says it can simplify the process by setting up an account where an employer e-mails all necessary information about a foreign worker. VisaNow's staff of lawyers reviews the information and contacts the employer if something is missing. Once everything is in place, VisaNow submits the application to the INS for processing. VisaNow says its service can cut the application process by weeks, cuts down on unnecessary work for human resource professionals and cuts costly legal fees.

ROBERT MELTZER, PRESIDENT, VISANOW.COM: The H.R. professional can give the account number or password to the candidate. They can go in themselves to find out 24 hours a day what the status is of the application and ask as many legal questions as they want without having to talk to the H.R., without the H.R. having to talk to the attorney.

EASTABROOK: Analysts say VisaNow has tapped a very lucrative niche because employers can't find enough American workers to fill the estimated 400,000 high tech jobs now open.

DAVID GROSSMAN, ANALYST, THOMAS WEISEL PARTNERS: If you look out over the next four or five years there probably, on average, will be new demand created for about 100,000 professionals each year.

EASTABROOK: While VisaNow.com can cut the time it takes an employer to gather information for a visa or green card application, the INS is quick to point out an online application won't necessarily cut the time it takes the agency to process and approve it. Diane Eastabrook, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Chicago.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



09/21/2000: Prime Mover: Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder, LoudCloud

SUSIE GHARIB: Loudcloud is thundering into the world of Internet infrastructure with a boom and it's headed up by some of the Internet's most respected leaders. Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley whiz kid who co-founded Netscape and then sold it to AOL, is now the Chairman and Co-Founder of Loudcloud. Loudcloud provides Web hosting and site monitoring for online intensive businesses through its packaged Smart Cloud services. The company got its start only last year and has grown to more than 300 employees. A few of its big name partners include Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HWP) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW). Loudcloud is already expanding in Europe and in October opens offices in London, Paris and Munich. In tonight's prime movers segment, Donald van de Mark of Myprimetime.com asks Andreessen to describe his corporate strategy.

MARC ANDREESSEN, CHAIRMAN & CO-FOUNDER, LOUDCLOUD: We describe ourselves as the software power grid for high growth Internet businesses. And so that means that we basically do all the plumbing, we do all the technology guts and goop that businesses have had to do for themselves up until now, but we just don't think it makes any sense any more than it made sense for companies to have their own electrical power generators a hundred years ago. So it's like the emergency electrical power grid, but in the software industry.

DONALD VAN DE MARK, MYPRIMETIME.COM: One of your goals is to allow e-businesses to launch even faster than they have.

ANDREESSEN: Yeah.

VAN DE MARK: Give us an idea how fast someone can launch an e-business with your help?

ANDREESSEN: To launch a serious Internet business today takes $10 million $20 million or $30 million, it takes six, nine, 12 months, sometimes a year and a half or longer, and we think we can compress that down quite a bit. We think we could take months out of that. How many? We're not sure yet. We'll find out. We think we can also lower the amount of money it takes to do that. We think this really represents a lowering of the barrier to entry for launching a new serious Internet business for both a Fortune 500 company that wants to do, launch a new Internet business, as well as for startups.

VAN DE MARK: Let me change direction. You're the guy whose notes from a June 1995 meeting turned up in federal court on anti-trust charges and you've even been quoted as calling Microsoft Godzilla or the evil empire. Now you're partnering with them.

ANDREESSEN: Yup.

VAN DE MARK: Explain that turn of relationship.

ANDREESSEN: We deeply support all of their Internet technologies. We deeply support all of their software. And it makes a lot of sense because they have a major push underway to penetrate the Internet marketplace and to pick up market share in Internet servers and in Internet applications and in spaces where they don't have dominant market share today. And so we're going to work with them. We're also going to work with their competitors like Sun and Oracle. We also support Linux. So we're very agnostic, but very partnership oriented on those fronts.

VAN DE MARK: When you founded Loudcloud with your partners, some of the writing or some of the analysis, armchair, if you will, was well, he's a guy who got lucky, he was at the right place at the right time, maybe he's trying to prove to the world that he wasn't just that kind of person. What do you make of that kind of conjecture?

ANDREESSEN: I think that's armchair psychology. I think people have a right to do that. I don't think it's accurate. I think I've proved what I needed to prove at Netscape. Netscape was a fantastically successful company in just about every metric you can judge it on. Loudcloud is a brand new business with a huge opportunity of its own and with a group of people who are smarter than anybody, you know, any group that I've ever been associated with. And so, we just treat this as an absolutely separate standalone opportunity and one we're going after full steam.

VAN DE MARK: It's been written that the garage holds more allure to you than the boardroom and so leaving the CTO's job at AOL, not wanting a V.C.'s job after all, but wanting to, indeed, start another business is really what you wanted. Is that a fair assessment?

ANDREESSEN: Well, there's something very, very exciting about having a clean sheet of paper and being able to say the world is broken and here's how it should work and let's decide how the world should work and then let's build a business around that. And I really like the process of taking it from there to then building the business and seeing the business succeed. I start to get a little bit bored when it's not changing. And so I like being in an environment in which the change is happening at a high rate of speed. The good news, of course, with the technology industry is that change is always happening at a high rate of speed. But if you look at my track record at Netscape, I was involved from the very beginning all the way to the very end and, you know, at this company, I'm very, very deeply committed and having a fantastic time. So it's not so much size, it's the opportunity to build the business, to see the business flourish, see the business continue to adapt to all the changing circumstances. And we think this business has a huge runway and there's a huge amount of things this business can do in the future.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.


09/21/2000: Commentary: The Great Economic Future Debate

SUSIE GHARIB: As the race for the White House heats up the candidates are focusing more and more on the economy's future. And tonight's commentator says the debate isn't just rhetoric. Here's Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution and former Co-Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank.

ALICE RIVLIN, COMMENTARY: The presidential candidates have contrasting ideas for using the more than $4.5 trillion in federal budget surpluses estimated to be available over the next 10 years. Wait a minute, you may say, nobody knows whether those surpluses will really be there. They depend on the economy continuing to grow, and it may not. Economic forecasts are often wrong, even in the short run. Isn't a debate about 10 year budget surpluses just plain silly? You are right about economic forecasts not being reliable and about the surpluses not being a sure thing, but I think you are wrong about the debate being silly. On the contrary, in this campaign for the first time both major candidates are seriously addressing the biggest long run economic issue facing the nation, how best to prepare for the avalanche of seniors that will certainly hit the retirement rolls about a decade from now. There was a time when no one made budget forecasts more than a year in advance. Back then candidates were free to propose big spending programs or tax cuts with small impacts on the budget in the first year and big invisible costs or revenue losses in the future. Campaigning has gotten a lot more honest now that candidates feel compelled to be specific about their proposals and calculate their impact on the federal budget over 10 years. That's progress, even if the best available estimates are sure not to be exactly right. I'm Alice Rivlin.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post-broadcast. The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date.

The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT.

Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice.

©2000 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

09/21/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chip stocks opened nicely higher today in what was widely viewed as an overdue technical rebound after the Dow Industrial Average had fallen 545 points, or 4.9 percent in just the last six sessions. At the outset, the Dow rose as much as 63 points, but the NASDAQ Index gave back all of yesterday's 32-point gain, as sellers hit the tech stocks. Despite over a 5-point run up in 3M (MMM) stock on positive comments from the company, the Industrial Average struggled to stay in the plus column throughout the morning, because of offsetting weakness in its financial components, American Express (AXP) and Citigroup ©, after lower-than-expected earnings were released by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. At noontime, the Dow was absolutely unchanged from yesterday's close, and the NASDAQ Index was down 60 points. In afternoon trading, buyers moved into some of the Dow favorites, like Wal*Mart (WMT), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Home Depot (HD) in the belief they had fallen to very attractive levels. The NASDAQ's tech stocks however, remained weak. The Dow Industrial Average rallied to close with a gain of 77.60 points at 10,765.52. In today's 123-point trading range, the Industrial Average closed down only 18 points from the best level of the session; up 105 points from the worst level. The NASDAQ Composite fell 68.57 ending at 3828.87. In its 84-point trading range, the Composite settled about 69 points below its best level of the day.

Big board volume down a bit from yesterday, just 1.08 billion shares, and down volume exceeded up volume by about a 3 to 2 margin.

Dow Transport Index off exactly four points.

Utility Index down again, down 3 1/2.

The Closing Tick neutral at -45.

Standard & Poor's 500 off a little over 2 1/4.

Nearly a 2 1/4-point drop on the 100.

The MidCap 400 off 6 2/3.

And the Bridge Futures Price Index lost 1/4 point.

New York Stock Exchange Composite up .39.

A loss of nearly 3 1/4 in the Value Line.

Russell2000 Small Cap down just over 7.

And the Wilshire 5000 off 55.61.

After the market closed, the Federal Reserve reported in the week ending September 11, the M-2 money supply rose $3.7 billion.

The bond market had an up day, thanks partly to over a one dollar per barrel drop in oil futures and a $1.5 billion buyback of longer maturity Treasury debt by the government. There was also a bit of flight-to-safety buying due to the weakness in the NASDAQ market.

Tax-free and corporates closed up 3/8s to 5/8s of a point, and Treasuries were nicely higher across the board.

5-year notes up 10/32.

10-year notes up 17/32, with the yield down to 5.83 percent.

30-year bond rallied 29/32.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index up just over 4 3/4 points.

Another one of those mixed days on Wall Street, with the blue chips doing a better job on the up side than the NASDAQ. The Dow up 77.60, but the broader market lower. For every 11 stocks on the up side, 17 down; 47 new highs for the year, 121 new lows.

For the second day running, Sprint PCS Group (PCS) topped the active list on 22.3 million shares today, down another $3.13, lost nearly $8 yesterday on the company's forecast of lower than expected third quarter net customer additions. Also, the W.R. Hambrecht Brokerage downgraded Sprint PCS today.

AT & T (T) up $0.06. A two day board meeting began today, but no news out of that yet.

Nortel Networks (NT) losing $2.56.

Lucent Technologies (LU), in a weak high tech, down $1.75.

Pfizer (PFE), a little signs of life in the drug industry, up $2.63.

Vodafone (VOD) gained a $0.25.

Citigroup losing $0.50.

And then Chase Manhattan (CMB) down $0.88.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD) down $6.38. As I mentioned earlier, the company came in with lower than expected results for its third quarter.

And then Compaq (CPQ) down $0.31, 10th in volume.

Carnival (CCL) cruise to a $3.13 gain after reporting third quarter earnings $0.67, same as last year, but that was $0.03 better than the Street estimated.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT) down $3. That's probably about the lowest it's been since the early '90s. The company says it's just going to have a break even third quarter, maybe even a small loss. The Street was expecting $0.47 in earnings. The company blames a weak Euro and strong oil prices.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) up $3.13. That was the second best gainer in the Dow.

J.P. Morgan was the big point loser, down $3.75 in reaction to Morgan Stanley's lower than expected earnings, no doubt.

3M (MMM) up $4.69, the Dow's big point gainer today. 3M sees an 11 percent sales growth and 13 percent earnings growth over the next three years and the company said it will meet second half earnings estimates of about $2.44 a share.

Teradyne (TER) plunged $9.25 after Prudential cut its price target all the way from $94 a share to only $65.

Hertz (HRZ), the star of the day, up $7.38. Ford (F) is offering $30 a share for the 18 ½ percent of the stock it doesn't already own.

And Sunburst Hospitality (SNB) up $1.31. This company will be acquired by a shareholder group and senior management for $7.375 per share in cash.

Ionics (ION) plunged $8.94. The company is in the water purification business and it says its third quarter earnings will be down 40 percent from the $0.35 per share Street estimate. That would put it around $0.21 a share. The company cites losses in its foreign operations.

And Mueller Industries (MLI) down $6.94. The manufacturer of copper tubing says third quarter earnings will come in at $0.50 to $0.55. Last year they were $0.66.

And KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) had a bad day, down $4.38. The company has ended merger talks with British Air (BAB). British Air's stock rose $2.31.

And I'm afraid shareholders of Snap On Tools (SNA) had a wrenching day, down $4.38. The company sees third quarter earnings only $0.45 to $0.50 versus last year's $0.62 a share.

The NASDAQ Index down 68 1/2 points, or 1.8 percent. Volume down a bit from yesterday's pace. About 14 stocks up for every 23 down.

Intel (INTC) topped the active list, down $1.58 in regular weight trading, but as you heard, in after hours, after that third quarter earnings shortfall warning, it was actually a little below $49 a share.

Cisco (CSCO) down $2.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) off $3.63.

SDL (SDLI) was off $13 even.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) fell $3.25, fifth in NASDAQ dollar volume.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) off $8.95.

A $0.63 drop in Dell Computer (DELL).

Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.06.

And then QUALCOMM (QCOM) losing $3.11.

But Sycamore Networks (SCMR), finally, we see a gainer, up $7.89. Salomon Smith Barney issued