SUSIE GHARIB: The bulls charged on Wall Street today: stocks staged an incredible comeback. The Dow surged 200 points, or about 2 percent; that's its biggest point gain since the end of May. The NASDAQ did even better: up more than 3 percent, or 122 points. The rally was sparked by some bargain-hunting, and also, surprising upbeat news from Procter & Gamble (PG): it says it can achieve double-digit earnings growth, but some analysts warn that today's market rally could be short- lived.

ASH RAJAN, MARKET STRATEGIST, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: This is sort of a natural technical bounceback from four or five days of you know consecutive selling, especially the NASDAQ. However, I wouldn't put too much into it. The volatility will still most likely continue going towards the end of the month. A good part of October, until we get third-quarter earnings clarity, that is the key to the sentiment change in this market as we speak.

GHARIB: And the earnings picture is still cloudy: a warning late today from Apple Computer is more proof of that. Apple says its fourth-quarter earnings will come in around 30 to 33 cents. That's way below Wall Street estimates of 45 cents. And then in after-hours trading, the stock fell more than 22 points from its regular trading close of $53.50. Paul?

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.


09/28/2000: Voters In Denmark Say No To Euro

PAUL KANGAS: The future of the euro looks bleaker tonight: in an historic referendum in Denmark today, voters said "no" to the euro, refusing to adopt the European Union's single currency. As Suzanne Pratt reports, that doesn't bode well for the euro's future.

SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: When Danish citizens took to the polls today, their "no" votes meant a lot more than simply, a "thumbs down" for the euro. Experts say Denmark's opting out of the single currency could have much broader implications for European integration, not to mention further damage for the euro. And, as a result of the Danish election, some currency traders say there could be more intervention in foreign exchange markets in the coming days, to help boost confidence in the euro.

JAMES KEMP, FOREIGN EXCHANGE MANAGER, CITIGROUP: I think the central banks have made it clear that their interest isn't over; that last Friday's intervention won't be the last. I think if we see significant weakness in the euro, I'd be surprised if they didn't come in. I think they've indicated at the G-7 meeting over the weekend that they would come in again if we saw further weakness.

PRATT: The euro needs all the help it can get. Since its launch in January of 1999, the euro's short life has been disappointing. From a peak of a $1.18 nearly 21 months ago, the euro dropped to a low last week of just below 85 cents. In other words, nearly 30 percent of its value against the dollar has simply vanished. Some experts say the euro's weakness is merely a reflection of the robust U.S. economy, which has boosted the dollar's value. But others blame the European Central Bank, which has failed to speak with much of a unified voice since the euro's debut. Experts say until the Eurozone works out its kinks, the near-term outlook for the fledging currency is muddled, at best.

KEVIN HARRIS, INTERNATIONAL: The process is not easy. That's why the outlook for the euro is so uncertain. If they are not successful in bringing themselves along to being all of Europe, and being able to adapt themselves more quickly, the way the United States can, to changing conditions, then the euro is going to fall further.

PRATT: Denmark's "no" vote is likely to influence similar ballots in the U.K. and in Sweden. Experts say those important elections will probably be postponed now, at least until sentiment towards the euro becomes more positive. 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.

09/28/2000: Williams Companies Piping In Profits From Fuel & Fiber Optics

PAUL KANGAS: Scorching demand for natural gas and petroleum have ignited the stocks of diversified energy companies. Williams Companies (WMB) is one firm that has seen its stock rise more than 30 percent this year. Diane Eastabrook profiles the Tulsa-based energy and communications firm.

DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: High energy prices are pinching consumers, but providing a windfall to Williams Companies. Some analysts estimate Williams' natural gas and petroleum businesses could rake in a billion dollars this year, well ahead of the $300 million predicted earlier in the year. CEO, Keith Bailey won't speculate on profits, but sees no immediate end to high energy prices. He says prices could spike dramatically this winter, but moderate next year.

KEITH BAILEY, CHAIRMAN & CEO, WILLIAMS COMPANIES: Our long view is that prices will be robust enough to stimulate drilling, to stimulate the discovery and production of new resources. But not so high as to be a major impediment on demand, and that's true whether you're looking at crude oil or natural gas.

EASTABROOK: Tulsa-based Williams has one of the largest natural gas pipelines systems in North America. The company has leveraged its pipelines to also create a fiber-optic network that carries video, voice and data. In recent years, that business has grown large enough to stand on its own. By the middle of next year, Williams Companies will spin-off its communications business from its energy business. Bailey says the move will allow both segments to grow more rapidly, and will benefit investors too.

BAILEY: The capital demands in the communications side were what were causing us to restrain investments in the energy business. And so what we've done is free up the balance sheet on the ongoing energy business to be able to be used against growth opportunities there.

EASTABROOK: One segment Bailey wants to grow further is Williams' energy trading business. The company's 300 traders help customers manage risk with a variety of energy futures contracts. Williams is also launching TradeSpark with a handful of other energy companies. The electronic marketplace will sell everything from natural gas to electricity when it goes online next month. Many analysts applaud the company's expansion into energy trading and say as an energy stock, Williams is a good buy.

ZACH WAGNER, ENERGY ANALYST, EDWARD JONES: The stock has pulled back in price in recent weeks, so it's much more attractively valued than it was previously. And given the high energy prices we're seeing right now, that bodes very well for Williams as we head into the winter heating season.

EASTABROOK: Higher fuel prices could allow Williams to grow its pipeline system. But Bailey admits any expansion will be done cautiously since he can't predict how long these good times will last. Diane Eastabrook NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Tulsa.

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.


09/28/2000: Prime Mover : Michael Lynch, Founder & CEO, Autonomy

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, it sounds like something straight out of science fiction, computer software that thinks like a human understanding and sorting ideas, not just numbers. That's the thinking behind Autonomy (AUTN), a software company founded and led by Michael Lynch and spun off from Lynch's Eurodynamics in 1996. Autonomy had sales of almost $27 million last year and posted sales growth of over 200 percent in 1999. Its stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol AUTN and is currently trading at about 10 points below its 52 week high. In tonight's prime movers segment, Donald van de mark of Myprimetime.com asks Lynch just how his software can help companies be more efficient.

MICHAEL LYNCH, FOUNDER & CEO, AUTONOMY: I'm very lucky the area I'm working in, which is about taking information that's in a human friendly form, things like e-mail, Web pages, allowing the computer to actually understand what they're about to automate it. It's an area of massive need and that need is what's driving the growth in the company and the gross margins. People have to solve this problem. That kind of information is doubling every three months inside a Fortune 1000. You can't hire twice as many people every three months. You need the technology.

DONALD VAN DE MARK, MYPRIMETIME.COM: A quick explanation of your software is that it is pattern recognition software, almost making the computer intelligent in terms of reading text. Can you explain that a little bit further for us?

LYNCH: Yeah, what it's all about, as you mentioned, it takes information in a human friendly information, like prose. So say we have a page of e-mail. The system can look at that, read it, get an idea what the ideas are in there, which ideas are more important than which others because they're not all born equal, and then automate whatever happens next-who should that be sent to, what other documents should it be linked to, what categories should it go under. And once you've got those building blocks, you can automate the handling of human friendly information.

VAN DE MARK: This comes from the musings of an 18th century minister named Thomas Bayes. Explain the links between what he was thinking about 300 years ago and what you've now produced.

LYNCH: Well, to deal with these kind of problems you can't use the kind of technologies that computers have done. Computers are very obsessed with black and white, true and false. And, of course, ideas aren't like that. They're much more subtle. They're expressed in different ways. You may have exactly the same idea with different words. So what you need is a technology which understands the shades of gray in the world, the fact that the world is actually made up of a lot of subtlety that blends together. Thomas Bayes understood that 250 years ago. Two hundred and fifty years later the rest of us have caught up with him and we get what he was talking about.

VAN DE MARK: There's an old story about four or five blind men all approaching an elephant, touching the elephant and then describing something different to each other about what it was that they touched. The Web is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. According to some it's a communications device, according to others it's an information gathering system. It's the beginning of artificial Intelligence. It's a huge communications vehicle. Maybe a direct marketing vehicle. What is the Web?

LYNCH: The Web is just one part of something very radical that's happening and it's a changing civilization. It's about the fact that the human brain is very special. And if you can get more content to the human brain, if you don't saturate it, you can get more from it. The Web is one way of getting information. In Europe we have WAP on the phones now, digital TV. You go back 50 years, you came into like an accountancy firm, you opened up 10 letters in the morning and that was your work for the day. Now we all get vast amounts of e-mail, Web pages, mobile phones, alerts. It's all about this fundamental change, which is using people's brains more because those are actually the scarce resource.

VAN DE MARK: So what is one of the outcomes of allowing more Intelligence?

LYNCH: Well, because human beings are very powerful, the methods of information they use need to be very flexible. And the beautiful thing about an e-mail is before you write that first word, an e-mail can talk about anything. You can be talking about your pet dog. You can be talking about gold futures, whatever. And that flexibility is what is the real power of this new type of human friendly information. Couple that with the human brain and technology that can understand it and you have very large productivity increases.

VAN DE MARK: Thank you very much for joining us.

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.



09/28/2000: Commentary: US /European Relations

SUSIE GHARIB: Tonight's commentator takes a look at the newest developments in a longstanding relationship between the United States and Europe. Here's Barbara Hackman Franklin, President of Barbara Franklin Enterprises and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

BARBARA HACKMAN FRANKLIN, COMMENTARY: Europe and the United States have longstanding ties. We have big investment and trading relationships, as well as our security and cultural links. But today we have tensions. One reason: the decline of the Euro. That will hurt the third quarter earnings of U.S. companies with heavy European sales. And already Intel (INTC) and McDonald's (MCD), among others, have warned about this. The second reason: the acrimonious trade relationship. The U.S. brought cases about bananas and hormone treated beef against Europe in the WTO. We won, Europe didn't comply, so we retaliated. That's not working and we, by law, will have to retaliate further. Europe brought and won a case against a U.S. law which gives tax breaks to multinationals. We have modified that law, but Europe isn't satisfied. If there is no compromise, Europe could ask for WTO permission to retaliate against us. Worst case, we could have an expensive trade war. And thirdly, Europe's antitrust chief seems very tough when reviewing mergers of U.S. companies. Currently, the AOL (AOL)/Time Warner (TWX) deal is being challenged. Underlying all of this is the desire of Europe to be recognized as an equal of the U.S. and not as a junior partner. Given that fact, tensions will probably get worse before they get better. I'm Barbara Hackman Franklin.

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.



09/28/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened narrowly mixed today with the Dow Industrial Average losing a few points at the outset of trading, while advancing issues on the New York Exchange took a 7 to 5 lead over losers and the NASDAQ Index fell about 20 points. Investors then found a much needed booster from Procter & Gamble (PG) whose stock jumped $4 after the company said it will meet its third and fourth quarter earnings projections. That set off a nice blue chip rally which gathered momentum for the rest of the morning and that buying enthusiasm spread into the NASDAQ market, lifting the Composite Index to a 68-point gain by noontime, when the Dow was up 176 points. As the market continued to move higher, scared bears added to the upward momentum through some frantic short covering; so, at the final bell, the Dow was sporting a gain of 195.70 points, or 1.8 percent putting it at 10,824.06. In today's 233-point trading range, the Industrial Average closed down only 32 points from the best level of the session; up 201 points from the low of the day. The NASDAQ Composite came in with a huge gain of 122.02 at 3778.32. In its nearly 152-point range, the Composite settled just a touch below its very best level of the day, quite impressive. Big board volume was impressive, a 1.196 billion shares, nicely higher than yesterday. And about 3 1/2 times as much up volume as down volume, that was impressive.

The Dow Transport Index had a good day, up 57 3/4 points.

And the Utilities very close to a record high with that gain of 5.24.

The Closing Tick however -198 indicating the rally was cooling down a bit near the final bell.

Standard & Poor's 500 up nearly 31 3/4 points.

A gain of 14.69 on the 100.

The MidCap 400 up 13 1/3.

And the Bridge Futures Price Index fell 1.18.

New York Stock Exchange Composite up nearly 11 3/4.

8 1/2- point rise in the Value Line.

Russell2000 Small Cap Index up 15 2/3 points.

And the broadly-based Wilshire 5000 up just over 321 points, or 2.4 percent.

After the market closed, the Federal Reserve reported in the week ending September 18, the M-2 money supply rose $18.4 billion. The bond market held up surprisingly well today in light of the report that second-quarter gross domestic product jumped 5.6 percent versus only a 4.8 percent growth in the first quarter, and that was 0.4 percent more than first estimated. Offsetting that, however, was the fact that inflation pressures actually moderated in that period. The other plus factor was over a $1-per-barrel drop in New York November oil futures.

Although tax free and corporates ended mostly unchanged, the Treasury market edged higher in longer maturities.

We see no change at all in the 5-year note.

But the 10-year note up 3/32, with the yield at 5.81 percent.

30-year bond up 6/32.

And finally, the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index was up .79.

A big rally overall in that blue chip sector. Look at this gain in the Dow, 195.70, 1.8 percent, and almost 2 to 1 of advances over decliners. That was impressive. 142 new highs for the year, only 77 new lows.

Lucent Technologies (LU) topped the active list on 26.6 million shares, up $3. The Sanford Bernstein Brokerage downgraded two of Lucent's main rivals, Cisco (CSCO) and Nortel (NT), but it didn't seem to have much effect in this rally.

Nortel Networks (NT) up $3.63.

Motorola (MOT) edged up $0.44.

AT & T (T) gained $1.25.

And there you see Procter & Gamble (PG) rising $5.06, the biggest percentage gainer in the Dow after the company says it'll meet third and fourth quarter earnings estimates.

Pfizer (PFE) edged up $0.56.

Texas Instruments (TXN) up $1.25.

Citigroup in a fairly firm financial group, up $1.44.

Now we see Philip Morris (MO) rising $1.19 after that federal judge dismissed two key parts of the government's lawsuit to recover billions of dollars spent on smoking related illnesses, as you heard.

Nokia (NOK), 10th in volume, was up $0.44.

Allstate (ALL) gained $1.81. Goldman Sachs said it sees a significant expansion in this company's price/earnings ratio in the future.

Bristol-Myers (BMY) gained $1.50. The company's going to sell its Clairol beauty products division and also said it will meet or beat 2001 earnings targets.

Eastman Kodak (EK) investors continue to be negative on this one, pounding it down to a new four year low.

Hillenbrand Industries (HB) gained $2.56. The ING Barings Brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to "buy" and Salomon Smith Barney upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy." Yesterday the company had nicely higher third quarter earnings out.

LSI Logic (LSI) gained $1.63. First Boston today repeated a "buy" recommendation.

And Marriott International (MAR) edging up $0.25. The company out with third quarter earnings $0.43, up from last year's $0.36, and that was a penny above Street estimates. Revenues up 15 percent.

First Washington Realty Trust (FRW), one of the big gainers of the day percentage wise, up $4.38. The company will be acquired by U.S. retail partners for $800 million. That works out to about $26 a share.

Dain Rauscher (DRC), the big investment firm, up $13. It'll be acquired by Royal Bank of Canada (RY) for $95 a share.

Gateway (GTW) rising $6.86 after Prudential Securities repeated a "strong buy" recommendation today.

Bergen Brunswig (BBC), which is a pharmaceutical distributor, up $1.06. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "market perform" to "market outperform."

Russell Corporation (RML) down 356. The company's in the sports apparel business and it's predicting third quarter results will be below expectations and it cites slow European operations.

Safeway (SWY) down $4.75. Third quarter earnings came in today better than expected, $0.53, a penny above the Street estimate, but the chairman did warn same store sales in the fourth quarter might not be as good as expected.

NASDAQ trading, a gain of 122 points or 3.3 percent. Volume ahead of yesterday's pace, almost 2 billion shares. 25 stocks up for every 13 lower.

Cisco (CSCO) topped the active list, up $2.13.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) down $0.38.

Intel (INTC) was up $0.56.

CIENA (CIEN) gained $6.88.

And Juniper Networks (JNPR) a $3 rise, fifth in volume.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) gained $5.69.

VeriSign (VRSN) had a good day, up nearly $14 a share.

No change today in SDL (SDLI).

WorldCom (WCO