SUSIE GHARIB: Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for Wall Street. Stocks vaulted in a explosive rally as investors scooped up bargains. The NASDAQ skyrocketed 242 points or almost 8 percent, that its second highest percentage gain ever. The Dow also closed with a triple-digit advance, up 157 points. Meanwhile in the oil pits, crude prices eased a bit, despite uncertainty in the Middle East. We have two reports this evening, analyzing today’s oil and market news. We begin with Suzanne Pratt on Wall Street.

SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Maybe it was the good weather on Wall Street or maybe it was talk of a summit in the Middle East. Whatever it was, investors today were in the mood to buy. Just one day after the fifth worst point drop ever for the Dow, the NASDAQ staged its third best point gain. Technology and financial names, which got slammed yesterday, lead the rally, while oil shares and drug stocks lost some of the ground they gained yesterday. But some experts say technical factors are signaling that the market has not yet bottomed.

RICHARD MCCABE, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, MERRILL LYNCH: The advance-decline figures - advancing issues versus declining issues - are kind of mediocre, not really showing any great life. And so I think the durability of this rally is somewhat suspect. We may see some renewed weakness next week to get to a better low than I think we made yesterday.

PRATT: Goldman Sachs’ strategist Abby Joseph Cohen did her best today to breathe life back into the ailing stock market. In a note to clients today, she said that the S&P 500 is about 15 percent undervalued, based on yesterday’s closing prices. And that, quote, “little of a fundamental nature or corporate performance, has changed in recent weeks.” End quote. Today’s recovery also came in spite of a double dose of stronger-than-expected economic news. First, the market shrugged off a .9 percent jump in the September Producer Price Index, which was pushed up by higher oil prices. Excluding energy and food costs, the Index still rose .3 percent. Separately, the Commerce Department said September retail sales surged .9 percent, the highest rate since February. Some economists say the report suggests consumers are still in a spending mood, while others disagree.

MICHELE GIRARD, TREASURY MARKET STRATEGIST, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: I suspect that underlying the consumer isn’t as strong as these retail sales numbers look. These numbers are historically very volatile and not that reliable. And I do think, going forward, that the consumer is going to slow further.

PRATT: Next week look for third quarter earnings to flood, a still very nervous Wall Street. Experts say if any other big names issue warnings, the stock market could definitely resume its decline. 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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

10/13/00: Oil Prices Slide A Bit As Mideast Tensions Heat Up

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: This is Scott Gurvey. The price of crude oil fell slightly on world markets today, following the run-up triggered by unrest in the Middle East. The price dropped to just under $35 a barrel, down more than a dollar in what had been a tense trading day with an uncertain weekend ahead.

SCOTT HESS, OIL TRADER, C & H COMMODITIES: The market over the last couple of days has been reacting to each piece of news, and each incident that’s coming out of the Middle East, and if things are quiet over the weekend, prices may come off a bit. If there’s continued turmoil or any sort of disruption of supplies in the least, then prices are going to go quite a bit higher than they are today.

GURVEY: Crude prices are already high, and analysts expect those prices to be reflected in higher prices for gasoline and for home heating oil in the months ahead. The Middle East unrest comes at a time of unusually short supply, when any disruption in the flow of oil will have a dramatic impact on prices. Sources close to Saudi Arabia were quoted by one wire service, saying that that country has no plans to cut supplies. That could change if the fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces continues. Several oil producing countries did cut production during the MidEast war of 1973, but few see that happening today.

MIKE ROTHMAN, OIL ANALYST, MERRILL LYNCH: The fact is that you don’t really have the nationalistic fervor that you had in the ‘70s, at the time of the fourth Arab-Israeli war, when the oil producing countries instituted an embargo and a cutback. That type of mood is not really prevalent today; and nobody, particularly the oil-producing countries, seems to want to step into the middle of Israeli and Palestinian problems.

GURVEY: Most traders tell us they evened out their positions today, going home neither long nor short. Few willing to risk being on the wrong side of the market, in case of dramatic news events over the weekend. Scott Gurvey, 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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

10/13/00: The Online Grocer Cyber Food Fight

SUSIE GHARIB: A virtual food fight is underway in the Windy City. Peapod (PPOD), based in Chicago, has gone on the offensive since Webvan (WBVN) rolled into town two months ago. Industry watchers say that the outcome here could help determine the future strategy of other online grocers. Diane Eastabrook reports.

DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Webvan’s sprawling new warehouse in suburban Carol Stream, Illinois is the company’s third in the U.S. The 370,000 square foot facility carries roughly 50,000 different items and Chicago area residents can access them all with a click of a mouse.

WAYNE PAUL, VICE PRESIDENT, WEBVAN GROUP INC.: The feedback that we’ve gotten from customers we’re serving has been more than we would expected. Chicago has accepted us and as they’ve accepted us, we’ve continued to expand.

EASTABROOK: Webvan’s assault on Chicago has Peapod scrambling to protect its home turf. The 10-year-old online grocer is matching Webvan’s pricing structure and is increasing its marketing efforts.

MARC VAN GELDER, PRESIDENT & CEO, PEAPOD: For us, this is in a market which we are going to be in a very offensive mode with Webvan.

EASTABROOK: Chicago is the largest market for both Peapod and Webvan and some analysts say what happens here could determine the future of online grocery shopping. The two companies have different strategies. Webvan operates and supplies its own warehouses. Peapod works with local grocers to supply its warehouses. Dutch grocer Royal Ahold owns a majority stake in Peapod, so its U.S. Stores supply some Peapod facilities. In Chicago, Jewel is the supplier.

GELDER: So we get our goods in a much, much cheaper way than Webvan ever can because of our size and our link with the brick and mortar retailer.

EASTABROOK: Despite their different strategies, both Webvan and Peapod face the same hurdles, attracting a large pool of customers and convincing investors their businesses can make money. So far consumers haven’t embraced online grocery shopping. Web grocers account for only about 1 percent of the $700 billion in grocery store sales. Neither Peapod nor Webvan has turned a profit yet and some analysts wonder if they ever will.

ELLEN BARAS, RETAIL ANALYST, WILLIAM BLAIR & COMPANY:I think any financial analyst that’s done a model on any of these companies probably can’t take it to the point where they’re going to be profitable. You know, the key challenge is to get enough critical mass and to have order sizes in a close enough density that they can be profitable.

EASTABROOK: Peapod believes Chicago is big enough for two online grocers with two different strategies. The challenge now is convincing consumers as well. Diane Eastabrook NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Carol Stream, Illinois.

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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

10/13/00: Market Monitor”- Douglas Jimerson, President, National Investment Advisors

PAUL KANGAS: My guest market monitor this week is Douglas Jimerson, President of National Investment Advisors, a money management firm based in Potomac, Maryland. And welcome back to NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Doug.

DOUGLAS JIMERSON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL INVESTMENT ADVISORS: It’s so good to be here Paul.

KANGAS: On your last visit with us on May 26th of this year you were very cautious about the stock market and you warned that any summer rally would not last and that it should be used to reduce equity holdings and that was a great call and I congratulate you.

JIMERSON: Thank you very much.

KANGAS: You also advised viewers that energy stocks should be purchased or held if you have them and that was really on the mark. You said stay with Exxon or buy it and of course it’s nicely higher, and you liked the Fidelity Select Energy Fund, which is way up. Chevron (CHV), strangely enough, is down a few points. I don’t know if you can explain that, but it is. But do you still like it?

JIMERSON: Absolutely.

KANGAS: And you’re staying with the other earning stocks I mentioned?

JIMERSON: Yes.

KANGAS: Especially Prima Energy (PENG), which is up from $39 to $54.

JIMERSON: I’m most excited about that and I would buy more because the natural gas area, I think, is just beginning its move.

KANGAS: Now, you said avoid Microsoft because it was all in the news at that time. It was at $62, it’s now in the mid 50s, so that was a great call. You have nothing but kudos coming as far as I’m concerned. Can you keep this up?

JIMERSON: No. It obviously can’t always happen this way.

KANGAS: Well, the big question is, was today a bottom?

JIMERSON: Keep your eye on the big picture. All right, the big picture is best told by the long-term trend. And last time I said the trend is your friend and the trend was down. The trend is still down. The markets are below their long-term tend trend. The summertime we saw a little bit of, they were playing with those long-term moving averages. But I’m still nervous about this market because we’re way down below the trends. And right now it seems to me that the sentiment has not turned. We still have too much complacency. We have the view in general at large that the economy is fine, the fundamentals look good, why should we worry, we should buy stocks on dips. But when we see markets drop dramatically in—you know, this is what I think, we need to keep focused on the fact that the market is cascading down in this down trend. Now the sharp rally we had today is the kind of very sharp rally you get in bear markets. So I’m not very pleased with the fact that there was such a sharp snap back in one day.

KANGAS: So what is your strategy here? Just stay on the sidelines, with how much cash?

JIMERSON: I would stay on the sidelines with most of your holdings. However, again, the energy stocks are very appealing. So with our allocations, we’re recommending maybe 15 percent in energies.

KANGAS: Any new additions to your other list? You had Exxon (XOM) and the Fidelity Select Energy Fund, Prime Energy and so forth.

JIMERSON: Right.

KANGAS: Any new ones?

JIMERSON: I like the Invesco Energy Fund. That’s another good one to add right now.

KANGAS: OK. All right.

JIMERSON: Buy more Prima Energy. Buy natural gas stocks. And I would say bonds still look good. We held 20 percent in our allocated portfolios. We still recommend that.

KANGAS: You think interest rates are coming down because of a recession?

JIMERSON: Well, I think at some point we’re going to have problems in the bond market, too, so use the trend always your guide overall. But, you know, in the near term we may have a continuation of this bounce. After all, we’ve had such decimation, the big boards on Wall Street need to recover.

KANGAS: What is the bottom, as you see it, in terms of the Dow?

JIMERSON: After options expiration next week, I think we could see a crash event in the market. I think we could see a 25 percent drop in the NASDAQ, down to 2,500. I think we could see the Dow going down to the, below the 9,000 level.

KANGAS: You are really a bear here.

JIMERSON: I think we have a problem this month. We are not out of this tough seasonal period yet.

KANGAS: Well, you did make the cover of “Timer Digest,” so I guess you have a lot of respect out there and your last calls were excellent, so it’s certainly something I’m listening to and sure a lot of our viewers are too.

JIMERSON: Thanks, Paul.

KANGAS: I wish you had better news for us, Doug, but we’ll check on it. We’ll be having you back again very soon.

JIMERSON: Just follow the trends.

KANGAS: Yes. Thanks very much for being with us.

JIMERSON: Thank you.

KANGAS: My guest, Douglas Jimerson, President of National Investment Advisors.

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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

10/13/00: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: The stock market's opening technical rebound from yesterday's steep sell-off was strong enough to overcome most concerns about that report of a stronger-than-expected jump in the September Producer Price Index because higher energy costs, as expected, were a big part of the rise. Last month's brisk jump in retail sales, however, certainly suggested the recent rash of interest rate hikes still hadn't cooled the economy that much. Even so, investors put those concerns aside in the fear that they might be missing a great bargain buying opportunity. So by 10:30 this morning, the Dow Industrial Average recouped 104 points of yesterday's 379-point tumble, while the NASDAQ Index posted a 61-point gain. The market increased its upward momentum, thanks in part to those bullish remarks by Abby Joseph Cohen we told you about; and upon seeing the continuing strength, some traders began to cover short positions. By 2:00 p.m., the Dow was up 160 points; the NASDAQ Index up 170-points. The rally in the blue chips stalled a bit, partly due to pre-weekend caution, but the comeback in the high-tech NASDAQ continued. The Dow Industrial Average hung on to a closing gain of 157.60 points or 1.6 percent putting it at 10,192.18. The Dow fell four times and rose only once this week, for a net overall loss of 404.36 points, that's 3.8 percent on the downside. Still, the NASDAQ Composite today surged 242.09 or 7.9 percent to close at 3316.77. But this Index fell four times and rose only once this week for a net overall loss of only 44.24 points.

Big board volume 1.2 billion shares, down a bit from yesterday. And up volume exceeded down volume by about 2 1/2 times. Fairly impressive.

The Dow Transport Index had a good day, up 51 points.

Utilities rising 4.77.

And the Closing Tick decidedly bullish, at +512.

Standard & Poor's 500 up 44 1/2 nearly.

The S&P 100 up 25 1/3 points.

MidCap 400 up just over 16 1/4 points.

Bridge Futures Price Index down 2.60.

New York Stock Exchange Composite up nearly 13 1/2.

Just over a 9-point gain in the Value Line Index.

Russell2000 Small Cap Index was up nearly 17 1/2 points.

And the Broadly-Based Wilshire up 448.71, or 3.6 percent.

The bond market backed down early today in response to those surprisingly strong reports on September producer prices and retail sales, which renewed fears of inflation. The big rally in stocks removed one of the debt market's major supports of late: namely, flight-to-safety buying. One positive factor, however, was that $1 per barrel drop in oil prices.

This mixed news scenario resulted in hardly any movement in tax free and corporate issues.

And a narrowly mixed close in the Treasury market.

The 5-year notes fell 3/32.

5/32 drop in the 10-year note.

But the 30-year bond rose 5/32.

While the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index edged up .45.

Nice rally in the Dow today, but it still had a lousy week, dropping 404 points or 3.8 percent. The broader market today not that impressive, advances 16 for every about 13 on the down side, not that impressive. Twenty new highs and 169 new lows. That wasn't impressive.

Home Depot (HD) topped the active list on 33.1 million shares, moving up $1.44, as it did a little repair work on its stock.

Motorola (MOT) rising $1.94.

Lucent Technologies (LU) gaining $1.75.

Nokia (NOK) had a good day, rising $4.06 after C.S. First Boston Brokerage repeated a "strong buy" on Nokia.

AT & T (T) edged up $0.75, fifth in big board volume.

Nortel Networks (NT) up $5.94, nice rebound there.

America Online (AOL) gained $1.77.

Citigroup rebounding $3.06.

General Electric (GE) up $2.06.

And Compaq Computer (CPQ) rose $2.67.

ExxonMobil (XOM) down $3.63 after a series of recent highs for the stock. Of course, as we heard, November oil down $1.07 in New York.

Hewlett-Packard (HWP) the best point gainer in the Dow, rising $6.94.

IBM (IBM) the second best point gainer in the Dow, up $5.19.

GM Hughes (GMH) rose $2.48. Gene Marcial's "Inside Wall Street" column in the new issue of "Business Week" notes a bidding war may heat up for G.M. Hughes stock and it might fetch as much as $60 to $70 a share.

Guidant (GDT) was down $3.31. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.40, a penny above the Street estimate, and up from $0.35 last year, but sales were up only six percent and the company warned fourth quarter sales could fall below projections.

Union Carbide (UK) had a tough day, down $1.75. The company sees third quarter earnings of only $0.20 and the Street was estimating $0.57. The company blames higher energy costs.

Gateway (GTW) up $9.48. After the close yesterday, third quarter earnings, $0.46, up from $0.35 last year, and that was in line with Street estimates and the company also said that it has a rather strong outlook.

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) up $6.75. This is the first semiconductor maker to use laser link technology's lower production cost innovations.

And Spherion (SFN) up $2.19. This company used to be called Interim Services. It's a staffing and personnel firm. The Alex Brown Brokerage issued a "buy" on the stock today.

Avista (AVA) up $2.63. The company sees third quarter earnings above expectations because of better than expected results from its energy unit.

Dallas Semiconductor (DS) up $3.69. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.42, way up from $0.29 last year and $0.02 above the Street estimates. And sales were up 38 percent.

Newmont Mining (NEM) one of the few big percentage losers, down $1.06. And, of course, that's because New York December gold dropped $4 an ounce, down to $274.80.

NASA trading, a 242 point gain in the Index today. You heard second largest on record percentage wise. Volume down a bit from yesterday, but still active, over two billion. About 27 stocks up for every 13 down.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) up $28.89. Lehman Brothers repeated a "buy" and increased earnings for this year and next.

Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $6.25.

Intel (INTC) rose $3.25.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) rising just over $13 a share.

Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.63, the only loser on the 10 actives here.

PMC-Sierra (PMCS) rose $32 a share after the close yesterday. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.31, $0.05 above the Street estimate and today Lehman Brothers repeated a "buy" with a $250 a sh