SUSIE GHARIB: Halloween brought lots of goodies to Wall Street today: triple-digit treats. The Dow climbed 135 points, and the NASDAQ surged almost 180, and that was thanks to a powerful tech rally. But market volatility in October is one of the reasons that today's consumer confidence survey came in less-than-expected, and the lowest showing in a year. Suzanne Pratt looks at what this means for the markets.

SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: For months now, consumers have carried the U.S. economy squarely on their shoulders. But today, there are fresh signs that Americans may curtail their support in the coming months. According to the conference board, the Consumer Confidence Index tumbled to 135.2 this month, from 142.5 in September. The latest reading is the lowest in exactly a year.

LYNN FRANCO, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CONFERENCE BOARD: It's a little bit of, you know, like a pause in confidence. It's coming off some really strong levels that probably were unsustainable. And what we're seeing here is really you know consumers are cooling, as is the economy, but nothing really to sound the alarms.

PRATT: Economists say recent stock market gyrations have unnerved consumers, whose spending accounts for two-thirds of the total economy. In addition, higher oil prices are also taking a toll. And most think this month's waning consumer confidence, if it holds, will mean at least some further slowing in consumer spending this year.

JOSHUA FEINMAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, DEUTSCHE ASSET MGMT.: I think we're going to see a continuation of this sort of more moderate trend in consumer spending - maybe 4 percent type of growth, annualized growth, in consumer spending. That's still very healthy by historical standards.

PRATT: But there is evidence that consumers are still willing to spend on some things. Take, for example, housing. The latest data shows confident consumers snapped up new homes at the fastest pace in six months during September. Sales of new homes rose about 9 percent, to an annual rate of 946,000 units last month. Economists say lower mortgage rates encouraged the shopping spree, and may continue to do so in the coming months.

FEINMAN: I think that's going to help support the housing market, even as consumer confidence comes off a little bit, and the labor market softens a tad. I think the decline in mortgage rates will help provide an offsetting, or counterbalancing, support for housing.

PRATT: Experts say the bottom line on the consumer and consumer spending for the remainder of this year is moderation. Healthy spending patterns for the upcoming holiday season, but less robust than in recent years. Suzanne Pratt, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

KANGAS: The story on Wall Street today was the NASDAQ, as investors went on a buying spree. As analysts say, they were picking up tech stock bargains.

RICHARD McCABE, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, MERRILL LYNCH: I think technology stocks in the NASDAQ Index probably are oversold enough, as they were, for example, last April-May, to have a rebound, bit by bit, or step by step, over these next two or three months. We are getting into or close to year-end rally time. So that may help the cause as well and give us some further bounce.

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.

SUSIE GHARIB: Bertelsmann is singing a new tune. The German entertainment giant said today that it's planning to drop its lawsuit against Napster, the online music sharing site. In New York City, the two privately held companies announced a strategic alliance to develop a membership based system for users. Bertelsmann also agreed to provide a loan to Napster and is planning to acquire a stake in it in the future. Napster's CEO says it's the right strategy for his company.

HANK BARRY, CEO, NAPSTER: The Napster community, and that's the fastest growing community in the history of the Internet, will benefit enormously from Bertelsmann's historic commitment to innovation and its experience in offering a seamless and convenient user experience. Our partnership with Bertelsmann will help Napster evolve to the next level by investing in new technology and in implementing our model.

GHARIB: Napster says it's also actively negotiating deals with other music companies and hopes to make a membership based system a common practice industry wide.

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.



10/31/00: WorldCom's Attempt To Reconnect To $1B

PAUL KANGAS: The shares of WorldCom (WCOM) fell 4 1/2 percent today on expectations it will lower its earnings estimates for the next quarter at an analysts meeting tomorrow. The company is also expected to announce a major restructuring plan. It's been a tough year. WorldCom has lost more than $100 billion in market capitalization. Stephanie Woods previews what's ahead for the nation's number two long distance company.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers spent the last decade on a telecomm buying binge, swallowing MCI, Uunet and dozens more companies, and in the process growing WorldCom's earnings and stock ever higher. But regulators put the brakes on that strategy when they blocked WorldCom's purchase of Sprint (FON).

SCOTT CLELAND, CEO, LEGG MASON PRECURSOR GROUP: It's going be very difficult for WorldCom to find a new growth engine that was as successful as the roll up acquisition machine that Bernie Ebbers created over the last decade. That was phenomenal.

WOODS: The phenomenon this year has been the steady decline WorldCom stock has suffered, dropping nearly 60 percent. To turn things around, sources say WorldCom will announce a plan to issue a tracking stock for the wholesale and consumer long distance business. The long distance business is in decline. The industry has changed dramatically, with competition from the Internet and the Bell companies beginning to sell long distance. Analysts predict the business won't recover.

PAUL GLENCHUR, ANALYST, SCHWAB CAPITAL MARKETS: You're swimming against the tide in long distance. The trick is to go where the flow is and that's in business services and in data services.

WOODS: But spinning off long distance is not without risk. Just ask AT&T (T). Its call to break into three separate companies with four parts and six different stocks is viewed by many as a mistake. Forrester Analyst Jeanne Schaaf says WorldCom should make a clean break .

JEANNE SCHAFF, SR. ANALYST, FORRESTER RESEARCH: WorldCom has to avoid the road that AT&T is going down in terms of putting all those sticky features between the businesses and let the businesses look at the markets independently and determine what they need for their customer target sets.

WOODS: Tonight WorldCom itself is mum on its plans, saving the news instead for tomorrow when it meets with analysts in New York. How well executives sell the new strategy will help determine if analysts think they're making the right call. 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.



10/31/2000: Rio Grande Hopes To Strike Gold With In The Run For The White House

SUSIE GHARIB: With the presidential candidates running neck and neck and control of Congress up for grabs, it looks like the only sure thing this election year is that political fundraising will hit an all time high. Tonight, in part two of our series on campaign finance, Washington Bureau Chief Darren Gersh takes a look at why one community in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas has become a player in the Washington money game.

HOWARD PEBLEY, PRESIDENT, McALLEN CONSTRUCTION: That's phase one. This will be phase two.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: As Howard Pebley sees it, the roads in his hometown of McAllen, Texas, are just not big enough.

PEBLEY: This road, as you can see, is not in that bad shape. It's just capacity.

GERSH: Pebley owns a construction company serving the Rio Grande Valley. It is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. To cope with that growth, the business community here is lobbying Congress for $1 billion to expand existing roads, turning them into the area's first interstate highway. Pebley is helping with that effort. He serves on the board of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. He is also one of the biggest political donors in the area. In the last five years, Pebley and his family have given more than $35,000 in campaign contributions. Pebley says he's simply giving money to people who believe as he does.

PEBLEY: There's some people out there that think we ought to quit building everything, we ought to get rid of the gasoline engine and we ought to all walk to school and we ought to all live in a shoebox where the federal government tells us. I don't believe with that person and I'm not going to give those people my money.

GERSH: Pebley insists his contributions don't buy him any special favors. Does that help, you feel, get access to these people? Do they return your phone calls faster?

PEBLEY: I never call them. Ask Microsoft, they can probably answer that question better than I can.

GERSH: When the powerful Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Congressman Bud Shuster (ph), came to McAllen, Pebley hosted a fundraiser for him at his house. But Pebley says he's never felt any pressure to give money to anyone.

PEBLEY: I've never had anybody say that, you know, we can't go talk to this congressman or this representative because we haven't given contributions. I've never heard that. You may not like what you hear.

GERSH: But Bill Summers says campaign contributions do help. As President of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, he helped put together the local coalition that is lobbying for federal highway funds. Summers says campaign contributions send a message.

BILL SUMMERS, PRESIDENT, RIO GRANDE VALLEY PARTNERSHIP: It gets their attention. It makes them see that we are important.

GERSH: Former Iowa Congressman Fred Grandy says McAllen, Texas, isn't alone. Many at the local level are now more sophisticated about what it takes to get things done in Washington.

FRED GRANDY, FORMER MEMBER OF CONGRESS: I think people now understand the stakes. I think they understand that you have to start early. And stay late and the business of politics is now, I think, permeating down to a level that 10 or 15 years ago it wouldn't have happened.

GERSH: Corporate interests have spent $841 million nationwide so far in this election cycle. By comparison, the Rio Grande Valley is a small player. Mike Allen is president of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. He says his community is simply trying to compete for the funds to get its road built.

MIKE ALLEN, PRESIDENT, McALLEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.: If it takes a lobbyist or campaign contributions to build our way, then I guess I'm not making a judgment about it. You know, different countries use different things. Some people criticize Mexico for the bribery, the mordida. Well, in the United States we pay consultants and lobbyists, so there's really not too much difference.

GERSH: Since business leaders here began their lobbying campaign, two roads in the area, one through McAllen and one through neighboring Harlingen have been designated high priority corridors, the first step towards becoming an interstate. Now the Rio Grande Valley must convince the people here in Washington to finally send the cash to turn their roads into an interstate. Darren Gersh, 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.



10/31/2000: Commentary: What Is Ahead For Wall Street

SUSIE GHARIB: It looks like the NASDAQ has had more tricks than treats for investors over the past few months. So on this Halloween night, our commentator peers into his crystal ball to see what's ahead. Here's Alan Sloan, Wall Street Editor of "Newsweek" magazine.

ALLAN SLOAN, COMMENTARY: Given that today is Halloween it seems like a perfect time to talk about the NASDAQ stock market. After all, you never know whether NASDAQ is going to give you a trick or a treat. Both Halloween and the NASDAQ are enough to scare the pants off you. And, of course, both involve magic, although for the past few months, the only thing magical about NASDAQ has been its ability to make your money disappear. On a somewhat more serious note, Halloween marks the end of a period that has haunted NASDAQ this year- tax loss selling season. The tax year for mutual funds ends in October. Funds have been dumping their NASDAQ losers to offset gains they took when NASDAQ was enchanted. After all, the only thing that spooks investors more than losing money on their funds is losing money on their funds and getting stuck with a big capital gains bill. But tax loss selling season ended today. That may make NASDAQ a bit less batty. All of which leads us to the final connection between All Hallows Eve and the stock market for the digital age, as NASDAQ bills itself. Given the carnage and tax loss selling that have sucked the life out of NASDAQ like a financial Dracula, there are undoubtedly bargains out there. Which stocks are bargains? Picking them is an art.Think of it as witchcraft. I'm Alan Sloan.

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.

10/31/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Meanwhile, the blue chips on Wall Street opened under some mild profit-taking pressure which was no surprise in the wake of a 456-point, or 4.4 percent jump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average over just the two previous trading sessions. At 10:30 this morning though, the Dow was down a mere 16 2/3 points, and buyers were moving into the recently hard-hit tech stocks in the belief, as Dick McCabe said, they had been oversold. So the NASDAQ Index posted a 95-point gain an hour into the session. The tech sector continued to rally throughout the rest of the morning, partly because Internet firms like eToys (ETYS), Expedia (EXPE) and StarMedia (STRM) reported better-than-expected results after the market closed yesterday, restoring investor confidence in that area. The Dow, however, was hampered by weakness in Procter & Gamble (PG) which reported mediocre earnings and rather soft sales. At 12:30 p.m. then, the Industrial Average was up only 27 points, while the NASDAQ Index posted a 152-point gain. Because mutual funds ended their fiscal year today, the combination of no further tax selling, along with new reinvestment, led to a big afternoon rally, which lifted the Dow Industrial Average to a closing gain of 135.37 points, or 1.3 percent, putting it at 10,971.14. In today's 183-point trading range, the Dow closed up 159 points from its worst level of the day. The NASDAQ Composite climbed 178.23 ending at 3369.63. In its nearly 188-point trading range, the Composite settled only 9 1/2 points below its very best level of the day. That was impressive.

And volume on the big board impressive at 1.35 billion shares, well up from yesterday. And look at this, up volume three times as much as down volume.

The Dow Transport Index had a good day, up 58 points.

Utilities edged up 1.37, getting closer to a record high.

And the Closing Tick +620, definitely bullish.

Standard & Poor's 500 up 30 3/4.

Just over an 18-point rise in the 100.

The MidCap 400 up almost 12 3/4.

Bridge Futures Price Index up .90.

New York Stock Exchange Composite gained nearly 11 1/2.

Just over a 9 3/4-point rise in the Value Line.

Russell2000 Small Cap up just about 15 points.

And the broadly-based Wilshire 5000 up almost 349 points, or 2.7 percent. That was impressive.

Bond investors were disappointed that the market didn't show a positive reaction to the report you heard about earlier of a sizable drop in consumer confidence this month, or news that the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index of business activity dropped. Even easier oil prices couldn't rally the debt market, probably because the broad-scale rally in stocks kept buyers on the sidelines, watching.

In any case, tax-free and corporate issues ended down about an-eighth point on average.

And the Treasury market closed mostly lower.

No change at all in the 5-year note.

The 10-year note down 5/32.

30-year bond off 14/32, with the yield at 5.79 percent.

Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index off just over 4 1/2 points.

Today's rally on Wall Street swiveled a few heads, a lot of them bear heads, I imagine, up 135.37 on the Dow and the advance/decline ratio truly impressive, 20 stocks up for every 9 lower; 99 new yearly highs, only 51 new lows.

Lucent Technologies (LU) topped the active list on 27 million shares, up $2.94. That was no doubt helped by Alcatel's (ALA) better than expected third quarter earnings, which we'll see in a moment. The telecom equipment manufacturer is apparently doing a little better than thought.

AT&T (T) moved up $0.56.

Nortel Networks (NT) finally getting some buying attention, up $5.50.

China Mobile HK (CHL) down $1.50. This company is in the process of selling 230, or let's make it 213 million of its American Depositary shares. The price, $30.77.

Micron Technology (MU) up $2.06. Simulationships are now available for the company's new memory devices.

General Electric (GE) up $0.81.

Motorola (MOT) rose $2.44.

Wal*Mart (WMT) recovering $1.63.

And then Chase Manhattan (CMB), a strong financial group, up $1.75.

SBC Communications (SBC) fell $0.44.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up $2.38. The company's in a deal to supply Nortel with most of its flash memory needs over the next three years.

Now we see Alcatel (ALA) up $5.25. Third quarter earnings nearly tripled, $0.22, up from only $0.08 last year and sales up a whooping 50 percent.

IBM (IBM) rose $5.19. The company's board of directors has approved an additional stock buyback of up to $3.5 billion.

J.P. Morgan (JPM) the best point gainer in the Dow, up $6.13.

Procter & Gamble (PG) down $5.44. As I maintained earlier, first quarter earnings just sort of in line, $0.82, up from last year's $0.80, but sales were soft and Standard & Poor's has downgraded P&G's (PG) stock from "hold" to "avoid."

Solectron (SLR) fell $3.94. The company plans to bid about $2.4 billion for NatSteel Electronics (NASL).

Entercom Communications (ETM) the star of the day, up $.788. Yesterday third quarter earnings were nicely higher, $0.54, up from $0.40, and today Morgan Stanley Brokerage repeated a "strong buy" with a target of $52 a share for that stock.

Manpower (MAN), the temporary help company, up $5.44. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.70, up from $0.63 last year, in line with estimates and revenues up eight percent. And the company's comfortable with fourth quarter Street estimates of $0.68 a share.

Cox Radio (CXR) up $3.38. The company said its third quarter broadcast cash flow rose 22 percent over last year and so the company is doing very well.

The big loser of the day, and I mean big, Rent-Way (RWY) tumbling $18.38. The company is investigating possible accounting irregularities by some of the top management and this could impact results very negatively.

Edwards Lifesciences (EW) down $9.50. This company says fourth quarter sales would be just slightly higher than the third quarter level.

And then Alpharma (ALO) tumbling $17.69. $0.48 came in third quarter earnings, in line with estimates, but revenue disappointing and a group of Brazilian employees apparently have created some false invoices, more accounting irregularities.

The NASDAQ trading, 178 1/4 point gain or 5.6 percent. However, for the month of October, that index is still down 303 points or 8.3 percent. Volume heavy today, 2.14 billion, 27 stocks up for every 12 down, impressive.

Cisco (CSCO) up $5.81, participating in the rally.

Microsoft (MSFT) was down $0.19.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) up over $10.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) rose $28.63.

No change in Intel (INTC). However, a published report says Intel is cutting back on the use of Rambus chips. Rambus stock fell $8.50, down to $44.94.

SDL (SDLI) up $38.25.

Sun Micro (SUNW) up $6.88.

CIENA (CIEN) up $14.44.

And WorldCom (WCOM), there you