SUSIE GHARIB: November is turning out to be a "red hot" month for the NASDAQ. It surged almost 100 points today, or about 3 percent, on a rally in Intel. But there are still some big problems for big-name NASDAQ stocks. Priceline.com had more bad news after the market closed. It lost a penny in the third quarter, right in-line with estimates. But its chief financial officer resigned after only eight months on the job; 87 other job cuts; 16 percent of its workforce; and it warned about soft earnings for next quarter. The stock fell sharply after-hours to $5.38, off its yearly high of 104. And PSINet (PSIX) stock fell to a new 52-week low of $2.87, off of its high of $60. The president of this Internet access provider resigned, and it, too, issued a fourth quarter warning. Well, these types of big losses on the Nasdaq are encouraging investors to take a fresh look outside the technology sector. For the first time in six years, value stocks are performing better than growth stocks. Erika Miller takes a look at the growth of value investing.

ERIKA MILLER, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Most shoppers love a bargain, especially those hunting for stocks. With the majority of U.S. stocks down for the year, some fund managers have been rummaging for good deals on quality names. These value investors look for solid companies trading at a discount to the market, and poised for a rebound.

JEROME HEPPELMAN, PORTFOLIO MGR., PBHG FOCUSED VALUE FUND: We are looking for quality companies. We're not trying to buy the broken down value stocks that have very, very low valuations and just waiting for those to return to favor. We're waiting till there's an actual catalyst that can be determined.

MILLER: Growth investors, on the other hand, don't mind paying top dollar for companies with strong earnings outlooks.

MARK FULLER, PORTFOLIO MGR., WILLIAM BLAIR SMALL CAP GROWTH FUND: We still make long-term commitments to what I think of as the classic growth sectors: technology, healthcare, the consumer, financial services. We tend to avoid cyclical sectors, or the what are typically thought of as value sectors, like chemicals, paper and steels.

MILLER: So far this year, value has clobbered growth. The S&P Barra Value Index is up about 4 percent since January. While the Growth Index is down more than twice that. Even the broader market as measured by the S&P 500 is under water. Big bets on energy and financials early in the year have helped many value funds, including his Jerome Heppelman's PBHG Focused Value fund, which is up more than 25 percent since January.

HEPPELMAN: I like to select companies in energy; they've had quite a run. I've recently been more of a seller than a buyer in energy, but there's been a recent pullback. So I may be adding to put positions a little bit. Financials, I'm still very much overweighted.

MILLER: Heppelman has been buying names like FleetBoston (FBF), Freddie Mac (FRE) and ComCast (CMCSK). But many small investors are not convinced that value will continue to shine. According to the most recent data, money has been flowing out of value mutual funds, and into growth funds. Growth fund managers, like Mark Fuller, are sticking to their guns. His small cap growth fund is up more than 45 percent this year.

FULLER: I think in the year 2000, there are plenty of opportunities to invest in growth stocks at somewhat more reasonable prices than we saw in 1999. And I think that there is a greater focus on investor's parts as far as earnings growth is concerned.

MILLER: Among his top picks are FirstService Corp (FSRV), Dendrite (DRTE) and Boston Private Financial (BPFH). Financial planners say the best strategy for investors is probably not to take sides in the growth versus value debate. They recommend investors build a portfolio with a blend of both kinds of stocks, instead of putting all their eggs in one basket. Erika Miller, 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.

SUSIE GHARIB: On Capitol Hill the House is back in session tonight on yet another bill to temporarily fund the government. Congress was supposed to have adjourned by now, but things didn't work out as planned. Stephanie Woods looks at the reasons why.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush running neck and neck for the presidency and control of Congress up for grabs, politics has led to gridlock on Capitol Hill. The Republican led Congress and the Clinton administration are locked in a battle over spending bills. In a Rose Garden ceremony, President Clinton blamed Republicans for the impasse.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Regrettably, this is the Congress that may well be remembered for broken promises, lost opportunities and misplaced priorities.

WOODS: Not so, say House Republican leaders. They decided to stay in session to try to work out the most contentious issues and they called on the President and Democrats to negotiate.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT, HOUSE SPEAKER: We're not done yet. We've got work to do. We're going to be here and I think it's time that all the politics, you know, by Tuesday, this politics is going to be over and maybe this time then we can get something done.

WOODS: Even though House leaders say they will remain in session, they can't do much without the Senate, whose members left town yesterday to hit the campaign trail. The budget stand-off sets the stage for an unusual post-election lame duck session of Congress. Among the outstanding issues that could be taken up, $355 billion in funding for the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, $39.8 billion for Commerce, State and Justice, a $240 billion, 10 year tax cut package, new Medicare funding and a revision of the federal state corporation tax. Lehman Brothers Chief Political Strategist Kim Wallace says a lame-duck session would be uncharted waters.

KIM WALLACE, CHIEF POLITICAL STRATEGIST, LEHMAN BROTHERS: My guess at this point is that the presidential election will send a signal to the leaders as to how quickly, if at all, they work on these four or five remaining bills, not so much as it will increase the spending or the size of a tax cut in any of those bills.

WOODS: There's one thing on which the parties seem to agree, not shutting down the government while they sort out the issues. 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.



11/02/00: How The Race For The White House Is Having An Impact On Wall Street

SUSIE GHARIB: The talk on Wall Street these days is, what else, next week's presidential election. Just about everyone is sizing up how the outcome will affect Wall Street, including the people talking to Washington Bureau Chief Darren Gersh.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Now that earnings season is behind it, the market is beginning to really focus on election season. Political analyst Tom Gallagher points out in 1992 it was clear two months before the election Clinton was likely to win and the bond market began to price that in. But this time Gallagher warns investors must be prepared for anything.

TOM GALLAGHER, POLITICAL ANALYST, INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY & INVESTMENT: This year the markets may not even have two days to discount the impact of the election. So I think a close election means more volatile markets.

GERSH: Gallagher puts the odds of a Republican sweep at 50 percent, Bush becomes president and Republicans hold Congress. Gallagher puts the odds of a Democratic sweep at around 25 percent. Those are the same odds Gallagher puts on a continuation of gridlock, where one party takes the White House and another party controls Congress. For investors, the key question is what does all this mean for the budget surplus?

GALLAGHER: If it looks like there's an end to gridlock, that means the surplus is going to be used for other purposes so interest rates will probably rise. If there is a continuation of gridlock, then the surplus is going to be used to retire debt and interest rates would probably fall.

GERSH: But political analyst Pete Davis continues to warn investors that the race is too close to call and the market may have to live with political uncertainty beyond election day itself.

PETE DAVIS, POLITICAL ANALYST, DAVIS CAPITAL INVESTMENT IDEAS: We may not know Wednesday morning who's president, if it's really this close in 14 states and you have to count absentee ballots.

GERSH: Not only that, Davis warns investors may not know who will control the next Congress, perhaps until it meets in January.

DAVIS: The House is so, is going to be so close that even if someone has a majority by a few votes, it won't be by enough votes to control it and it may be difficult to elect a speaker.

GERSH: All this means the next president may not have the support or mandate necessary to make big changes. That at least should reassure some investors who think the status quo has been their friend. 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.




11/02/2000: Prime Mover: Douglas Hickey, CEO, Critical Path

SUSIE GHARIB: E-mail is an essential tool for doing business these days. But many companies are overwhelmed by the cost of maintaining e-mail networks. But Critical Path (CPTH), based in San Francisco, has a solution. It helps customers cut costs by outsourcing their e-mail and instant messaging. The company was founded in 1997. CEO Douglas Hickey joined Critical Path a year later and helped launch its IPO in March of last year. He said today that Critical Path expects to post its first profit by the end of this year. It has over 2,000 customers including E*TRADE (EGRP), eBay (EBAY), Yahoo! (YHOO), Verizon (VZ) and WorldCom (WCOM). In tonight's prime mover segment, Donald van de Mark of Myprimetime.com asks Hickey about the core business of Critical Path.

DOUGLAS HICKEY, CEO, CRITICAL PATH: It all starts with e-mail and then so e-mail is really the core of what we deliver for our customers. But what we've done is surrounded e-mail with a whole series of other services like guaranteed delivery and secure mail, virus and spam, calendaring services. So we provide really a true end to end solution to the customer base.

DONALD VAN DE MARK, MYPRIMETIME.COM: For everyone who doesn't understand all that language, you're basically guaranteeing a variety of ways that messages get through to people on a variety of devices?

HICKEY: Correct. We, our view is any time, anywhere, any device you really want to get to this key information and you want to be able to tie it back to what we call your home court, which in most cases is your desktop. So as I'm running around the country or around the world on a wireless device, as an example, I want to be able to get to information that resides on my desktop and that's a key.

VAN DE MARK: Is it because we're all becoming so much more mobile, we're all becoming road warriors, that we need all these services?

HICKEY: Well, I think the reason that they're becoming incredibly valuable is if you go and you travel around the world, what you're seeing is the Internet is becoming the mechanism that many cultures communicate. If you travel to Asia and you travel in China, the e-mail is becoming the infrastructure by which families communicate, by which businesses communicate.

VAN DE MARK: Why wouldn't a Microsoft (MSFT) or Lotus or someone else come in and grab some of your business?

HICKEY: I fully expect that in this market, which is estimated to be about a $35 billion market by 2003, we'll have a whole series of competitors. But here's the advantage we have. We've been able to sign up really the leading category winners in each of the categories we go after. So eBay, Amazon (AMZN), Intuit (INTU) are customers of Critical Path. Yahoo! is a customer of Critical Path. Most of the telcos are customers of Critical Path. Most of the large enterprises that are now outsourcing now, like AFLAC (AFL) and Circuit City (CC) and then a whole series of 25 million wireless users. So we're very, very well positioned and we'll continue to add more and more services, which makes that relationship more intimate.

VAN DE MARK: Well, even if they didn't crush you or take over your business, they could certainly collapse your profit margins.

HICKEY: You know, you would think that from a beginning perspective, but when you look at the way we built the company is we said e-mail will become a mature tool in a very short period of time and it has. So companies that just focus on e-mail, I think have gotten relegated to the cheap seats, quite frankly. What we've been saying is use e-mail as an engine to deliver all these value added services which come at much higher margins and much higher revenue.

VAN DE MARK: Burnout. Tell me about burnout. Have you suffered it?

HICKEY: Well, I think burnout is a reality. You know, when you look at the industrial revolution, how long it took for things to take place, we're doing it within a five or seven year time frame. What it took for, you know, Ford Motor Company (F) when there were 95 auto deal-or auto manufacturers, now six or five, it took 100 years for that to happen. Well, what you're seeing in the technology and the Internet space is that's collapsed to one tenth. So it's acceptable to see burnout. It's unacceptable not to recognize it and deal with it.

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.



11/02/2000:Commentary:The Presidential To-Do List

SUSIE GHARIB: Whoever moves into the White House in January has a lot of work waiting for him. Tonight's commentator takes a look at what could be his to do list. Here's Barbara Hackman Franklin, President of Barbara Franklin Enterprises and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

BARBARA HACKMAN FRANKLIN, COMMENTARY: The presidential election is just five days away. When it's over and the new president takes office, he'll have many issues to face. Among them, worries about energy prices and heating oil shortages in some places, if the winter is cold; continued turmoil in the Middle East, which could add to the concerns about energy supplies, not to mention the human costs; trade tensions with Europe put off until after the election could erupt into a costly trade war. And there is the still fragile recovery in Asia. He'll have to deal with China, Russia, North Korea, the possible spread of the narco war in Colombia and whatever else emerges. A new U.S. president is always closely watched and tested. Then, too, he must quickly send to Congress his proposals for making good on what he promised to do. He'll have to prioritize these promises and go for a few early successes. He'll have to take into account the makeup of the new Congress. No matter which party has the majority in the House and the Senate, the margin of control will be slim. So the president will have to work across the aisle to get anything done. But he is also fortunate. The U.S. economy is strong even though growth is slowing somewhat and we have wise decision-makers at the Federal Reserve. Whichever man wins, we wish him well. I'm Barbara Hackman Franklin.
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.

11/02/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened moderately higher today with investors relieved over the relative mildness of yesterday's sell-off. At 10 this morning, the Dow Industrial Average recouped almost 44 points of yesterday's 71-point decline, while the NASDAQ Index jumped 86 points. Bolstered by Intel's forecasts that it would meet or beat analysts' fourth quarter and year 2001 revenue expectations. The report that October retail store sales were rather mediocre cooled buying enthusiasm for the blue chips in late morning, and the NASDAQ market lost ground on rumors that Oracle's (ORCL) founder, Larry Ellison, and his chief financial officer were leaving the company. Although those rumors proved to be untrue, they did help to cut the Composite Index's gain to only 41 points at 11:30 a.m. when the Dow fell to a 9-point loss. Investors appeared to lose interest in blue chips in afternoon trading as the Dow churned about in a narrow range, but buyers renewed the rally in the tech-laden NASDAQ. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a loss of 18.96 at 10,880.51. The NASDAQ Composite gained 95.63 ending at 3429.02. Nice move there.

Volume down a bit from yesterday on the big board, 1.148 billion shares. And about 87 million more shares of up volume than down volume.

The Dow Transport Index up 37.1 points.

But the Utilities fell nearly 6 1/2 after a similar gain yesterday.

The Closing Tick still modestly bullish at +472.

Standard & Poor's 500 up 7.1 points.

A gain of just over five in the 100.

The MidCap 400 up nearly 9 1/2.

Bridge Futures Price Index edged up .79.

New York Stock Exchange Composite down just over 1 1/4.

The Value Line gained over 5 3/4 points.

Russell2000 Small Cap Index up over 11 3/4 .

And the Wilshire 5000 up 135.71, one percent.

After the market closed, the Federal Reserve reported in the week ending October 23, the M-2 money supply fell $2.9 billion.

The bond market had plenty of economic news to digest. Third quarter labor costs for example rose 2 1/2 percent, one percent more than expected, as hourly compensation jumped 6.4 percent. But this was mitigated by a 3.8 percent rise in productivity in those three months, which was better-than-expected. Meanwhile, the September Index of leading economic indicators showed no change, and October retail sales, as I mentioned, were somewhat sluggish.

Ahead of tomorrow's October jobs report though, there was little reaction, with tax free, corporates and Treasuries hardly moving on the day.

The 5-year notes edged up 1/32.

The 10-year notes, no change at all.

The 30-year bond down 1/32.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index off a small fraction.

Investors on Wall Street more or less elected to leave the blue chips alone as the Dow fell about 19 points and instead bought the tech stocks. Seventeen stocks higher for every 11 lower on the big board. That was fairly impressive. And 93 new highs, only 35 new lows.

Well, it seems as though investors gave Aon (AOC) an F on its third quarter report, $0.53. That was a penny below Street estimates. The company's also going to cut 3,000 jobs or six percent of the workforce over the next year. J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock to "market perform" and traded almost 18 million shares, down 744.

Wal*Mart (WMT) moving up $1.75. Its sales were up 4.9 percent in the last month.

And Nortel (NT) down $1.25. The story here, S.G. Cowen Brokerage downgraded it from "strong buy" to just a "buy."

AT & T (T) off $0.44.

Lucent Technologies (LU) a little rally of $1.31 there, fifth in volume.

Vodafone Group (VOD) down $3.63.

The Gap (GPS) lost $2 -- or gained $2.75. October same store sales were actually down two percent for The Gap, but that wasn't as bad as expected.

General Electric (GE) fell $0.75.

Citigroup moving up $1.52.

And America Online (AOL) up $2.10. Now, General Motors (GM) and DaimlerChrysler (DAJ) are offering 300,000 of their U.S. employees the company's online services at a discount. In addition to that, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is going to invest another billion dollars in AOL, making his total investment $2 billion.

CIGNA (CI) down $4.57. Third quarter earnings, $1.76, $0.08 better than the Street estimate. But the company sees full year earnings down a bit from estimates, that's what hurt the stock, and some profit taking. It did recently hit a new yearly high.

EMC (EMC) up $3.94. Merrill Lynch repeated a "buy" on that stock.

ExxonMobil (XOM) down $3.88, the biggest point loser in the Dow today, and New York December oil fell $0.71 a barrel.

Hispanic Broadcasting (HBCCA) up $4.44. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.12 versus $0.09 last year and the $0.12 was a penny better than expected.

IBM (IBM) moved up $3.38. That was the biggest gainer point wise in the Dow today.

And The Limited (LTD) up $1.94. October same store sales up to a respectable eight percent.

SAGA Systems (AGS) up $5.50, a 100 percent gain. The company will be acquired for $11.50 a share cash by Europe's Software A.G.

Titan (TTN) up $2.94. Third quarter earnings $0.20, up from $0.14 last year. Revenues up 30 percent.

Keithley Instruments (KEI), $9.75 gain there. This stock will replace Dura Pharmaceuticals (DURA) in the Standard & Poor's Small Cap 600 Index after the close a week from today.

AnnTaylor Stores (ANN) up $5. The company says it will beat Wall Street third quarter earnings estimates of $0.77 by at least $0.01.

Talbots (TLB) up $7.44 today. October same store sales up a whopping 19 percent. The company sees third quarter earnings are going to be higher than the original estimate of $1.02, maybe around $1.06 to $1.08.

Finally, one of the few big percentage losers, Superior TeleCom (SUT) off $1.50. Third quarter earnings $0.01, and the Street was expecting $0.50.

NASDAQ trading, a gain of 95.63 or almost three percent. Volume up nicely to 2 ¼ billion shares; 24 stocks higher for every 14 lower.

Oracle (ORCL) topped the active list, down $1.81 even though the company vehemently denied that Larry Ellison and CFO Jeff Henley are departing the company.

Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $3.63.

Intel (INTC) up $1.81 after the company decided they'll expect to meet fourth quarter and year 2000 revenue expectations.

WorldCom (WCOM) continuing to fall, down $1.38.

Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.69, fifth in volume.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) up $3.19.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) up $2.06.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) had a good day, rising $11.50.

But PMC-Sierra (PMCS) dropped $7.39.

While SDL (SDLI) gained $7.88.

NextCard (NXCD), look at that gain, 45 ¾ percent, up $3.69. The company expects to be pro