PAUL KANGAS: One area of disagreement between the candidates during the campaign has been clean air regulations. Today the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on that issue in a case pitting the Environmental Protection Agency against America's truckers. As Stephanie Woods reports, the Court's decision could change the way government regulates business.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Three years ago the Environmental Protection Agency set new standards to reduce air pollution from smog and soot. It cited risks to public health ranging from asthma to other respiratory illnesses to early death. But the trucking industry and others say the EPA overstepped its authority by not considering the cost of the new regulations.

ROBERT GASAWAY, COUNSEL TO AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION: I think the most important issue is whether EPA can set a $45 billion a year, a $60 billion a year, a very important economic standard by pulling a number out of the air.

WOODS: Arguing for the EPA, a government attorney told the justices the agency is mandated by Congress to set initial standards based solely on science and public health. The EPA says it does consider cost, but only after that initial standard is set.

CAROL BROWNER, ADMINISTRATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: Should government really be setting a dollar amount on a life saved when we look at the costs to industry? We've looked at these costs for 20 to 30 years now. Frequently the initial cost estimate is much higher than the reality.

WOODS: If the court decides that the EPA should factor in costs when setting a standard, legal experts say that could throw into question a whole range of public health statues, from clean water rules to auto and worker safety.

ROBERT LITAN, DIR., ECONOMIC STUDIES, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Challenges will be made citing this particular decision if it comes down in industry's favor. So the whole regulatory framework that we're talking about is at stake.

WOODS: And aside from industry and regulation, the Court is in a position to decide a fundamental conflict in our society.

JONATHAN MARTEL, LAWYER, ARNOLD & PORTER: It creates what is essentially a conflict in our own value system between treating life as priceless and allocating resources in a way to optimize what we do while recognizing that there are limits to what we can do.

WOODS: How new clean air regulation is actually put into place may have as much to do with who's the next president as to how the court rules. A Gore administration would likely support the EPA standards already in place, while a Bush administration would be likely to change the rules. 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.

SUSIE GHARIB: The third quarter was a healthy one for Bally Total Fitness (BFT). It almost finished with a makeover-it's almost finished with a makeover that has pumped up its profits. But as Diane Eastabrook reports, the health club chain is still working on its image.

DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Bally Total Fitness was a 90 pound weakling running in the red when Bally Entertainment spun it off four years ago. But today the health club chain is as fit as many of its four million members. In the third quarter, Bally earned $0.58 a share, versus $0.45 in the same period a year ago. That is the 15th consecutive quarter the company has improved its profits.

LEE HILLMAN, CHMN. & CEO, BALLY TOTAL FITNESS HOLDING CORPORATION: I think Wall Street is beginning to come around quite well and understand that this is a new company.

EASTABROOK: Bally muscled its way back to profitability by changing its business strategy. First, it cleaned up its nearly 400 clubs. Then it fattened profit margins by offering personal trainers, by selling branded products like workout clothing and nutritional supplements, and by providing rehabilitation programs to hospitals. Bally still tries to offer an affordable membership to a mass audience, but it has eliminated heavily discounted memberships and is selling more upgraded plans that members finance over a few years.

HILLMAN: It's proven to be very good for us. It's a higher margin for us. It's easier payments for the members and it results in a collection pattern that we've found that we've been able to maintain and improve upon quarter to quarter.

EASTABROOK: But despite its improved profits, some analysts say Bally Total Fitness is still being dogged by the poor image it had five years ago. The company's stock has traded between $20 and $30 a share for the past year. But one analyst thinks investors will recognize Bally has made a turnaround and the stock will trade higher.

RICHARD FRADIN, CONSUMER SERVICES ANALYST, WILLIAM BLAIR & COMPANY: We would use a 12 month price target somewhere in the mid to maybe even upper 30s and I think over the course of maybe a two year period the stock has the potential to as much as double from current levels.

EASTABROOK: Some analysts say going forward the wild card for Bally is the economy. Health club memberships in general can decline in tough economic times. But Bally says a softening in the economy could actually provide the company more muscle. Since its memberships tend to be more affordable, the company thinks it may be able to lure members away from more expensive clubs. 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.



11/07/00: Celebrities Risk Star Power On Internet Endorsements

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, the stock of Pets.com (IPET) was in the dog house today. It fell $0.44, or more than 66 percent, to $0.22. The online pet supply seller is closing shop. Almost all of its 320 workers are losing their jobs and so is the popular sock puppet mascot. The closure comes after the financially troubled e-tailer couldn't find a buyer. Pets.com will sell all assets, including its inventory, its distribution center and the sock puppet trademark. Well, that sock puppet is just one of many investors who has learned about the perils of Internet stocks and he's got plenty of company in Hollywood. As Pat Anson reports, some of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry have heard and been hurt by the siren song of the Web.

PAT ANSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: William Shatner's endorsement of Priceline.com (PCLN) helped trigger a gold rush of sorts in Hollywood.

WILLIAM SHATNER: And I went to Priceline.com, where you can name your own price.

ANSON: Shatner's price was 100,000 shares of Priceline, a deal many other stars rushed to copy. Jennifer Aniston and Robin Williams also got stock options in exchanges for endorsements and model Cindy Crawford took it a step further, getting equity and a seat on the board of directors at E-Style .

CINDY CRAWFORD, MODEL/ACTRESS: I thought it was a really good team and it was exciting to be part of a startup company.

ANSON: Even celebrities from the sports world are getting into the act. Basketball star Shaquille O'Neill not only sells shoes over the Internet, he has endorsed an Internet service provider and a Web hosting service. But do all these endorsements really make sense?

ROBERT LANDIS, CO-CHAIR, GUIDANCE: Taking a talent and slapping on a product or a service or information that is not relevant to their particular expertise or persona is a waste of money and it's not going to work.

ANSON: Robert Landis is an online business developer.

LANDIS: I think you've seen the last of celebrity endorsed equity deals hoping that at some point we're going to go public based on some out of the sky idea and putting a dot.com on it. That dog does not hunt any longer.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Hey, who you buying that for?

COMMERCIAL ACTOR: Mother.

GOLDBERG: Give her Flooz.

ANSON: In exchange for her endorse endorsement, Whoopi Goldberg took a small stake in Flooz.com. The company has yet to go public, but the CEO says Whoopi's endorsement has paid off in brand awareness.

ROBERT LEVITAN, CEO, FLOOZ.COM: What we like to say is every dollar we spend with Whoopi is probably worth $5 or $6 at least that other people are spending to build their brand.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: When my mama said I look good in white-

ANSON: Some celebrities have been burned by stock options. When Pixelon.com hired the Dixie Chicks, Tony Bennett and The Who to perform at a lavish party in Los Angeles, it paid many of the entertainers with options, options that became worthless when Pixelon filed for bankruptcy a few months later.

ANTHONY MORA, PRESIDENT, MORA COMMUNICATIONS: The celebrities also need to look at what if the Web site is a failure. That is suddenly going to start reflecting on well, that star didn't have the power to put that across. So there are some real downsides there that I think both sides need to look out.

ANSON: The downside for William Shatner has been limited. While Priceline's stock has plummeted in recent months, the actor was smart enough to sell a third of his stock before the fall. Shatner walked away with $3 million.

SHATNER: Say, mucho dinero.

Pat Anson, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Los Angeles.

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.




11/07/2000: Mutual Fund Report-Dennis McKechnie, Co-Portfolio Mgr., PIMCO Global Innovation Fund

PAUL KANGAS: The markets haven't been kind to most growth mutual funds in the year 2000 and as a result their growth has generally been stunted. But one exception is Pimco Global Innovation Fund. October wasn't kind. The fund did lose 13.6 percent for the month. But since its inception 10 months ago at the beginning of the year it has earned a staggering 83.2 percent. The co-portfolio manager of Pimco Global Innovation Fund is Dennis McKechnie, who joins us now from New York. And Dennis, welcome to NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT.

DENNIS MCKECHNIE, CO-PORTFOLIO MGR., PIMCO GLOBAL INNOVATION FUND: Hi. Thanks for having me.

KANGAS: Well, first of all, Pimco is generally known for its bond funds. How is it that you have such a high flying stock growth fund?

MCKECHNIE: Well, it's a little known fact but it's getting wider known that we do have an equity division here based in New York. It's run independently, but we've been at it for a while. We have actually got some products that are six years old that are quite successful.

KANGAS: What kind of stocks do you look for? And, of course, as a global fund you look for them in foreign markets as well, right?

MCKECHNIE: Right, we do look for them in foreign as well. We tend to find a lot of our ideas domestically, especially when the worldwide economy is decelerating. But towards the beginning of the year we were finding more stocks like China Unicom (CHU) and Bookham Technology (BKHM). These are typically to do with telecom worldwide. One of the main reasons we formed the fund was that telecomm events that happened here in the states we felt would roll out to the rest of the world.

KANGAS: What the what are the largest holdings in your portfolio right now?

MCKECHNIE: Well, at the moment we've got a handful of domestic stocks that are highly ranked within the fund. I2 Technology (ITWO), it's a software company, and then Extreme (EXT), which is a networking company.

KANGAS: Now you do have a co-manager and I understand that she specializes in the biotech area. Is this one of the reasons for your stellar performance?

MCKECHNIE: Yeah, by all means. My co-manager Jian Kim (ph), she and I work on the product together, she's got training within biotech and we've put some biotech stocks in the fund as well. At one point it was about 20, 25 percent of the fund. We've drawn it back slightly but when tech was really decelerating, biotech was standing out on the upside.

KANGAS: Looking ahead, Dennis, do you see any new trends that you'll be trying to play off of in the coming months or do you expect to continue on your current course?

MCKECHNIE: No, I think one thing is for sure with technology, things are always moving. Two important trends that we see going forward is that the Internet is actually coming to the wireless cell phone. So we are going to try to capitalize on that both domestically and on the foreign, different markets. But then also maybe an even bigger theme is that the worldwide economies have been decelerating, and it's our sense that we'll see an inflection point back upwards sometime in the spring, which should help the entire markets.

KANGAS: Now, you like telecommunications but of course here in the States they've been hurt rather badly. Are you picking some of these things up as bargains? Do you consider them bargains?

MCKECHNIE: Selectively, but in generally we don't really look for price points or bargains. What we look for is fundamentals getting better. A lot of the tech stocks, specifically the telecom stocks, we've unloaded recently. We've actually started moving some of the assets back into PC stocks not because they've been beaten down but the fact that the fundamentals are starting to improve and turn back upwards.

KANGAS: All right, that's very interesting, Dennis, and I thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us.

MCKECHNIE: Oh, thank you.

KANGAS: My guest, Dennis McKechnie, co-manager of Pimco Global Innovation Fund.

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.




11/07/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: The major influence on the stock market early today was not a new issue, but an old one, namely, who will win the presidency. And because of the closeness of the race, the uncertainty, which investors disliked, resulted in an opening downturn. At 10:30 a.m., the Dow Industrial Average, which was due for some profit taking anyway, after yesterday's 159-point run-up, posted a 41.75-point loss, while the NASDAQ Index was down 45.75 points. The light volume and relatively small losses on the early sell-off convinced some potential buyers to come off the sidelines in the belief the market might be ready to resume the blue chip rally that developed yesterday. The tech sector drew confidence from a very strong debut by that Transmeta initial public offering. By 1:00 p.m. then, the Dow managed to move to a fractional gain, while the NASDAQ Index was up nine points. The market went into partial paralysis as volume slowed to a crawl in afternoon trading, with investors going to the exits to await the election results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted to a closing loss of 25.03 points putting it at 10,952.18. In today's narrow 70-point trading range, the Dow closed down 44.5 points from the best level of the session. The NASDAQ Composite showed little change, falling only .42 ending at 3415.79. In its 75-point trading range, the Composite Index settled 19.5 points below its very best level of the day.

Big board volume, the slowest we've seen in a long time, 880 million shares, well down from yesterday, 37 more million shares of up volume than down volume.

The Dow Transport Index down 22 2/3.

Utility Index managed to edge up .21.

The Closing Tick modestly bullish at +548.

Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1/3 of a point.

The 100 up .86.

MidCap 400 fell nearly 1 3/4 points.

And the Bridge Futures Price Index was up a little over 1 1/2 points.

New York Stock Exchange Composite fell .87.

A-tenth of a point gain in the Value Line Index.

Russell2000 Small Cap up just over 2 points.

And the broadly-based Wilshire 5000 down almost 2 points.

The bond market was a quiet affair today as traders sat on their hands to await the election results. The Treasury's auction of $12 billion of 5-year notes put some downside supply pressure on prices. The issue was priced to yield 5.87 percent. Tomorrow will come an 8 billion offering of 10-year Treasury notes. Another negative was about a 50-cent per barrel rise in oil futures. Even so, tax free and corporates showed little change on the day, and the Treasury market edged modestly lower.

The 5-year notes dropping 1/32.

The 10-year notes down 2/32, with the yield at 5.87 percent.

30-year bond down 7/32.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index fell .73.

Well, the stock market was hard pressed to come up with any decisive movement today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25 points, 2/10 of a percent. But the broader market was slightly higher by a 14 to 13 margin; 58 new yearly highs, 41 new lows.

AT & T (T) topped the active list on 17.8 million shares, edging up $0.50 a share.

Nortel Networks (NT) down $1.63.

Lucent Technologies (LU) slipped $0.44.

Sprint PCS Group (PCS) making a little comeback after recent weakness, up $1.06.

Corning (GLW) down $2.25, a little pressure there.

America Online (AOL) up $1.75.

As was Vodafone Group (VOD).

And Micron Technology (MU). Micron was helped by Goldman Sachs, which added Micron Technology to its "recommended" list.

Pfizer (PFE) up $0.31. Drugs have been firm in the last several days.

And Waste Management (WMI) had a good day, up $1.44.

Callaway Golf Company (ELY) rising $1.13, good percentage move. Bear Stearns upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "attractive."

Ford Motor (F) down $1.44.

And General Motors (GM), the biggest point loser in the Dow, off $3.94. Both automakers were removed from Goldman Sachs' "recommended" list. They are now both rated "market outperform."

IBM (IBM) up $2 a share, the best point gainer in the Dow.

MetLife (MET) gained $1.06. The company in with a 26 percent rise in third quarter earnings, $0.49, up from last year's $0.39.

And Stilwell Financial (SV) down $2.94. The "Wall Street Journal" today reported officials at the company's Janus Capital unit think that the big growth rate of the past three years in that mutual fund is probably gone forever.

Katy Industries (KT), big percentage gainer of the day, up $2.88. The company did report sharply lower third quarter results, $0.02 versus $0.48 last year, but it did say it's exploring its strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company.

Conseco (CNC) up $1.25, good percentage move there. The A.M. Best Corporation's upgraded the financial strength ratings of Conseco's life insurance units from a B++ to A-.

Allied Waste Industries (AW) up $1.31 there. Alex Brown Brokerage upgraded the stock from "buy" to a "strong buy."

And Donnelly (DON), the auto parts maker, up $1.30 after news appeared that Johnson Controls (JCI) has purchased 1 ½ million shares of its stock.

Cryolife (CRY) gained $3.56 per share. The stock will be added to the Standard & Poor's Smallcap 600 Index after the close this Thursday.

One of the few big losers, Analog Devices (ADI), tumbling just over $8. Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock from "buy" to "accumulate" and it hurt a lot of the chip stocks, actually. NASDAQ trading, a loss of only .42 in the Index, volume up almost 97 million shares from yesterday; 18 stocks higher for every 19 lower.

Cisco Systems (CSCO) topped the active list, up $1.63 after yesterday's post-market earnings for the first quarter of $0.18, a penny better than expectations.

Broadcom (BRCM) tumbled $42.50 a share. The W.R. Hambrecht Brokerage downgraded it from "strong buy" to "buy."

Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $1.

And then PMC-Sierra (PMCS) tumbling almost $26 a share. Bank America cuts its price target on PMC all the way from $325 a share to $225 per share.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) down $8.13.

And then JDS Uniphase (JDSU) fell $3.31.