PAUL KANGAS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Wall Street is still clouded by election uncertainty, and news of mild inflation failed to push stocks higher. The Dow drops 51 points and the NASDAQ Index tumbles 133 points. Good evening. I'm Paul Kangas in Miami.

SUSIE GHARIB, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: And I'm Susie Gharib in New York City. My guest tonight manages almost $400 billion at Merrill Lynch (MER). We'll find out where he's investing that money in this nervous market. Also coming up, TheStreet.com (TSCM) is the latest Internet company handing out pink slips. We'll look at how layoffs and the collapse of dot-coms are impacting American workers.

GHARIB: Good evening, everyone. Election exhaustion and earnings worries are still making investors jittery and dragging down stocks. Tech stocks, especially chip companies, were punished today and that pulled down the NASDAQ by 133 points. The Dow lost 51. Even good news on the inflation front wasn't good enough for the markets. The Consumer Price Index rose only 0.2 percent last month, right in-line with forecasts; the increase was the same for the core CPI, which takes out the volatile food and energy categories. Falling prices for gasoline and air fares were positive factors. Analysts say that the data shows the economy is in good shape.

JAN HATZIUS, SR. ECONOMIST, GOLDMAN SACHS: The overall health of the economy is still OK. Next year is not going to be as stellar as this year, from the sort of blistering growth that we had, at least in the first part of the year, is not going to be repeated. The economy's decelerating. But it's still looking reasonably firm, and we should get another year of expansion.

GHARIB: Meanwhile, investors are still fixated on the outcome of the presidential election, and, there's still no decision tonight. The Florida Supreme Court gave the "go ahead" late today for the recount of the ballots to resume, saying that there's no legal reason that the hand counts cannot continue. But so far, there's no time frame for that process. Now, the earliest date for a winner, in this never-ending presidential election, is Saturday morning. And that would be after the overseas ballots are tallied. But, even then, the legal challenges might not be over. 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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/16/00: Dot Com Doom

SUSIE GHARIB: Another high profile dot.com runs into deep trouble. TheStreet.com (TSCM) said today that it's laying off 20 percent of its staff and shutting its operations in the United Kingdom. The financial Web site also said that it's ending its joint venture with the "New York Times." Well, this news comes amid a flurry of dot.com firings and closures. Jeff Yastine takes a closer look at the impact of soaring dot.com layoffs on American workers.

JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Everywhere you turn, signs of the imploding values and dot.com destruction are plain to see. Publicly held Mortgage.com (MDCM), based in Florida, is one of the latest to go belly up. Perhaps it's no surprise, since the stock prices of most dot.coms have plummeted since March. Another sign of the times, the number of layoffs in the sector. According to recent data, dot.com layoffs have risen sharply, from just 25 people at the Internet boom's peak in March and increasing dramatically since then, to nearly 5,700 people let go last month.

JOHN CHALLENGER, PRESIDENT, CHALLENGER, GRAY & CHRISTMAS: Many dot.com companies have been facing more and more difficult conditions as they go back for new rounds of financing. It's very difficult to get that capital now. And as they begin to run out of cash, companies are trying to stretch what they do have by laying off people and trying to make it to the point where they hit critical mass and become self sufficient and profitable.

YASTINE: That profitability may never happen for some of the remaining dot.coms and that has employment recruiters treading lightly. Jane Brown runs her own placement service for people looking for jobs in the net sector. She says a number of her clients have been burned by the recent dot.com downsizing.

JANE BROWN, PARTNER, TJM RECRUITING: You have candidates who buy into the whole concept, the whole idea of whatever dot.com it is, that whatever their supposed product or service is going to be, and you have people who work like dogs for these entities, really looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The whole idea of this company is going to go public and the stock is going to be worth, you know, a mint and, isn't this great?

YASTINE: On the other hand, many people who work at dot.coms understand the risks. Dan Cox will soon be out of a job as his employer, Mortgage.com, shuts down. But he's not sweating the loss.

DAN COX, PROGRAMMER, MORTGAGE.COM: There's a lot more stress when you're doing startups a lot, you know? There's a lot more deadline issues. You know, you put in a lot of long weeks and a lot of long hours. But I enjoy that environment.

YASTINE: Where does it all end? Some analysts believe this coming holiday season is make or break for many consumer based Internet companies. After that, you can expect to see another round of layoffs as investors sort out the dot.com winners and losers. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.

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.



11/16/00: One On One With Robert Doll, Chief Investment Officer, Merrill Lynch Asset Management

SUSIE GHARIB: Coca Cola (KO) is paying almost $200 million to settle a major racial discrimination lawsuit. The case covers hundreds of black workers at the world's largest soft drink maker. The Coke settlement includes $113 million earmarked for plaintiffs and money set aside for future pay adjustments and management training to improve the working environment for minority workers. This is the largest racial discrimination settlement ever. It's even more than the settlement at Texaco (TX) for $176 million. Coke shares rose $0.63 to $61.94. My guest tonight says he's a nervous bull. Joining us live now from Princeton, New Jersey is Robert Doll. He is the Chief Investment Officer of Merrill Lynch Asset Management. He oversees almost $400 billion of client money. Hi, Bob. Nice to have you.

ROBERT DOLL, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, MERRILL LYNCH ASSET MANAGEMENT: Good evening, Susie.

GHARIB: Well, $400 billion that you're sitting on top of. How, you said you're a nervous bull. What's your outlook on all of this?

DOLL: Well, we're trying to look at the glass as half full rather than half empty. I think what's happening here, we are in a transition, Susie, from earnings growth of high teens to an earnings growth rate of high single digits, and that transition is never easy. But then you throw this election uncertainty on top of it and it's got the market kind of spooked.

GHARIB: And how does it have you feeling? I mean there you are investing all of this client money and to what extent is this election uncertainty impacting the investment decisions you are making day to day?

DOLL: Well, there's no question it's creating more volatility and therefore we're handed opportunities both on the buy and the sell side to take actions that we didn't expect quite to get because of the changes in price. So, nose to grindstone, do our homework, do our fundamental work knowing that this, too, shall pass.

GHARIB: Are you buying at this juncture?

DOLL: Yeah, there are names we are certainly buying and there are sectors that we think make sense on an intermediate and long-term basis and we're putting money to work.

GHARIB: Like what?

DOLL: Energy stocks, managed care, the defense area and even some selected technology names that are getting hammered pretty hard.

GHARIB: Could you give us some of the names in each of those sectors, real quickly?

DOLL: Sure. In energy, Kerr-McGee (KMG), Phillips Petroleum (P), Valero (VLO); managed care, UnitedHealthcare (UNH), Wellpoint (WLP). In defense, Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC). In the technology space, Solectron (SLR), SCI Systems (SCI), Arrow Electronics (ARW) would be three names that would fit. So it's a name here and it's a name there.

GHARIB: All right, now, Bob, if we have a President Bush or if there is a President Gore, how will your stock selection change, if at all?

DOLL: Well, there's no question that whichever man gets into the Oval Office, there is no significant mandate and therefore the big plans that both of them had are going to be incrementalized very significantly, in our opinion. I think the good news out of this is that instead of working about Bush and big tax decreases and therefore fiscal problems, or a Gore spending increase and therefore big fiscal problems, we're going to have more of the same. That is, the debt will get paid down further and the market is probably going to like that and I think it's one of the unsung positives that we need to talk about.

GHARIB: What about asset allocation? What is your breakdown of stocks, bonds and cash in most of the portfolios for long-term investors?

DOLL: Well, in a totally neutral account we would be somewhat overweighted in fixed income and underweighted in cash and neutral on equities.

GHARIB: What percentage are you breaking it into?

DOLL: Sixty percent equities, 35 fixed and five percent cash, we think makes sense in this environment.

GHARIB: What would be the one thing that would make you change that asset allocation?

DOLL: I think that once we get better advisability on what we hope for and believe will transpire, that is, a soft landing, then we'll have a healthier, more sustainable earnings growth rate. We could take the equity percentage back up.

GHARIB: OK, Bob, great. It's always great talking to you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

DOLL: Thank you, Susie.

GHARIB: We have been speaking with Bob Doll of Merrill Lynch.

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.



11/16/00: Prime Mover: Ammon Landan, Chairman & CEO, Mercury Interactive

SUSIE GHARIB: Mercury Interactive (MERQ) is on the road to success clearing up bottlenecks on the information superhighway. Its Chairman and CEO is Amnon Landan. The company specializes in products and services that fix performance problems facing e-business Web sites. Mercury was founded 11 years ago and went public in 1993. It trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol MERQ. Earnings for the third quarter were almost $20 million, more than double from a year ago. In tonight's prime movers segment, Suzanne Shaw of Myprimetime.com asks Landan to describe the company's troubleshooting methods.

AMNON LANDAN, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MERCURY INTERACTIVE: In general, what we test is the end user experience. And when someone connects to the Web from a PC, it's a different experience than when he connects from a cell phone. And we let our customers try out our system and see, OK, what is the experience your customers would have when you have three million people calling from their cell phones over your gateway into your Web site? Small screen, narrow bandwidth. And there are two ways to try it out. One is, OK, open the doors and get your user frustrated, which on the Web is not on option because people give it a one shot. If they don't like it, they move on. The other one is to subject the system to a real life usage. If this is online trading, so create a scenario that a thousand people are buying stock and a thousand people are selling and 10,000 people are getting a quote all at the same time and see what happens.

SUZANNE SHAW, MYPRIMETIME.COM: Is it true that most e-commerce sites think they can handle more traffic than they can?

LANDAN: Absolutely. Ninety-eight percent of the sites that we are involved in testing have problems. So only two percent even survive a rigorous attack by many users. Then when you look at the scalability targets that people have, on the average when they do the first test with us they hit the wall at 15 to 20 percent of their desired scalability goal. So they expect to support 10,000 users, they hit the wall at 1,500 on the average.

SHAW: With a smart, diverse workforce spread over 40 offices worldwide, Landan gives his employees the power to drive agenda based on customers' needs. This way, Mercury Interactive has nimbly shifted its mission over 11 years from UNIX and Windows testing to Y2K to what is now pioneering Web site performance testing, stress testing to ensure its 10,000 clients' Web sites can handle huge numbers of users simultaneously without crashing. The company has many partners, IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT), Ariba (ARBA). And in the area of wireless access to Web sites, Nokia (NOK). How important are these strategic partnerships? It seems that, you know, five, six, 10 companies are working together to bring a Web site up and running.

LANDAN: Absolutely, and companies need to become part of an ecosystem just because the underlying infrastructure today is so complex and is provided by so many vendors. It used to be that if you bought IBM you got the hardware, you got the software, you got the services. Well, IBM had no interest to partner with anyone else. Now if you look at the typical deployment, you have 10s of vendors involved and for those vendors to deliver to their customers the quality of service that they need, those companies need to cooperate and we invest very heavily in our partnership program.

SHAW: Your third quarter revenues were just under $80 million. That's a 67 percent increase year to year. How do you keep this pace of growth up?

LANDAN: Clearly our growth had accelerated over the last number of quarters and I think that the overall demand to the product and services we have is at record high. Our challenge is to take advantage of those opportunities, make sure that we can scale up our operations. But the demand is better than every.

SHAW: Amnon Landan, thank you.

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.


11/16/00:Commentary: Social Security & The Run For The White House

SUSIE GHARIB: Tonight's commentator says that the focus on Social Security during this year's presidential election was more rhetoric than fact. Here's Allan Sloan, Wall Street Editor for "Newsweek" magazine.

ALLAN SLOAN, COMMENTARY: One of the things you have to understand about Social Security is that it has its own language. Terms like trust fund and solvency mean something entirely different in Social Security land than in the real world. Another term we're going to hear a lot when a new administration finally takes office is the return you get on your Social Security taxes. People who want to turn Social Security into a private investment plan claim the return is crummy. People who like the status quo claim the return is great. Both of them compare the return on Social Security taxes to what you would make putting money into real world investments like stocks. But the concept of return on Social Security tax payments is entirely meaningless. Social Security isn't an investment plan. It's an intergenerational transfer payment, with money from today's workers going to yesterday's workers. The benefits are whatever Congress chooses. They have nothing to do with how much Social Security's alleged trust fund earns. And anyway, more than a third of Social Security payments don't go for old age pensions. They go for survivor benefits and disability benefits. You've got to factor that in. And finally, lower paid people get a bigger retirement bang for their Social Security buck than higher paid people do. You've got to factor that in, too. So pay attention to the Florida returns, which will mean something. Ignore the talk about Social Security returns. That's just Washington hot air. I'm Allan Sloan.

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.





11/16/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened slightly lower today as the market consolidated its gains of the previous two trading sessions and showed little reaction to the October consumer price report since it was about as generally expected. At 10:00 a.m., the Dow Industrial Average posted just a modest 10.5-point deficit, while the NASDAQ Index was down 40 points after Merrill Lynch downgraded several networking equipment makers, like Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC), Broadcom (BRCM) and PMC-Sierra (PMCS) After a failed rally attempt, the blue chips weakened on concerns about the outlook for corporate earnings as exemplified by over a $2 drop in the International Paper (IP) stock, following a cut in its earnings estimates for this year and next, by the Bear Stearns brokerage. Meanwhile, the tech sector continued under selling pressure during mid-session. By 1:30 p.m. then, the Dow was down 58 points; the NASDAQ Index was off 74 points. The blue chips held their own, staying at early afternoon lower levels for the rest of the session, but the tech-laden NASDAQ market continued to tumble. The Dow Industrial Average closed with a loss of 51.57 points at 10,656.03. In today's 119-point trading range, the Dow closed down 102 points from the best level of the session. The NASDAQ Composite ended with a loss of 133.61 at 3031.88. In its 144-point trading range, the Composite Index settled just a touch above its worst level of the session.

Big board volume dropped on the sell-off, down to 944 million shares. Well below yesterday's pace. About a 5 to 3 ratio of down volume over up volume.

The Dow Transport Index fell 28.1 points after several days of gains.

Utility Index popped back with a gain of over 5.5 points.

The Closing Tick neutral at +7.

Standard & Poor's 500 off 17.5 points.

A loss of just over 9.1 points on the 100.

The MidCap 400 off nearly 9 3/4.

Bridge Futures Price Index edged down .84.

New York Stock Exchange Composite off just over 4 points.

6 1/4-point drop on the Value Line.

Russell2000 Small Cap Index down 10.15.

And the broadly-based Wilshire 5000 dropped nearly 205.5 points.

After the market closed, the Federal Reserve reported in the week ending November 6, the M-2 money supply rose $11.2 billion.

The bond market moved nicely higher today, partly in reaction to that mild 0.2 percent rise in the October Consumer Price Index. But perhaps the most positive factor was the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's October 3 policy meeting, which noted an appreciable slowing in the economy's growth and hinted at a more neutral bias on interest rates.

In any case, tax-free and corporate issues ended with gains ranging from 1/8 to 3/8 of a point.

While the Treasury market closed moderately higher across the board.

5-year notes moving up 8/32.

Bellwether 10-year note up 12/32, with the yield now down to 5.67 percent.

30-year bond up 14/32.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index gained about 5 1/3 points.

I guess today would qualify as a good buying opportunity, with the Dow Industrial Average losing just over 51 points and the broader market lower. For every 12 stocks higher, 16 on the down side; 78 new highs and 103 new lows for the year.

Nortel Networks (NT) for the third consecutive session topped the active list today on a hefty 34.7 million shares, down $2.94 in the weak high tech sector.

Starwood Hotels (HOT) up $0.94. Earlier in the day it was as high as $35.75. After the close today, the stock was added to the

Standard & Poor's 500 Index, replacing Armstrong World (ACK) and of course index fund buyers were in there.

Cendant (CD) lost $0.38.

AT & T (T) was up $0.13. The company confirmed it will spin off its Liberty Media Group unit in the second quarter of next year.

Citigroup up $1.50, doing well in the financial sector.

GE (GE) was up $0.13.

Lucent Technology (LU) dropped $0.50.

Pfizer (PFE) edging up a $0.25.

And Global Crossing (GX) lost exactly $1 a share.

America Online (AOL) down $0.59, 10th in big board volume.

Avon Products (AVP) dropped $3.38. The Banc of America Brokerage downgraded it from "strong buy" to just a "buy."

DaimlerChrysler (DCX) losing $1.38. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "market outperform" to just a "market performer."

International Paper (IP), as I mentioned earlier, Bear Stearns cut 2000 and 2001 earnings estimates for that firm.

Medtronic (MDT) lost $3.69. J.P. Morgan Brokerage expects a slowdown in the company's second half sales and earnings.

3M Company (MMM) was down $0.06 even though it says it's going to buy back up to 10 million of its own shares. It's just that kind of a market today.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) off $2.69. Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to just "near term accumulate."

Barnes & Noble (BKS) had a good day, up $2.19. Third quarter pro forma results, a loss of $0.04, not as bad as the $0.05 loss that most of Wall Street was expecting.

RehabCare Group (RHB) was up $3.69. Standard & Poor's says the new prospective payment system regulations should have little effect on this company's results. That was a plus.

Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) buttoned up over a $1 a share gain on news that third quarter earnings were $0.71, $0.03 better than the Street expected.

American Greetings (AM) were not pleasant today, down $8.38. The company sees third quarter earnings as low as $0.50 a share. The Street was expecting $0.91 a share. Also, American Greetings plans to cut its $0.21 quarterly dividend down to only $0.10 a share.

Owens-Illinios (OI) down $2.25. Standard & Poor's says sell the stock. Standard & Poor's very concerned about the asbestos litigation. Says it's a major uncertainty.

United Microelectronics (UMC) down $1.56. Merrill Lynch downgraded this stock from "buy" to just "accumulate."

NASDAQ trading, a big loss of 133.61, 4.2 percent. Trading volume, however, did shrivel up a bit, down to 1.5 billion shares. For every 11 stocks higher, though, 26 lower. That was very disappointing.

Microsoft (MSFT) down $1.13, topped the actives.

Sun Micro (SUNW) off $6.69.

But QUALCOMM (QCOM) bucked the trend, up $3.88.

Cisco (CSCO) down $2.50 a share.

And then Intel (INTC) dropped $1.50.

PMC-Sierra (PMCS) on that downgrade by Merrill Lynch, it was from "buy" to "accumulate."

And the same downgrade by Merrill Lynch on Broadcom (BRCM). That stock off $25.19.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) off $15.69.

Ariba (ARBA) fell $14.13.

And JDS Uniphase (JDSU), a loss of $6.81 there.

MP3.com (MPPP) up another $2.31. It was up $2.19 yesterday. Analysts are up