JEFF YASTINE: Late today the US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the hand recount of presidential ballots in Florida, and set a December 1st date to do so. That means the rocky ride the markets have been on since the election on November 7th will probably continue at least through next week. Our Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh has more.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: It was a split decision from the nation's highest court, granting a hearing on whether the Florida supreme court violated Federal law by unfairly changing election rules after the fact, but the court brushed aside a request to take up the issue of pregnant chads and the standards for counting ballots by hand. Still, it is a victory for the Bush campaign, but legal experts say it may be short-lived.

PROF. HEATHER GERKEN, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: If Bush has a beef with what the state supreme court did regarding state law, there is nothing the United States Supreme Court can do about that, and most people agree that Bush's Federal claims are fairly weak.

GERSH: If there was ever any question, today's action removed all doubt; the presidential election is now officially under a magnifying glass. Through all the legal maneuvering, the fact remains, the votes haven't changed all that much. Through this afternoon, Governor Bush maintained an unofficial lead of about 700 votes. Add to that the governor's other tactical advantages, and political analyst Stuart Sweet says he's advising investors there's a two to one chance Bush becomes president.

STUART SWEET, PRESIDENT, CAPITOL ANALYSTS NETWORK: He's got the high ground. He's got the Florida legislature. He's got the house of representatives and he's got the supreme court, the US Supreme Court, in Republican hands. So as this fight escalates into the highest levels of the US government, he's holding all the high cards.

GERSH: But investors may not be stepping off this political roller coaster just yet. Vice President Gore's campaign is pledging to contest the results in Florida, claiming valid ballots were not counted after the Miami-Dade canvassing board halted its recount. But experts in election law say such a challenge won't be easy to win.

GERKEN: But in most other elections, you don't have this December 12 deadline hanging over the judge, and under those circumstances, I think the judge is going to be extremely deferential to the Miami-Dade board who made the decision not to go ahead with the recount.

GERSH: Any challenge could prolong the dispute, potentially throwing the issue to the US Congress to sort out the validity of Florida's electoral votes. But Sweet says even a drawn-out conflict would be less an issue for the overall market, which is focused on economic issues, and more of a concern for specific sectors.

GERKIN : Some of the sectors such as tobacco and Microsoft (MSFT) and the pharmaceuticals will be whipsawed more than others as long as the crisis is ongoing.

GERSH: So the political roller coaster continues for investors. Florida's election results are due Sunday night. The US Supreme Court hears arguments December 1. 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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/24/00: Bargain Hunters Are On The Prowl On Wall Street & At The Malls

JEFF YASTINE: The name of the game was bargain hunting on Wall Street today. It was also the order of the day at America's malls, on this, the traditional start of the holiday retailing period. Erika Miller reports.

ERIKA MILLER, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Going to the mall the day after Thanksgiving is almost as much of an American tradition as eating leftover turkey. And if this shopping center in New Jersey is any indication, stores today were jam packed with consumers of all ages. And they were not just window shopping.

WILLIE PEREZ, SHOPPER: Oh, we're buying from direct TVs to sing along for kids and perfumes, small computer for kids, oh, just everything, and a little bit of everything.

MILLER: To entice shoppers, many stores promoted heavily and offered steep discoutns. Department stores like Sears opened early to give consumers maximum opportunity to spend.

RAY GODDARD, GENERAL MANAGER, SEARS: We had crowds waiting at the door at seven o'clock this morning. I have departments that have already made their day from last year. So it's an absolutely fantastic kickoff.

MILLER: Although the season may be off to a good start, analysts do not think it will finish as strongly as last year. They predict gains of about three of four percent compared to rougly seven percent last year. That would be decent, but hardly stellar.

JOHN KONARSKI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, INT'L COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS: It's a little bit down from last year, but you've got to remember that this is after four years of constant increases. So I think that three and a half percent is very, very good.

MILLER: Part of the slowdown is being blamed on higher interest rates, which makes consumers less willing to use credit cards. Another culprit is the rising cost of gasoline, which is taking a bite out of disposable income. In addition, stock market volatility has made some people nervous about spending money on non-essentials. But analysts say some of the problem lies with what's sitting on store shelves.

MARK FRIEDMAN, RETAIL ANALYST, MERRILL LYNCH: It's also merchandise mix. They haven't hit right on with their key merchandise and as a result the customer is very quick to give their impression and not react to it.

MILLER: Still, electronics like DVD players are expected to be hot sellers. In the apparel category, glitz is big, as is leather, which is showing up in many store windows. There's no clear must have toy of the season yet, though there are some contenders.

PABLITO PEPPIN, GENERAL MANAGER, KB TOYS: Well, right now we have a Pucci (ph), the techno, most of the dogs are pretty much hot right now. A lot of the Barbie items are going pretty quick.

MILLER: One thing that could help retailers is that there are 31 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's the longest the season can be. Not only that, but Christmas falls on a Monday, which gives consumers an extra weekend to spend. Erika Miller, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New Jersey.

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.



11/24/00: Motorola's Cell Phone Workout Regiment

JEFF YASTINE: Motorola (MOT) not only makes cellular phones, Motorola breaks them, too. At a lab outside of Chicago, the company deliberately abuses its phones to try to make them more reliable. Diane Eastabrook reports.

DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: This is no way to treat a cell phone. At Motorola's accelerated testing lab, cell phones get shaken, baked and even frozen, all in the name of science, of course. Al Danial runs the lab, which puts cell phones through some of the same rigors consumers do.

AL DANIAL, LAB DIRECTOR, MOTOROLA: We have to test the product pretty much every way we can conceivably think of to ensure that when it gets used, that we have designed around potential weaknesses.

EASTABROOK: That means designing phones that can be opened and closed hundreds of times, keys that can be pushed over and over and over and handsets that can stand up to consumers who accidentally sit on them. Every day this lab tests up to 500 Motorola cell phones and many competitors' products, too.

BERRIE SCHAEFFER, CHAIRMAN, SCHAEFFER'S INVESTMENT RESEARCH: Engineering typically works with us as the products go through their environmental testing and they are usually there with us the whole way through the process so that when failures do occur, they are there to see the failure happen.

EASTABROOK: After a phone completes an endurance test, engineers then analyze it for damage or performance problems. Motorola says it tests its cell phones so rigorously because the technology is constantly changing and because competition within the industry is so fierce. The company also says as more people own cell phones, it must anticipate or at least respond to new ways callers find to use and abuse them.

SCHAEFFER: We have seen internally units come back with bullets in them. We have seen units come back that were inside of microwave ovens.

EASTABROOK: Despite the abuse, cell phones are pretty durable. They last about five years. But Motorola says most of its customers will replace their phones long before that, opting for newer, flashier models. Diane Eastabrook, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Libertyville, Illinois.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.  The program is transcribed by FDCH. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/24/00: Market Monitor-Bernie Schaeffer, Chairman, Schaeffer's Investment Research

PAUL KANGAS: My guest market monitor this week is Bernie Schaeffer, Chairman and CEO of Schaeffer's Investment Research Incorporated, which publishes the popular monthly newsletter "The Option Advisor" and which also sponsors a very popular Web site. And Bernie, welcome. It's great to see you again.

BERRIE SCHAEFFER, CHAIRMAN, SCHAEFFER'S INVESTMENT RESEARCH: Great to be here again, Paul.

KANGAS: Now, you've earned a top notch reputation over the last 10 years as an excellent market timer. If ever we needed someone to tell us where the market's bottom here is, this is it. What do you think?

SCHAEFFER: Well, I mean everybody is looking for it and, you know, that is one of my concerns. I mean we had bottoms of course seasonally at this time of year for a number of years in the latter part of the '90s. The thing that is missing from my perspective, there is a lot of put activity, which is good. From a contrarian sense, you like to see heavy put activity, which is bets on a market decline.

KANGAS: Right.

SCHAEFFER: And our indicator that is based on the put call ratio is flashing a "buy" signal. That's the good news. The bad news is there is a lot of aspects of the world of sentiment that concern me. A lot of bullish investment advisors from the Investors Intelligence Survey, the Wall Street allocation to stocks among the strategists is at its highest level pretty much for the past decade. There really has been no outflow out of equity mutual funds. As a matter of fact, the inflows continue. And my concern is the fact that at bottoms, you look to find evidence that essentially all the sellers have done their thing, so to speak.

KANGAS: Right.

SCHAEFFER: And-

KANGAS: You think sentiment is more important than looking at a chart?

SCHAEFFER: Well, particularly number one, in identifying market tops and market bottoms. Number two, looking at a chart is helpful, particularly if you are a trader and if you trade options. But you really would like to know in addition to how the chart looks, you really want to know whether the sentiment is indicating that either all the buyers have already committed, which is a sign of a top, or all the sellers have already vacated, which is a sign of a bottom. So that's a helpful add on to technical analysis.

KANGAS: So we're at the bottom yet. How much worse do you think it could get?

SCHAEFFER: Well, and I, focusing in on the NASDAQ, I think we could get down to the 2,500 to 2,600 level on the NASDAQ. I think that would actually bring out some of this bearishness and capitulation that I think we're missing so far.

KANGAS: OK. So how are you playing a market like this? What are you doing? What strategies are you employing?

SCHAEFFER: Well, particularly from a trading perspective, from an options perspective you play it from both sides. You look for stocks in sectors that you feel are outperformers and on the long side and you look for sectors to play to play on the short side, as well.

KANGAS: OK, so you're buying call option and being bullish, which means that you have the right for a certain premium to buy stock at a predetermined price over a predetermined time. What are you buying now in the way of calls?

SCHAEFFER: Exactly. OK, in the way of calls I would look to the biotechnology sector, especially Genentech (DNA) and the Biotech Holders Trust, which is an exchange traded fund that trades on the AMEX.

KANGAS: OK.

SCHAEFFER: I like the drug sector, Merck (MRK), Abbot (ABT), Alza (AZA). And the medical sector, United Health Care.

KANGAS: What are the premiums roughly on, let's say, three month options for these stocks?

SCHAEFFER: Well, three month option premiums on the biotech stocks would probably be in the area of about 10 to 15 percent, which is historically at the higher end of the spectrum.

KANGAS: Because they are volatile?

SCHAEFFER: Because they are volatile. And the drugs stocks they'd be down maybe done closer to seven to 10 percent.

KANGAS: Your bearish nature says buy puts on what kind of stock?

SCHAEFFER: Well, I would still look to the technology leaders. I don't think the, I think the party is to the down side is kind of just beginning on some of those stocks that kind of refused to go down until recently like the Ciscos (CSCO) and the Suns (SUNW).

KANGAS: And you are buying puts on a Cisco, for example?

SCHAEFFER: Yes.

KANGAS: Really? Anything else?

SCHAEFFER: Well, in the technology sector, Cisco, Sun, Oracle (ORCL) is another stock that I, that I'm not too thrilled with.

KANGAS: OK.

SCHAEFFER: EMC (EMC), the so-called four horsemen that were leading the NASDAQ up.

KANGAS: OK. All right. One big call option that you like now on, let's say, a blue chip?

SCHAEFFER: I would look at, I would look to Merck. I think Merck is a great blue chip company.

KANGAS: Three month call or six months? How long?

SCHAEFFER: I think three months is a great time horizon for most investors and sell it when it has got about half its time left so if you are not right on the direction you can still preserve some capitol.

KANGAS: OK. All right, so you're playing both sides of the market.

SCHAEFFER: Correct.

KANGAS: But that's what option guys do. Thanks, Bernie. A pleasure to see you.

SCHAEFFER: My pleasure.

KANGAS: My guest, Bernie Schaeffer, Chairman and CEO Of Schaeffers Investment Research.

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.




11/24/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: The stock market opened with a solid comeback rally this morning after the Dow Industrial Average fell 230 points or 2.2 percent in this week's first three days while the NASDAQ Index plummeted 272 points or 9 percent. With the hard hit tech sector spearheading the opening rally, the Dow Industrial Average posted a 92 1/2 point gain by 10:30 this morning and the NASDAQ Index was up 97 points. The semi-holiday atmosphere lacked the kind of trading volume needed to convince investors the market had made a major bottom, but buyers were persistent enough to enable the Dow to hold a 94-point gain at 12:30 p.m when the NASDAQ Index pushed on up to a 126-point advance. In the final half hour of trading before the early 1:00 p.m. closing, the blue chips lost some of their luster but the tech stocks continued their comeback. At the final bell then, the Dow Industrial Average faded to close with a gain of 70.91 points at 10,470.23. For this abbreviated trading week, the Dow rose twice, fell twice, had a net overall loss of 159.64 points or 1 1/2 percent. The NASDAQ Composite today rose 149.04 at 2,904.38 and this index rose only once and fell three times for a net overall loss this week of 122.81 points or 4.1 percent to the downside. The volume on the big board as you might imagine in this semi-holiday atmosphere only 405 1/2 million shares and up volume exceeded down volume by about a 3 to 1 margin.

The Dow Transports Index up 5.34. Airlines were firm.

Utility Index edged up .54.

The Closing Tick decidedly bullish at +713.

Standard & Poor's 500 up nearly 19 1/2.

Just about a 10 1/2 point rise in the 100.

The MidCap 400 up 13 1/3 points.

And the Bridge Futures Price Index rose .45.

New York Stock Exchange Composite up 5 2/3.

Value Line gaining nearly 8 1/4 points.

Russell2000 Small Cap up just about 14 points.

And the broadly based Wilshire 5000 up 243 1/2 points or 2 percent.

The bond market was very quiet today, and without the support of safe haven buying from a stock market sell-off, prices edged slightly lower on balance, although the uncertainty over the outcome of the presidential election resulted in some buying support, mostly in the longer maturities.

At the early 2:00 p.m. closing, tax free and corporates were down about an 1/8 point at worst and the Treasury market was narrowly mixed.

The 5-year notes fell 3/32.

And the 10-year notes down 2/32.

But the 30-year bond was up 6/32.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index gained over just over 3 1/2 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had a pretty decent day, up 71 points, although a long way from its best level. 1808 stocks on the up side, only 792 down. But volume, as you saw earlier, very disappointing, 59 new yearly highs, 46 new lows.

Lucent Technologies (LU) topped the active list on only eight million shares and moved up a mere $0.56.

Micron Technology (MU) up $4.88. That was helped along by the research firm Dataquest, which reported orders for computer servers are rebounding in Europe.

America Online (AOL) up $1.82 even though UBS Warburg made some negative comments about media stocks.

Nortel Networks (NT) edged up $0.81.

And then General Electric (GE), fifth in volume, up $0.69.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD) in a fairly firm financial sector up nearly $1 there.

Citigroup gained $0.25.

Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.69.

Motorola (MOT) edging up $0.94.

And AT&T (T) was up $0.63 but this news affected a lot of stocks negatively. AT&T's broadband division is putting a hold on all deliveries of equipment to it for the rest of the year.

ALCATEL (ALA) rose $5.88 after the company denied reports that it plans a takover bid for Thompson CSF.

Delta Airlines (DAL) in that strong group up $1.31.

Enron (ENE) rose $2.19 after the company said rumors it'll issue an earnings warning are not true, not true.

Genentech (DNA) up $7.75, leading a very strong and broad-based biotech stock rally.

JP Morgan (JPM) was the biggest point gainer in the Dow, rising $4.19.

And Quaker Oats (OAT) down $3.25. It was left at the altar again, this time by Dannon, which said it will not pursue a takeover of Quaker Oats just like Coke (KO).

Celera Genomics Group (CRA) up $7.06.

And another biotech stock doing well, up $5.19, Enzo Biochem (ENZ).

Teradyne (TER) up $5.38. On Monday, Teradyne said it's going to buy back up to 10 million of its own common shares.

Luxottica Group (LUX) gained $1.56. Regulators have approved the company's listing of its shares on the Milan, Italy exchange as of December 4th.

Commscope (CTV), one of the big losers, down $5.75. AT&T Broadband, as I mentioned, notified this company it won't accept any more deliveries of its equipment for the rest of this year.

KV Pharmaceutical (KV) tumbled $6.50 a share. On Wednesday, the company issued a second half earnings warning due to a delay in launching its generic anxiety drug because of a new patent from Bristol-Myers (BMY).

NASDAQ trading, a gain of 149.04. Volume way down, almost, well, a million, a billion shares below last Wednesday's level. Twenty-four stocks were higher for every 10 lower.

Microsoft (MSFT) topped the active list, up $1.69.

Cisco (CSCO) gained $2.13.

Broadcom (BRCM), a $6 gain even.

Intel (INTC) was up $2.75.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) up $4.88, fifth in dollar volume on the NASDAQ.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) up $12.13, pretty decent move there.

Veritas Software (VRTS) did well, up $7.50.

I2 Technologies (ITWO) up $6.38. Merrill Lynch downplayed the importance of this company's chief operating office