SUSIE GHARIB: A big change in the corner office of the world's largest and most admired company. General Electric announced today that Jeffrey Immelt is the new president and chairman-elect, replacing Jack Welch, who retires next year. The selection ended months of intense speculation about who would succeed the legendary Welch, who has been called the "CEO of the 20th century." Immelt heads up GE's Medical Systems unit, and beat out two other top GE executives in a highly competitive race for the coveted top job. GE's stock slipped a fraction today, but Wall Street analysts were still upbeat about the man Jack Welch chose.

NICHOLAS HEYMANN, GE ANALYST, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: He needed somebody to think bigger than big, and Jeff certainly has that capability, and I think that certainly his leadership, you know, skills are renowned throughout the company. Most people would kill to work for Jeff, just because they end up realizing in a different capabilities on how to be able to run a business better than they ever thought possible.

GHARIB: What kind of person does it take to run a company with a market cap of half a trillion dollars? Well, GE's (GE) Jack Welch thinks that 44 year old Jeffery Immelt is the right man to take his place in that job. When I talked with both men today, I began by asking Welch why he chose Immelt.

JACK WELCH, CHAIRMAN & CEO, GENERAL ELECTRIC: I thought that Jeff was right to take us to the next level. I thought he had the technology, the leadership skills and the ability to build teams and embrace the culture in a way that was going to be great for us long-term. It doesn't mean the others couldn't also. I just, we felt, unanimously felt that Jeff was our guy and we're excited as can be about the whole thing. So, for us it's a big day.

GHARIB: Mr. Immelt, let me first of all congratulate you. Congratulations.

JEFFREY IMMELT, PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN-ELECT, GENERAL ELECTRIC: Oh, yes, please. Thanks.

GHARIB: And, you know, a lot of people have said about Jack Welch that he is the best CEO ever. Certainly you've heard it's a tough act to follow. How are you going to make your mark?

IMMELT: You know, I don't really think of the job as following Jack. I think the job that I have is running GE and I think it's a great job. We've got an incredible team of people that are there to run it. We've got great momentum in the businesses we're in, very strong initiatives that are making us faster and more focused on the customer and I think my own personal, it's not really about me. My own personal mark will get made over time based on the performance of the company and the ability to drive change and the ability to make GE the most admired company in the world.

GHARIB: Jack Welch this been working at GE for 20 years before he became CEO. When he became CEO he says there were a lot of things over those 20 years that irritated him and he changed them. Now, you've been at the company about the same time and your father was at the company for many, many years, so you know the company well. What's irritating you that you want to change? What needs changing?

IMMELT: I don't walk into the company with a list of five things I'm going to do tomorrow. I just think the company has got great momentum and we're going to continue to lead change and that will be the hallmark of GE, is change.

GHARIB: Mr. Welch, if you were Jeff coming into GE at this point, what would you do?

WELCH: I'm sure that Jeff has been through some experiences that he doesn't want to share today that have frustrated him at times about things and that's what's going to be great about change, because Jeff will be in there and he'll be saying we don't have to do this anymore. And somebody will have crept back in and done something else and, you know, there's always a bureaucrat somewhere that's making things more difficult, less of a family business, slows the process down and, you know, as I've been there a long time, a lot of these have probably crept back in and I walk by them. And that's what's so nice about having somebody come in who's got fresh eyes. And I'm not out of gas. I'm not exhausted. I'm not-but it needs fresh eyes and fresh eyes are what make companies flourish.

GHARIB: Mr. Immelt, you've been pretty much in the medical systems part of the business and GE is a huge company. Where do you think you need to get up to speed on?

IMMELT: I think there's parts of company that I don't know as much about. I think the value of what we have is that we've got people that can teach me those businesses. The one thing I can assure you is that I love to learn. I love to get all the impulses. I don't plan to be a sit back kind of guy. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to be with the teams and with the people and I'm going to be all over it.

GHARIB: Mr. Welch, we've seen a lot of CEOs of high profile companies like at Xerox (XRX), Coca Cola (KO), P&G (PG) come in with new ideas and then fail and then we've seen the more experienced predecessor CEOs come back in to fix it up. What advice would you give that GE wouldn't fall into that situation?

WELCH: Absolutely impossible. The fundamentals of the business are in place. We've got a great leader who knows the culture, who's been there. He's not an outsider coming into it. He knows the culture and he's a change agent. And-but he's dealing with change agents. One of these problems that some of these companies have had is that the rigid culture resisted change.

GHARIB: Mr. Immelt, what do you think that you have to do to keep investors and also customers confident?

IMMELT: I, look, I think it starts with performance. I think what has been the consistent strain in Jack's tenure, but really over the history of GE, has been the ability to meet commitments and that's where it all starts. But I think what investors are going to want to see is, is the company performing? Is it driving excellence? And I think that's what I'm going to be all about.

GHARIB: Mr. Welch, you've had a spectacular career. You've kept investors very happy. As you look back on your years at GE, is there anything that you wished that you did and you didn't do it?

WELCH: About 5,000 things, and therefore I'm not able to list any one of them. But plenty. Obviously I, there's some things that I did that I shouldn't have done and things that I didn't do that I should have done. But that's what hindsight is all about. It's always perfect. And I think what Jeff has going for him is he's curious, he loves change and he's going to have a ball. And he'll look back 20 years and say there's some of things he should have done, there's some things he didn't do. But in general, you can be very comfortable that a disruption is not going to occur in GE.

GHARIB: Well, Mr. Welch, thank you very much. Good luck to you.

WELCH: Thank you.

GHARIB: And Mr. Immelt, congratulations.

IMMELT: Thanks very much.

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.



11/27/00: The Trouble With Transitions Presidential & Corporate

PAUL KANGAS: The changing of the guard at GE is, in one respect, similar to what's happening today on the presidential election front. Certified the winner in Florida last night, Texas Governor George W. Bush is now starting his transition to the White House. Darren Gersh reports.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Consider for a moment the transition at GE: after a long and careful search process, Jeffrey Immelt is tapped to step into the top job. But first, he'll spend months under Jack Welch's wing. Now imagine if, after a bitter power struggle, Welch was out, 600 of the company's top executives had quit, and the new CEO had 54 days to take control. Now you begin to understand what George W. Bush is up against. Pendelton James worked on the Reagan transition, and calls it an "inherently chaotic" process.

PENDELTON JAMES, PARTNER, WHITEHEAD MANN PENDELTON JAMES: What a new CEO does is bring leadership, but he doesn't change the players; at least overnight. A president changes the players, overnight.

GERSH: And unlike in corporate America, the losing candidate doesn't go to court to file a protest. But today, Vice President Al Gore did just that. The courtroom challenges are already delaying the transition process. Federal officials won't give Bush or Gore the keys to these transition offices until there is a clear winner. The Bush campaign called that decision, "regrettable."

SEC. RICHARD CHENEY, BUSH TRANSITION CHAIRMAN: But we will pay a heavy price for the delays in planning and assembling the next administration.

GERSH: Analysts say delay is less of a problem for Al Gore, should he prevail.

JAMES: Obviously, he is following eight years of a Democratic regime, that is fully staffed and in place; and then he can pick and choose which players he wants to keep.

GERSH: Once there is a clear winner, analysts say, investors should pay special attention to regulatory appointments at agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates about 20 percent of the companies in the S&P 500.

LESLIE ALPERSTEIN, POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON ANALYSIS: It seems the market has looked mostly at what legislative gains or losses might accrue. Most of the action is going to take place on the regulatory side.

GERSH: In its own way, the transition is one of the toughest challenges facing the new president. And that's especially true after this election. Any transition mistakes are bound to make what already promises to be a tough first year, even tougher. 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.



11/27/00: High End Retailers Expect A Luxurious Holiday Sales Season

SUSIE GHARIB: I don't know about you, but millions of shoppers hit the malls this weekend, most of them headed for mass market retailers like Wal*Mart (WMT) and Sears (S). That rush could leave luxury goods retailers out of the holiday buying boom. As Stephanie Woods reports, analysts say some high end marketers could find coal in their stockings on Christmas.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Luxury retailers say the sliding stock market and election uncertainties are dampening shoppers' enthusiasm. Still, they expect solid holiday sales.

MARY-FRANCES WAIN, SPOKESPERSON, NEIMAN-MARCUS: From fur gloves to full coats to all kinds of fur accessories and trim on suits, gold and metallics are hot for evening and for day-wear, and people are buying luxury items and rewarding themselves.

WOODS: But the reward for retailers may not be as great. Neiman-Marcus as already warned investors it expects sales growth to slow from last year. Saks Fifth Avenue (SKS) offered discounts to bring in shoppers. A.G. Edwards expects profits to be hurt by heavy discounting, and luxury retailers will be no exception.

BOB BUCHANAN, RETAIL ANALYST, A.G. EDWARDS: And we've had a major impact of the stock market in terms of a 30 percent decline of the NASDAQ, a 10 percent decline in the overall market and I think some of that has inflicted real pain. And I think that places like Neiman and Saks have to be sensitive to that pain and to adjust some of their prices accordingly.

WOODS: For online retailers, this season may be their last chance. Some names from last year like FooFoo, Adornis (ph) and Miadora are gone, victims of the dot.com bust. Ashford (ASFD), LuxuryFinder, E-Luxury and BestSelections are left to prove whether luxury can sell online. America Online is betting luxury will sell. Patrick Gates is heading up a new luxury channel on AOL.

PATRICK GATES, VICE PRES.,E-COMMERCE, AMERICA ONLINE: What you want to offer people is really the ability to buy a garden hose at Wal*Mart to a Louis Vuitton (LVMHY) bag if they choose and everything else in between, and that's the kind of experience I wanted to offer.

WOODS: Traditional retailers like Neimans and Saks are adding more products to their Web sites so shoppers can buy where it's most convenient. But online or off, the market for luxury may not ring up as much holiday cheer as it did last year. 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. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.



11/27/00: The Holiday Retail Outlook

PAUL KANGAS: So what about the outlook for holiday retailing sales overall? Joining us now from Chicago is Catherine Maltezos, Retail Reporter for BridgeNews. Welcome to NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Catherine.

CATHERINE MALTEZOS, RETAIL REPORTER, BRIDGENEWS: Thanks, Paul.

KANGAS: Give us an idea of which kind of retailers fared the best and the worst in separating consumers from their money over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

MALTEZOS: Well, I say discounters like Wal*Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) fared well, as well as electronic deals like RadioShack (RSH).

KANGAS: And the worst?

MALTEZOS: Although we did see strength in Sears, for instance, but the department store group on the whole will probably be the weaker performing sector this holiday season

KANGAS: So the figures were fairly good for a lot of these big chains. Do you think this indicative of a great Christmas season coming up?

MALTEZOS: Well, it's probably too early to tell. Black Friday or the day after Thanksgiving is no longer the busiest shopping day, but it is a good indication that consumers are fairly enthusiastic and we will have a decent holiday selling season, maybe not a great one, but definitely a decent one.

KANGAS: So some of the problems of this year versus last year are, for instance, higher interest rates is one. What are some others?

MALTEZOS: Correct. Higher gas prices and heating costs, the volatile stock market. Those things are all weighing negatively on consumer confidence and shoppers are worried about their discretionary income.

KANGAS: All right now, if there were one group or maybe a couple of groups that you liked the best with Christmas coming up, which one looks the best, the better, you know, possibilities?

MALTEZOS: Again, discounters such as Wal*Mart and Target, because they do carry the hot toys, as well as popular DVD and digital cameras, and those are the things, those are the hot items this holiday.

KANGAS: All right. And what do you think about e-tail sales versus retail sales?

MALTEZOS: Better than last year certainly.

KANGAS: OK. So it's coming along, the e-sales?

MALTEZOS: That's right.

KANGAS: OK, thanks very much, Catherine.

MALTEZOS: Thank you.

KANGAS: My guest is Catherine Maltezoes, Retail Reporter for BridgeNews.

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.




11/27/2000: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: The stock market opened with a spirited rally, as investors were cheered by what appeared to be some progress towards resolving the impasse over the presidential election. And bargain hunters were also helping in the belief the recent sell-off had been overdone. In an extension of last Friday's comeback rally, the Dow Industrial Average jumped nearly 114 points by 10:00 a.m., while the NASDAQ was up 86 points, just 10 points below the 3000 level. Paced by solid gains in the retail sector after Wal*Mart (WMT) and Sears (S) reported brisk Thanksgiving weekend sales, the Blue Chip Dow moved to a 152-point gain by 11:00 a.m. But renewed concern about the high valuation in the tech sector undermined the NASDAQ market in late morning trading. At 1:00 p.m. then, the NASDAQ Index backed off to post only a 12-point gain, and the Dow faded to a 104-point advance. This weakening trend extended throughout the rest of the afternoon, and the Dow Industrial Average salvaged a closing gain of only 75.84 points at 10,546.07. In today's 156-point trading range, the Industrial Average closed down about 81 points from the best level of the session. The NASDAQ Composite slipped almost 24 points, ending at 2880.49. In its 124-point trading range, the Composite Index settled 118 points below its best level of the day.

Big board volume 925.6 million shares, more than double last Friday's semi-holiday pace. And about a 5 to 3 margin of up volume over down volume.

The Dow Transport Index down over 25 points.

Utility Index slid just over one point.

And the Closing Tick just barely bearish, -194.

Standard & Poor's 500 up nearly 7 1/4.

And a 3 2/3-point rise in the 100.

The MidCap 400 up 2.83.

The Bridge Futures Price Index edged up about 3/4 of a point.

New York Stock Exchange Composite gained nearly five points.

The Value Line edging up only .03.

Russell2000 Small Cap, just a small fractional loss.

And the Wilshire 5000 was up just over 40 points.

The bond market was lacking any flight-to-quality buying support today because the stock market put in a fairly firm performance. Because George W. Bush appeared to be a step closer to winning the presidency, his plan to cut taxes, which could spur the economy and push interest rates higher, didn't sit too well with bond holds. News that October existing home sales fell 3.9 percent was a plus factor, however, and that kept tax-free and corporate issues pretty steady, and short-term Treasuries actually pushed a bit higher.

The 5-year notes up 1/32.

The 10-year notes up 1/32.

But the longer Treasuries down 12/32 on the 30-year.

And the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index off about 6 3/4 points.

The blue chips were the star of the day on Wall Street and of course the NASDAQ high tech fading a bit. But the Dow up nearly 76 points. The broader market higher by a 15 to 13 ratio. 101 new yearly highs, only 82 new lows.

Lucent Technologies (LU) on 16 million shares topped the active list, down $1.50 in the weak high tech group.

But Nortel Networks (NT) edging up $0.88.

And there you see General Electric (GE) actually losing $0.13 on the day but after the succession news this morning, the stock did trade as high as $50.81.

Pfizer (PFE) up $2.56 on optimism that a Bush presidency will be more favorable than a Gore.

And then Nokia (NOK) up $1.56, doing fairly well.

Texas Instruments (TXN) edged up $0.25.

Micron Technology (MU) down $3.69 after the ABM AMRO Brokerage cut 2001 earnings estimates from $3.70 to a flat $2 a share, big drop.

AT & T (T) lost $0.44.

Citigroup edging up $0.13.

And Chase Manhattan (CMB) was a $0.69 gain there, 10th in volume.

Boeing (BA) had a good day, up $1.69. The company expects to get orders for at least 113 of its new 777 airliners. That would be like $18 billion in orders.

RadioShack (RSH) up $4.25. The company says its Thanksgiving weekend sales were far above expectations, maybe higher by the double digits.

And then, of course, Sears (S) up $2.13.

And Wal*Mart (WMT) up $4.13 after both of those companies said their Thanksgiving holiday sales were excellent.

Trigon Healthcare (TGH) down $4.94.

Wellpoint Health (WLP) losing $7.25. These companies are in a bidding war to take over Cerulean Companies. That's Georgia's leading health care provider. Right now Wellpoint has the higher bid of $680 million for Cerulean and Trigon's bid is $675 million.

USG Corp. (USG) up $4.25 on news Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) corporation owns 6 ½ million shares. That's almost 15 percent of the outstanding stock.

Amphenol (APH) up $7.63. Last Friday it dropped almost $7 on fear that AT&T Broadband's decision to delay equipment orders would hurt the company's earnings. But the company says no, fourth quarter come in at around $0.73 to $0.75. That would be better than the $0.70 Street estimate.

KV Pharmaceuticals (KVA) rebounding $3.63 after dropping $6.50 Friday on the company's second half earnings warning due to a delay in launching its generic anxiety drug due to some patent problems with Bristol-Myers (BMY).

Technitrol (TNL) down $19.69. The company couldn't account for that sharp drop. It told us that the 2 for 1 split stock will begin trading tomorrow on the big board.

Scientific Atlanta (SFA) off $5.69. AT&T Broadband's cutback on equipment orders apparently could hurt earnings.

And Cypress Semiconductor (CY) down $3.13. Prudential Securities downgraded it from "strong buy" to just "accumulate."

NASDAQ trading, a loss of nearly 24 points in the Index. Of course, volume more than doubled Friday's slow pace, 17 stocks up for every 22 down.

Microsoft (MSFT) topped the active list, up $0.75.

No change in Intel (INTC).

Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $1.44.

Sun Micro (SUNW) was up $3.31.

And Broadcom (BRCM) tumbled $19.56 after Salomon Smith Barney lowered its price target for the stock from $300 down to $200 a share.

QUALCOMM (QCOM) up $4.94.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) fell $8.63.

JDS Uniphase (JDSU) lost nearly $4 a share.

Ariba (ARBA) tumbling $11.44 after SoundView Financial Brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold."