SUSIE GHARIB:The Enron blame game got into full swing today in hearings on Capitol Hill. Andersen's CEO blamed his client, Enron, for withholding crucial information about its operations. Lawmakers are focusing on the reasons behind Enron's spectacular collapse, which resulted in the largest bankruptcy in US history. Stephanie Woods has more from Washington.

STEPHANIE WOODS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Andersen CEO Joe Berardino admits his firm made mistakes auditing Enron's books. But he says Andersen was kept in the dark about some of Enron's dealings.

JOSEPH BERARDINO, CEO, ARTHUR ANDERSEN: It appears important information was not revealed to our team. We have notified the audit committee of possible illegal acts within the company.

WOODS: Specifically, Andersen says Enron may have withheld information about a partnership called Chewco, which was originally kept off Enron's balance sheet. In a restatement of earnings this fall, Enron revealed Chewco lost $830 million in 2001. Andersen says it misjudged another partnership called JEDI. That partnership had a $170 million loss.

BERARDINO: We now believe, based on a second look, that our team has made an error in judgment, an honest error, but an error nonetheless. But I do believe we did a professional job overall.

WOODS: Enron's CEO, Kenneth Lay, declined to appear at the hearing, citing bankruptcy proceedings and the growing list of lawsuits against his company. Members of Congress threatened to subpoena Enron executives if they do not cooperate.

REP. RICHARD BAKER, CHMN., HOUSE FINANCIAL SVCS. SUBCOMMITTEE: The committee will take action to get the appropriate information from Mr. Lay and other executives of Enron.

WOODS: The Securities and Exchange Commission is already investigating Enron. But its chief accountant says it's too early to make judgments.

ROBERT HERDMAN, CHIEF ACCOUNTANT, SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION: I think it is very important at this point that we recognize the seriousness in the Enron matter, but at the same time we should neither underreact to it nor should we overreact to it.

WOODS: Meanwhile, the SEC says it will bring subpoena enforcement action against Enron's former CFO. Andrew Fastow failed to appear at a hearing today, still his lawyer insists he will cooperate with the government. Stephanie Woods, "NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT," Washington.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. 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.

12/12/01: Prudential Prepares To Go Public

PAUL KANGAS: One of the largest initial public offerings of the year is set to begin trading tomorrow. Late today, shares of Prudential Insurance Company of America were priced at $27.50 a share. That'll raise more than $3 billion. Suzanne Pratt has more on Prudential's long awaited public debut.

SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Investors looking for a piece of the rock will soon be able to buy stock in Prudential as well. Tomorrow, the nation's largest life insurer is expected to offer 110 million shares, or 19 percent of the company, to the public. An additional 456 million shares will be disturbed to policy holders. But the offering comes at a time when the insurer is coping with lackluster results. Those include losses at Prudential Securities, the company's full service brokerage operation. Still, despite concern about Prudential's financial health, the deal is expected to be well received on Wall Street.

DAVID MENLOW, PRESIDENT, IPO FINANCIAL.COM: There's going to be investor interest across-the-board on this stock. Individuals who are hearing the name Prudential are talking about a company with one of the most widely recognized logos, the rock. And also you're talking about a 125-year-old company.

PRATT: Prudential is the fourth major U.S. life insurer in the last 18 months to convert from mutual ownership to a public company. The process is known as demutualization and is designed to give firms easier access to capital for acquisitions and other expansion plans. Some investors may buy up Prudential's stock hoping it will do as well as its competitors. John Hancock Financial (JHF), MetLife (MET) and Principal Financial Group (PFG) have all gone public and all are currently trading above their IPO price. Still, some experts say that Prudential's shares may be a little late to a party and not show the same degree of appreciation.

LINDA KILLIAN, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, THE IPO FUND: History shows that as institutional investors in particular gobble up these, it's the last ones that come to market that do less well than the first ones.

PRATT: The Prudential deal caps off a lousy year for the IPO market. Fewer than 100 companies went public in 2001 while four times that number did so the year before. Suzanne Pratt, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. 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.

12/12/01:One On One With Bob Shaner, Cingular's President of Wireless Operations

SUSIE GHARIB: The nation's newest wireless carrier is called Cingular, a new company combining the 11 regional brands of SBC Communications (SBC) and BellSouth . At a "BusinessWeek" forum on the digital economy, Cingular's President of Wireless Operations, Bob Shaner, talked with Scott Gurvey about the challenge of combining all those brands.

BOB SHANER, WIRELESS OPERATIONS PRESIDENT, CINGULAR WIRELESS: From our two parents we had a lot of different brands. We operated as Bell South. We operated as SBC Wireless. We operated as Pacific Bell Wireless. We operated as Cellular One. So we had quite a stable full of brands. But we knew we needed one brand because we were now a national company. And so we went about searching for a brand that we were going to use going forward. And that's a pretty interesting process in and of itself. Basically, there are no English language words left that someone hasn't taken. So once you realize that, then you start with your creative juices and you start putting together things that you think you can do something with. And after a lot of work we came up with the brand Cingular, that we think resonates well. We like it very much. We've been very pleased with where our branding has gone in the first year. Our recognition is much higher today than we anticipated it being at this stage.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: What are some of the new features that are popular with consumers today?

SHANER: Well, first of all, let's just start us at the base, make sure it's very solid. And that is they want good coverage with their voice service today wherever they happen to be. That's number one. They don't want dropped calls. They want dependable service. And that's been the case since 1984 and it continues to be the base case today. And so we're trying to make sure customers get that base case whenever they are. Then beyond that, they do want transparency, very, very much. When they roam, they want to get the same services and features wherever they happen to be. It's very important to them. And we're a very mobile society and as a result, they demand that. In addition to that, they want to be able to go beyond our borders more and more. Five or six years ago even that was not an issue that was very high on our priority list. But that issue is high on our priority list today. And that's one of the reasons why we've made a decision to good with the GSM platform for the future, because it provides us the technological platform to provide services that then can be transported around the world because it is the dominant infrastructure and we believe it'll continue to be the dominant infrastructure.

GURVEY: How difficult is it to actually make money in this environment with no roaming fees and flat rate long distance?

SHANER: This is still a wonderful business and it's one that we're learning right now. We're preparing for the future. We're preparing for where we're going to go with data as well as just changing out the infrastructure to support our voice services, as well. So we're going through a time now of transition. And it's really the first major transition period I think we've had as an industry at this point in time. So it's exciting. It's challenging. It's daunting. But it's a great business to be in.

GURVEY: Thank you. Bob Shaner, Cingular.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. 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.

12/12/01:US Firms In Japan Bring Too Many Risks,Too Few Rewards, & Too Little Revenue

SUSIE GHARIB: Just a few years ago, Japan was a gold mine for American mutual fund firms, with $12 trillion worth of household savings. Now, the luster's gone and Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and others are scaling back their operations. As Lucy Craft explains, foreign fund managers underestimated the challenges of selling to Japanese investors.

LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Merrill Lynch stormed into the Japanese retail securities market in 1998, betting that its long overseas experience, product line and a newly liberalized Japanese market would be a recipe for success.

BRIAN WATERHOUSE, FINANCIAL ANALYST, HSBC SECURITIES COMPANY, LTD.: On paper it looked like they had a perfect opportunity to sweep up a huge market share in Japan.

CRAFT: But after three straight years of losses, Merrill Lynch stunned the financial world recently by announcing it would scale back its retail brokerage business. The firm says slumping Japanese share prices, now at around 18 year lows, scared off individual investors. Last year only about two percent of Japanese assets went into mutual funds compared to 12 percent in the U.S.

MINEKO SASAKI-SMITH, CHIEF STRATEGIST, PWC CONSULTANTS COMPANY, LTD.: I think it's very simple. When you have saved your money towards either a down payment for your house or children's education or for your retirement, those are the three major reasons why Japanese households save. Then are you willing to risk this money? Japanese investors have experienced so many new products where they thought they were very safe and ended up seeing their money evaporate. As a result this risk averseness is unlikely to disappear very easily.

CRAFT: But Japan's prolonged bear market, say observers, is only part of the reason why foreigners, so successful in Japan's institutional market, were unable to duplicate that success on the retail side.

WATERHOUSE: Many of the foreign companies discovered that while they had excellent track records overseas and an excellent name in their home countries, see, in Japan, this Mrs. Huatnavi had never heard of them so she simply would not part company with her money and invest in those mutual funds.

CRAFT: Indeed, Merrill Lynch's bull logo was so unknown in Japan, some Japanese assumed the firm sold steaks instead of stocks.

MOTOHISA MEGUMU, COO, MATSUI SECURITIES COMPANY, LTD.: Compared to the wholesale side, retail securities is extremely local. It takes time to master it. I think the foreigners failed because they simply imported their U.S. business without modifying for Japan. Everyone knows Merrill Lynch or Charles Schwab in the U.S. Nobody knows them in Japan. The brands don't mean anything here.

CRAFT: And yet, while foreign funds exit Japan, a handful of Japanese stock boutiques and Internet brokers are beating the odds. This family owned online discount broker pioneered no frills, unlimited trading for $25 a day. Managed by a charismatic descendent of the founder, this 80-year-old firm marked more than 75 percent rise in net profit of about $7 million for the first half of this year.

SASAKI-SMITH: His timing was right. His business model was very much focused and it attracted to the younger generation, the right generation of people. And as a result, he was able to do very well. And definitely until market recovers the volume is not going to be all that high. But just capturing market share from others he has succeeded.

CRAFT: Some foreign firms are trying to lure wary Japanese investors by offering unconventional low risk financial products. But market players say retail investing will grow slowly in Japan, hampered by continued over regulation, Japan's bad loan crisis and the country's shirking economy. Lucy Craft NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Tokyo.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. 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.

12/12/01: Paul Kangas' Wall Street Wrap Up

PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue-chip stocks opened slightly higher in an attempt to rebound after four straight sessions on the downside. But the best the Dow Industrial Average could do was post a 5-point gain at 10:00 a.m., while the NASDAQ Index did better with a 12-point advance. The market, especially the financial sector, soon went into a fade after American Express released a disappointing outlook. We'll have details on that in just a moment. The drug group was weak in reaction to Merck's forecast yesterday that it will have flat earnings next year. In the meantime, some investors were beginning to doubt the economy would stage a recovery anytime soon. At noontime then, the Dow fell to a 75-point loss and the NASDAQ Index was down 21 points. Bolstered by an upbeat earnings forecast from Procter & Gamble and a strong home building group in reaction to Toll Brothers' (TOL) better-than-expected earnings, the market made a solid afternoon comeback. And a come-from-behind gain in IBM's (IBM) stock also helped the Dow Industrial Average close with a gain of 6.44 at 9894.81. The NASDAQ Index came in with a gain of 9.45 standing at 2011.38.

Big board volume up a bit on the rally, the late rally, 1.4 billion shares and about 7 to 6 ratio of down volume over up volume.

The Dow Transport Index down 6 1/3 points.

But a 2 1/3-point gain in the Utilities Index.

The Closing Tick practically neutral at +92.

Standard & Poor's 500 edged up 0.31.

Just over a 1-point rise in the 100.

The MidCap 400 down 1.44.

And the Bridge Futures Price Index fell about 3/4 of a point.

A 3/4 of a point drop in the New York Composite.

Value Line off 0.35.

Just over a 1/2-point gain in the Russell2000 Small Cap Index.

And the broadly based Wilshire 5000 rising exactly 1 1/2 points.

The bond market extended its rally into the third day as investors became more convinced the slow economy and low inflation will lead to more interest rate cuts. Another plus was news of a 1.6 percent decline in November import prices, led by a drop in the price of oil. Longer-dated issues were boosted by the Treasury's announcement it will buy back up to $1.5 billion of its 30-year bonds tomorrow.

Tax-frees were unchanged on the day, but corporates rose about 3/8 of a point on average.

The Treasury market was up across the board.

The 5-year notes up only 2/32.

The 10-year notes up 12/32.

And of course, that 30-year bond up a full point.

While the Lehman Brothers Long-Term Treasury Bond Index was up almost 12 points.

A pretty impressive late comeback on Wall Street today. The blue chips came from a substantial loss to a gain of nearly 6 1/2 on the Dow. The broader market still lower by a 16 to 15 margin, but nowhere near as bad as it was earlier. 42 new highs for the year, 68 new lows.

Calpine (CPN) topped the active list on 46 million shares and what a story today. It traded as low as $11 on liquidity concerns this morning. But the company then said it is liquid and Standard & Poor's reiterated its BB+ rating on Calpine's unsecured debt and the company bought $122 million of its own convertible bonds. So the stock rallied nicely.

Merck (MRK) down another $2.18 after losing over $6 yesterday when it forecast flat 2002 earnings. Today, Lehman Brothers lowered its price target from $90 to $74 a share.

Dynegy (DYN) down $0.84 but it was low as $21.50 this morning. It, like Calpine, made a good comeback.

GE (GE) moved up $0.26.

And then Pfizer (PFE) was down $0.11, fifth in big board volume.

El Paso (EPG) moved up $1.90.

Compaq Computer (CPQ) a $0.30 gain.

Kroger Company (KR) managed to come back $0.02 after tumbling $3.38 yesterday on the company's own lowering of its fourth quarter earnings estimate.

AOL Time Warner (AOL) moved up a $0.50.

And Mirant (MIR) was down $1.31 in that energy group that was all over the place today.

American Express (AXP) ended with a loss of only $0.84 after trading as low as $32.56. You heard the news.

And then Bristol-Myers (BMY) off $3.30 on concern that if the company's glucophase diabetes product doesn't get a patent extension, sales will be hurt by generic versions on the market. Also, 29 states are suing Bristol, alleging it illegally kept cheaper generic versions of its Buspar anxiety medication off of the market.

Fluor (FLR) down $3.54. Engineering and construction stocks weak today due to the soft energy markets. After Enron's (ENE) bankruptcy there's been a slowdown building in that area.

IBM (IBM) up $1.70 on the close after trading as low as $1, let's make it $120.06. That is a nice comeback.

Procter & Gamble (PG) moved up $3.25. The company sees second quarter sales and earnings growth at the upper end of its prior guidance. J.P. Morgan issued a "buy" with an $88 a share target.

And Safeway (SWY) down $2.49. UBS Warburg downgraded it from "hold" to "reduce." Kroger (KR), of course, cut its fourth quarter earnings estimates yesterday. It affected the whole supermarket group.

Oakley (OO), the star of the day on the up side, gaining $2.25 on the news it's in a pact for Luxottica's (LUX) Sunglass Hut unit to sell Oakley products. And as a result Oakley boosted its own 2002 earnings estimates.

And Luxottica did pretty well, too, rising $1.10.

Centex (CTX), big home builder, up $4.02.

It got a real boost from Toll Brothers (TOL), which rose $2.71 after reporting fourth quarter earnings of $1.84. That's $0.20 above the Street estimate and way up from $1.52 a year ago.

Invacare (IVC) the big percentage loser of the day, off $4.65. The company its fourth quarter earnings estimates from the $0.59 to $0.62 range down to $0.42 to $0.45.

And Vector Group (VGR) down $4. Now, yesterday the company released data on its new reduced carcinogen cigarette. That was basically fairly impressive, according to some analysts. But this has got to be profit taking. That stock began the year at $15 a share.

Nasdaq trading, a gain of nearly 9 1/2. Volume down a bit from yesterday. 18 stocks up for every 17 lower.

Intel (INTC) topped the active list, moving up $0.89.

A $0.63 gain in