Program: Friday, September 3, 2004
Hurricane Frances Hits Florida
Encouraging News on the Job Front
Investors React To Intel's Earnings Warning
"Med-Tech": Where Technology Is Taking
Healthcare
Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Market Stats
09/03/04:
Hurricane Frances Hits Florida
SUSIE GHARIB:
Good evening everyone. We begin the program tonight with news about
us. This evening, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT's South Florida production
studios are coping with the approach of Hurricane Frances, So we're
coming to you tonight from our bureau in New York City with a special
program. At this hour, the hurricane is slowly moving towards Florida,
but it's still a powerful storm packing winds of 150 miles an hour.
Frances is expected to make landfall on Florida's east coast as
early as tomorrow and could be the most severe storm to hit the
Sunshine State in more than 10 years. Frances comes just three weeks
after hurricane Charley ravished parts of southwestern Florida,
causing more than $7 billion in insured losses.
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. Copyright (c) 2004 Community Television Foundation of South
Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/03/04:
Encouraging News On The Job Front
SUSIE GHARIB: Turning now to business, some encouraging news on
the jobs front. The Labor Department said today the American workforce
grew by 144,000 jobs last month, a big improvement over the sluggish
pace of the past two months. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell
to 5.4 percent, the lowest level in nearly three years. Scott Gurvey
has details.
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT:
The employment report was in line with expectations and a definite
improvement from the last two months, which were themselves revised
to indicate that more jobs were created than originally thought,
144,000 new jobs were created in August, but that number is far
below what would be expected at this stage for a normal recovery.
The unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent, its lowest point since
2001. This was in main part the result of many people giving up
on their job search and for the time being leaving the workforce.
Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute says
you have to look at the trend.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE:
Over the last three months, for example, we?re averaging about 100,000
jobs or so a month, which is kind of keeping pace with population
growth. Its helping, you see that with the unemployment rate for
example is at a pretty good reading historically. But the explanation
as to why don?t people feel better may be found in things like the
duration of unemployment, which is still pretty high.
GURVEY: For the Federal Reserve, this rate of economic
growth is just about right, calling for a neutral monetary policy.
That says experts like Namura?s (ph) chief economist David Restler
(ph), means the Fed will continue to slowly raise interest rates.
DAVID RESTLER, NAMURA: All of that is a pattern that
the Fed would be comfortable with over time if it didn?t already
believe that its current policy stance is too accommodative. It
thinks that if it holds this policy stance indefinitely, we?re eventually
going to have an inflation problem. So right now the data I think
are giving it the cover it needs to proceed in removing the accommodation
so it gets back to a policy stance that can sustain this kind of
momentum in the economy for a very long period.
GURVEY: Movement in the Treasury market today supported
that view. The market? s now anticipating a ¼ of a percentage point
increase in interest rates at both the Fed?s September 21st meeting
and the meeting on November 10th. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS
REPORT, New York.
GHARIB: On Wall Street, that employment report had little impact
on stocks. The Dow slipped 30 points and the NASDAQ lost 28. The
S&P 500 was off by 4 points. Volume was once again very light ahead
of the holiday weekend. The bond market wrapped up an abbreviated
session with the 10-year Treasury falling 23/32, pushing the yield
up to 4.29 percent.
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. Copyright (c) 2004 Community Television Foundation of South
Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/03/04:
Investors React To Intel's Earnings Warning
GHARIB: The other big story of the day, Intel. Investors reacted
to the chip giant's warning late yesterday that its third quarter
sales and profit margins would fall short of estimates. Several
brokerage firms downgraded the stock. Shares of Intel plummet $1.58
or more than 7 percent today to $20.05 and that's a 15- month low.
The Intel news sparked a broader sell off in technology stocks,
particularly shares of rival chip makers. The Philadelphia semiconductor
idex tumbled 5 ¼ percent to its lowest level of the year.
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. Copyright (c) 2004 Community Television Foundation of South
Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/03/04:
"Med-Tech" -- Where Technology Is Taking Health Care
GHARIB: Here at the NYU Medical Center, giant imaging machines
like this one are proof of high-tech`s key role in medical diagnosis
and treatment. But while we now take technologies like MRIs and
CT scans for granted, they`ve only been around for a relatively
short time. Diane Eastabrook takes a look at the amazing progress
that has been made in medical imaging over the past three decades.
DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: At Loyola
University Medical Center, radiologists routinely use magnetic resonance
imagining, better known as MRI scans, for a variety of diagnostic
tests. Here they`re trying to determine if a patient`s pancreas
is diseased. Down the hall, a computed axial tomography, or CT scan,
is being used to see if cancer has spread in another patient. Thirty
years ago, both patients probably would have undergone painful exploratory
surgery because CT scans and MRIs didn`t exist yet. Dr. Mary Olson,
chairman of Loyola`s Radiology Department, says over the years advanced
medical imaging has saved doctors valuable time and thousands of
lives.
DR. MARY OLSON, RADIOLOGY DEPT. CHMN., LOYOLA HEALTH SYSTEM: Basically,
the clinicians were very dependent on physical exam which doesn`t
show many things that are going on in the body. We had limited plain
X-ray, but really couldn`t look at the intricacies of the anatomy.
EASTABROOK: Around 1975, CT scanners arrived in hospitals. While
the machines use X-rays, they produce three-dimensional images of
organs and bones. They also show slices of the body. MRI`s arrived
in the mid 1980s. They use magnetic fields to produce images of
soft body tissues like the brain and cartilage. But MRIs also show
how various body parts are functioning.
DAVID WEBER, MRI MANAGER, GE HEALTHCARE: We can look at the brain
and see how it`s laid out, but we can also create MR images of the
brain actually thinking.
EASTABROOK: The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association estimates about
half of all U.S. hospitals have MRI scanners and more than two-thirds
have CT scanners. And while doctors say the devices speed up diagnoses
and save lives, critics argue they have driven up the cost of health
care. A CT scanner costs between $400,000 and $1.2 million. An MRI
scanner costs between $650,000 and $2 million. But despite their
high price tags, analysts` say demand for the machines remains strong.
GE Healthcare makes about half of the CT scans and MRI scanners
in U.S. hospitals. The company says it has significantly improved
the machines so they produce faster, clearer images than they did
even a decade ago. Newer CT scans can now produce color images instead
of black and white ones. GE says upgrades can often be added to
existing equipment at a fraction of the cost of buying a new one.
But the company says when it does develop entirely new equipment
it tries to make affordability paramount.
PETER ARDUINI, GM, GLOBAL CT, GE HEALTHCARE: Some of the earlier
CT scanners were more expensive than the scanners are today. And
we constantly work on making sure that, one, if the products aren`t
of the same price level that you actually can do more patients,
that you can actually do more applications to make it more economical.
EASTABROOK: Medical imaging equipment has let doctors shorten
their patients` hospital stays. But they say the most important
benefit of medical imaging is the pain and suffering it has prevented.
OLSON: Frequently, with a cancer, patients would linger for quite
a long time. And either between CT scan or MRI, depending on where
that cancer is today, frequently we can make the diagnosis much
more earlier in time.
EASTABROOK: Newer MRIs can help diagnose cardiovascular disease,
breast cancer and some blood disorders. And GE Healthcare says future
advancements in medical imaging could be used to diagnose more complex
illnesses, like Alzheimer`s Disease. Diane Eastabrook, NIGHTLY BUSINESS
REPORT, Chicago.
GHARIB: Of course, medical imaging and most med-tech carry a hefty
price tag which is passed along to patients and insurance companies.
The question is, have the benefits of technology justified costs?
Economist Frank Lichtenberg of Columbia University thinks so. And
when I talked with him, he said, thanks to innovations in medical
technology, people are living a lot longer.
FRANK LICHTENBERG, ECONOMIST, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: There are a
number of factors underlying the increase and longevity, including
higher incomes, better education, improvement in the environment
and so on, but medical technology plays an important role in that.
I`ve done a study that suggests that as much as 40 percent of the
increase in life expectancy in about 50 countries is due to new
drugs alone.
GHARIB: But a lot of those innovations come with a huge price tag.
According to some studies half the increase in healthcare costs
over the last 30 years was due to the cost of new technology. So
from a purely economic point of view, was all that spending worth
while?
LICHTENBERG: I wouldn`t say that all of it was worth while. However
I think we can say that on average it was worth while. People live
longer than they used to. And also quality of life has improved.
There`s a lot of evidence that that`s very important to people.
People are willing to pay a lot to live longer, to improve their
quality of lives, and that does represent a big pay off to society.
GHARIB: Would you go as far as David Cutler of Harvard who has
said that with the overall improvement in health of Americans that
there`s no reason for anyone to complain about the rising healthcare
costs?
LICHTENBERG: Well, we all like to complain. So - however, yes,
I do agree with David that in general there has been a very good
return on the investment. It`s true that healthcare costs are rising
as a percentage of GDP. However what is more important to spend
our resources on than improved health? Should we buy more movies
or clothing or should we lengthen and improve the quality of our
lives?
GHARIB: In economics the general rule is that when the supply increases,
the price for goods and services comes down. But that`s not always
the case when it comes to medical technologies. In some communities
there are multiple MRIs and CT scans and still there`s a high price.
Why is there that disparity?
LICHTENBERG: I`m not sure that I really think that it is different.
I think, for example, if we look at the pharmaceutical industry,
look what happened when a patent expires and a lot of generic companies
enter the market. The price of the drug generally falls by about
80 percent within a year. So competition actually works very well.
It may be somewhat different for MRIs and those kinds of innovations,
but in general, I think competition does reduce prices in the health
care industry.
GHARIB: For authorities at Medicare and private insurers who have
to decide whether a new technology is worth paying for, what criteria
would you recommend that they use?
LICHTENBERG: Well, I think that the criterion that`s commonly used
is essentially something called the cost per quality adjusted life
year. When we`re talking about a technology that does improve and
extend people`s lives, we want to examine how much longer will people
live as a result of this innovation, what will their quality of
life be, and how much is it going to cost to produce that improvement?
What is perhaps surprising is that economists increasingly have
reached a consensus that the value of a year in perfect health is
a very high number, a number like $150,000. In other words if an
innovation can extend someone`s life by one year and that year would
be lived in very good health, then it would be worth it to pay up
$150,000 for that innovation.
GHARIB: As you know, everybody is concerned by the rising cost
of healthcare, and certainly this is going to be a hot topic in
the upcoming presidential elections. Is it time to scale back? Is
there a limit?
LICHTENBERG: Well, there is a limit and that`s 100 percent of GDP.
But I don`t necessarily think it is time to scale back. I think
that we need to focus not only on the cost of healthcare, but the
benefits of healthcare. Now the benefits are less visible and are
in some cases difficult to trace back to the investments. But I
think that if one looks carefully, one sees that on average there
has been a very high return on society`s investment.
GHARIB: Professor Lichtenberg, thank you very much.
LICHTENBERG: Thank you. KANGAS: Although hospitals, clinics and
other medical providers generate lots of documents and data, medical
information is still often written down and kept in files. But as
Jeff Yastine reports, computer technology is about to revolutionize
how medical information is stored and transmitted.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Until now,
this has been the way generations of radiologists have studied X-ray
films. The film is mounted on lighted panels to allow the specialist
to study the details of each image. That`s required hospitals such
as this one, Baptist Hospital in Miami, to store thousands of X-rays
as part of patients` medical histories. But that won`t be the case
for long. Baptist is part of a small but growing cadre of providers
making the leap into the digital age, putting its X-rays and other
images into digital form. But it`s also preparing to put almost
everything else, patient records, doctors` notes, prescriptions,
on computer as well. It has built this information technology lab
to help test out the systems that will become the key information
tool for nurses and doctors.
BRIAN KEELEY, PRES. & CEO, BAPTIST HEALTH SOUTH FLORIDA: Healthcare
in the United States is probably 10 years ahead of the rest of the
world when it comes to clinical technology. I`d also say the healthcare
industry is about 10 years behind the industry when it comes to
information technology. And I think that we`re going to see an explosion
in investment in information technology in the years ahead.
YASTINE: Executives say, with all the other pressures in the healthcare
field, investing in information technology has not been a priority
for most providers. But that`s beginning to change as hospitals
and doctors look for ways to cut down on medical errors, and, at
the same time, become more efficient, processing the flood of medical
information generated by the care of each patient.
PAUL RUFLIN, PRES. & CEO, ECLIPSYS CORP.: Its the handoffs of information,
its the handoffs of what I did sending it to you, and you understanding
what I did so that you can do what you need to do. So its the collaboration
between nurses, doctors, the pharmacists, lab techs, et cetera.
That`s a huge issue. One of the big benefits is that technology
can support that.
YASTINE: Executives at Eclipsys, which provides information technology
to hospitals, say there are real returns on those investments, from
reducing the chance of adverse drug effects in patients to getting
lab test results sooner. Even drug prescriptions are going high-tech.
Instead of writing prescriptions out by hand, growing numbers of
doctors and pharmacies are processing prescriptions by computer.
Executives at Proxymed, one of the largest companies in the field,
say that cuts down on back-and-forth phone calls and prescription
errors.
JACK GUINAN, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PROXYMED: There is very
much a movement in this direction, whether it be from just efficiency`s
sake in the office, which is much more to do with the bottom line
in the physician`s office, but also being able to spend more time
with the patients, as well as the quality of care by providing legible
prescriptions and accurate prescriptions to the pharmacy.
YASTINE: Even at the bedside, technology is creeping in. At South
Florida`s Baptist Hospital, these flat-panel monitors carry television
programs for patients` viewing. But they also double as terminals
for nurses to enter patient medical information. Executives say
that one change alone brings nurses into closer contact with patients.
KEELEY: We`re going to probably have the nurses gravitate away
from the nursing station to the patient care side. That`s where
they want to be, they want to be taking care of the patients. They
don`t want to be back in the nurse station, scribbling notes and
getting notes from the doctors and everything.
YASTINE: As the use of information technology spreads, experts
say it will make it easier to move medical data, both to get second
opinions and perhaps even outsource many of the decisions now made
by in-house doctors. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
GHARIB: So what improvements in medical technology are on the way?
If the technological changes over the next 30 years are anything
like the past 30, we can expect some truly major developments. Angela
Terrell Heath reports on some that are already in the works.
ANGELA TERRELL HEATH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: At
first it looks like any other day at George Washington University
Hospital. A team of doctors is preparing for surgery, scrubbing
for seven minutes. But these hands won`t actually do the most delicate
work. That`s left to a robot. The Da Vinci, seen here, is a high-tech
surgical system that`s becoming more popular in operating rooms
across the country. It`s part of a trend towards minimally invasive
surgical procedures. Through punctures about the size of a dime,
the Da Vinci is able to do the work of a surgeon, but with more
precision. Dr. Manyak says this technology will revolutionize the
way surgery is done in the future.
MICHAEL MANYAK, CHAIR OF UROLOGY, GW UNIV. HOSPITAL: Try to make
things smaller, better, faster, more efficient; very similar to
what the computer world went through. And with the combination of
computer systems and engineering technology and material science,
we now have things that we can apply in the standard world. And
you`re seeing the first of that in the surgical field with this
very sophisticated Da Vinci system.
HEATH: Another area where technology could have a major impact
is in the treatment of diabetes. More than 18 million Americans
suffer from the disease. Medtronic (MDT) MiniMed is currently testing
what it calls an artificial pancreas. It is designed to automatically
transmit glucose levels to a pump that then calculates and delivers
the proper amount of insulin. The system can be placed externally
or implanted within the body. Since heart disease remains the nations
number-one killer, technological advances are expected in that area
as well. Drug-coated stents are becoming more popular for treatment
of blocked arteries because of their speed and efficiency in delivering
medication. These new stents are used to prop open arteries and
also release a drug that prevents the artery from rejecting the
stent. AdvaMed, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, represents
medical device companies large and small. The group says there`s
potential for new products in many other areas, including...
STEPHEN J. UBL, EXECUTIVE VP, FEDERAL GOVT. RELATIONS, ADVAMED:
Gene-based testing, I think the diagnostics industry is on the cusp
of a revolution. Soon we`ll have the ability to have a gene-based
test that will match the treatment with the patient in a much more
specific way. Information technology, we`re sort of seeing the bridge
between implantable devices like pacemakers and defibrillators with
information technology so that patients will be able to upload information
directly to the physician and monitor those devices.
HEATH: To meet the growing needs of Baby Boomers set to retire,
the Intel Corporation (INTC) is researching and developing products
to help seniors stay in their homes as they age. Wireless sensor
technology is considered one way to do that. It`s done through a
combination of sensors and a glove that reminds seniors about everyday
products in their homes. Eric Dishman leads a team of 10 researchers
that is studying the application of this type of technology.
ERIC DISHMAN, DIR., PROACTIVE HEALTH RESEARCH, INTEL: We`re going
to have to develop remote technology so that your cell phone, your
laptop, your television, all of those technologies connected with
one another can deliver health and wellness information, diagnostic
information based on real time diagnostics that you`re getting from
your mother or father`s home. That`s a very different paradigm than
we have now, where we get all of our diagnostics based on sending
somebody to hospital or clinic once every six months.
HEATH: Some of the biggest advances in medical technology are likely
to be very small. Take nanotechnology. That`s the manipulation of
individual molecules and has tremendous potential for treating cancer
and other diseases. Angela Terrell Heath, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT,
Washington.
KANGAS: Of course, new medical technologies don`t just happen.
Generally, they are the end-product of years of extensive research.
And the primary federal agency for directing and supporting medical
research is the NIH, or National Institutes of Health. With 27 institutes
and centers, the NIH pours $25 billion a year into various research
projects. They are awarded through some 50,000 competitive grants
that fund the work of 217,000 scientists across the country. The
person who heads up that complex process is NIH director Dr. Elias
Zerhouni. I spoke with him earlier, and asked what he sees as the
most exciting areas of research, in terms of the potential for new
medical technology.
DR. ELIAS ZERHOUNI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: A
lot of the technologies you`re going to see over the next 10 years
are going to be applied technology like medical imaging which will
go into functional imaging and molecular imaging where we understand
molecular events in the brain, in the heart and other places. Also
image-guided therapies that use imaging to do less and less invasive
treatments are going to grow enormously over the next 10 years.
And the other area that I see as a very promising area of technologies,
how to deliver drugs in such a way that patients will comply with,
for example, the ability to control the glucose in the patient with
diabetes. This is what we call sensor-driven drug delivery. Those
are going to happen next 10, 15 years. In the meantime, nanotechnolgy
is going to grow as the next wave where we can replace completely
biosystems that control, for example, renal function or heart function
or any of the functions of our organs.
KANGAS: As we noted, NIH sets the priorities and direction for
research that often leads to many important medical breakthroughs
and products. With so many grant applications in so many promising
areas of research, how do you decide which deserve to be supported?
ZERHOUNI: Two ways. One, we look at the public health impact of
diseases as we know them today and as we think they will effect
the population downstream. So a good example is heart disease. Over
the past 30 years, we`ve reduced the mortality of heart disease
by 50 percent. People live longer. Now we`re worried about heart
failure and we`re investing a lot in heart failure. The second is
diseases that are emerging, like obesity. So this year, for example,
NIH is going to spend 10 percent more dollars for doing obesity
research. That`s one end of the spectrum: public health necessity.
The other is when we look at science, and all of a sudden, there`s
a discovery that can be used to great effect. A good example is
what we call RNA silencing, which was discovered three or four years
ago, which has become a way of controlling the activity of genes
within cells. And we`re using this now extensively and we`re funding
it, because that`s the key to understanding what happens in health
and disease.
KANGAS: A few years ago, there was a lot of excitement over the
potential for medical breakthroughs arising from the mapping of
the human genome, as you`ve touched on earlier.
ZERHOUNI: Right.
KANGAS: Was that excitement really justified or was it premature?
ZERHOUNI: Oh, it was totally justified. Let me give you an example.
This year alone we discovered 12 new genes for schizophrenia. Now,
schizophrenia is the fifth cause of disability in men aged between
25 and 44 years old, prime time of life. We`ve never had an understanding
of what was going on in schizophrenia. In Parkinson`s Disease, we
have four new genes. Last week, we announced the discovery of a
master gene in diabetes, in type II diabetes. So the genome has
allowed us, for the first time, to compare the parts list, if you
will, of an individual who doesn`t have a disease with an individual
who has the disease, and find out which genes are abnormal in what
disease. This is a completely new way of doing medical research.
KANGAS: Indeed, fascinating. Could you tell us about the NIH road
map? I understand that you recently set this up to encourage higher
risk projects in biomedical research than NIH normally supports.
Why do you want to push this kind of risk-taking now?
ZERHOUNI: Because we think it`s revolutionary times in medical
research. The genome was never there before. The technologies that
we have, the high through- put techniques. Right now it takes you
about a week to detect a gene if you have the right patient population.
You know, in 1985, it would take you five years to find the same
gene. So we are putting an investment in a way that will allow innovators
to make rapid progress across genomic research. That`s why we want
NIH to have a very specific road map to accelerate that progress
and to change the institution from a traditional way of doing medicine,
which was, wait until the patient is sick before you do something,
to the 21st Century way, which will be, find out what is going to
be wrong and do something about it before the patient is sick.
KANGAS: Turning to the relationship between the NIH and private
industry, the NIH has been accused from time to time of stepping
into territory that would be better left to private industry, as
it was a few years ago during the push to map the human genome.
At what point is the NIH supposed to get out of the way and let
private industry take over?
ZERHOUNI: Well, let me tell you, as the director of an agency,
I don`t want NIH to spend any money that someone else is willing
to spend to advance medical progress. So we focus on areas where
we know no one is going to invest money: basic discovery, basic
science. What we call "orphan" diseases, diseases that affect so
few people that industry is not interested in investing in that.
Where we stop is when we have provided enough knowledge that we
know investment will flow in to continue that knowledge for applications.
KANGAS: Thank you, Dr. Zerhouni. And we thank you for speaking
with us at this very exciting time in biomedical research. My guest,
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.
GHARIB: If
you want more information on developments in medical technology
and related investment possibilities, we invite you to go to our
World Wide Web site: NBR.com.
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. Copyright (c) 2004 Community Television Foundation of South
Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/03/04:
"'Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
GHARIB: Taking a look now at the most active stocks on the big
board today, Texas Instruments (TXN) fell almost $1 or nearly 5
percent. Pfizer (PFE) slipped $0.15. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
lost $0.76 or more than 6 ½ percent. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) moved
down $0.31. And Lucent (LU) off by $0.06. Over at the NASDAQ, as
we mentioned, Intel (INTC) was by far the most active. Cisco Systems
(CSCO) was also on the downside, losing $0.55 or almost 3 percent.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down $0.51. Applied Materials (AMAT) dropped
$0.63 or nearly 4 percent. Sun Microsystems (SUNW) shed $0.0.6.
Here?s a quick look at what?s on the economic calendar for next
week. On Monday, U.S. markets are closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Wednesday, the Federal Reserve comes out with its beige book survey
and then on Friday, the producer price index for August comes out.
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. Copyright (c) 2004 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/03/04:
Market Stats
We're sorry. We're unable to provide Market Stats
for this date. Market Stats are produced out of our South Florida
production studios, which were closed on this date in preparation
for Hurricane Frances.