|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Voxant Inc.
Original Source: NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT
PAUL KANGAS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: KANGAS: The blue chips rack up a day in the black, thanks to black gold. Falling oil prices help send stock prices higher, as investors grow less concerned that high energy prices will cut into corporate profits.
SUSIE GHARIB, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Game over for Sony? The Japanese electronics giant is ordered to stop selling its Playstation and Playstation 2 game units and cough up $90 million. We`ll tell you why and why Sony is still selling the Playstations anyway.
KANGAS: The housing sector has been a real driver of the economy over the past few years. But with mortgage rates creeping up, will it still be strong a few years from now? We ask the chairman of Coldwell Banker, one of the nation`s largest real estate brokers.
GHARIB: Also tonight, these college students could find themselves in the role of David in the fight against the Goliath of the entertainment industry. What they`re doing on those computers could change the way you listen to music and watch movies.
KANGAS: I`m Paul Kangas.
GHARIB: And I`m Susie Gharib. This is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for Monday, March 28.
Good evening, everyone. Oil prices slid today and stocks on Wall Street rose. The Dow was up 42 points and the NASDAQ added one. Investors bought stocks on the belief that falling oil prices will take the pressure off of corporate profits. And with the quarter coming to an end, many on Wall Street are starting to focus on first quarter numbers. Suzanne Pratt has a preview.
SUZANNE PRATT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: It`s nearly that time of year again on Wall Street, earnings season. With all of the recent focus on oil prices and the U.S. economy, corporate profits stand a chance of getting lost in the shuffle. Nevertheless, some experts say this reporting season may be worth paying attention to, as it could give stock investors a much needed boost of confidence.
EDWARD KEON, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, PRUDENTIAL EQUITY GROUP: I recently increased my recommended equity exposure up to 75 percent versus a 60 percent benchmark, because I think the earnings outlook is better than I previously believed.
PRATT: Ironically, Wall Street is forecasting a sharp decline in earnings growth for the first quarter, but difficult comparisons are to blame. According to Thomson First Call, analysts expect first quarter profit growth for S&P 500 companies to be in the area of 8 percent. That`s less than half the pace of growth corporate America experienced last year. Still, Michael Thompson of Thomson Financial says the numbers don`t tell the full story.
MICHAEL THOMPSON, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, THOMSON FINANCIAL: The growth last year was incredibly strong based upon the prior year`s quarter, which was quite a bit slower. So, literally it`s just kind of running out of room. But I want to remind people that we`re earning more in profits by the S&P 500 than basically ever in history.
PRATT: Energy companies are again fueling earnings growth for the overall stock market, while the consumer discretionary sector, namely automakers, will be the quarter`s biggest, but only loser.
THOMPSON: All but one sector is showing positive earnings growth for the quarter and that one sector is consumer discretionary and that`s down 13 percent. But if you extract out Ford and General Motors from consumer discretionary, even consumer discretionary is up 10 percent.
PRATT: Looking ahead to the second quarter and second half of this year, many experts are growing more optimistic about corporate profits. On average, analysts are forecasting earnings growth of about 10 to 12 percent, not as good as last year, but not bad at all historically speaking. Suzanne Pratt, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.
KANGAS: The nation`s second largest leveraged buyout ever is in the works...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
