Monday, January 11, 1999
Markets
U.S. stocks opened mixed, with blue-chips flat but Internet and other tech stocks advancing strongly.
European bourses traded lower at midafternoon.
Asian market closed lower, as Japan's
Nikkei 225
shed 23.33 to 13,368.48, and Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
dropped 88.43 to 10,634.27.
For more markets action and news, click
here.
Companies
Aluminum manufacturer
Alcoa
(AA) - Get Report
surged Friday as it announced fourth-quarter earnings above expectations, a 50% dividend increase and a 2-for-1 stock split.
DaimlerChrysler
(DCX)
said it will spend $55 billion to $60 billion on research and development over the next three years.
Merck
(MRK) - Get Report
reportedly will claim its arthritis drug
Vioxx
is more effective at treating a broad range of pain than
Monsanto's
(MTC) - Get Report
Celebrex
, which the
Food and Drug Administration
has said can only be marketed as an arthritis treatment.
Starbucks
(SBUX) - Get Report
today opened its first branch in China at a five-star Beijing hotel.
For more news on companies and stocks, click
here.
Tech
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
said it will spend an additional $2 billion in 1999 accelerate its upgrade of
TCI's
(TCOMA)
cable networks to handle bundled packages of TV, Internet and telephone services. The company also said it will not create a tracking stock for its consumer services business along with its purchase of TCI.
Lucent
(LU)
agreed to acquire billing software company
Kenan Systems
for $1.48 billion in stock.
MCI WorldCom
(WCOM)
said it will not bid for cellular phone giant
AirTouch Communications
, leaving AirTouch to continue talks with
Vodafone
(VOD) - Get Report
and
Bell Atlantic
(BEL)
.
Former
Packard Bell NEC
CEO Beny Alagem reportedly is in talks to acquire a large stake in
Samsung Group's AST Computer
.
For more tech news and commentary, click
here.
International
Italian carmaker
Fiat
(FIA)
reportedly is in merger talks with several companies, including Sweden's
Volvo
(VOLVY)
.
Guangdong International Trust and Investment
, the investment unit of the wealthy Chinese province of Guangdong, has filed for bankruptcy with debts of $4.3 billion.
British American Tobacco
(BTI) - Get Report
agreed to acquire
Rothmans International
from
Compagnie Financiere Richemont
(RCHMY)
and
Rembrandt Group
(RBDGY)
for about $7.5 billion in stock.
For more international news and commentary, click
here.
General News
Two U.S. fighter jets fired on an air defense installation today in northern Iraq after they were lit up by Iraqi radar.
U.S. payrolls rose by 378,000 new jobs in December, the biggest monthly gain in more than a year.
At the
Bank for International Settlements
meeting in Hong Kong,
Federal Reserve
Chairman
Alan Greenspan
told the heads of 16 central banks, including 11 from the Asia-Pacific region, to expect any slowdown of the U.S. economy to be "relatively moderate."
The
Pentagon
said Friday that air strikes on Iraq have retarded that country's weapons program by two years and killed 600 to 2,000 Republican Guard members.
Elsewhere
Communications and pharmaceutical mogul Daniel Snyder and banking brothers Howard and Edward Milstein have agreed to purchase the
Washington Redskins
and
Jack Kent Cooke Stadium
for $800 million.
