Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Markets
Stocks bobbed around break-even for most of the day, but a late selloff left traders seeing more red than
Richard Nixon
at a
HUAC
hearing.
Major proxies took their lumps. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
lost 127.10 to 9786.16; the
S&P 500
shed 14.34 to 1286.41; the
Nasdaq Composite Index
dumped 18.57 to 2461.72; the small-cap
Russell 2000
fell 1.14 to 397.64; and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index sank 0.87 to close at 643.01.
Major European bourses closed higher, while Asian markets were flat overnight. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
lost 1.99 to 10,942.20 while Japan's
Nikkei
ended its
fiscal year by sinking 22.53 to 15,836.59, about 4% under last year's close of 16,527.17.
For more markets action and news, click
here.
Companies
Pharmaceutical firm
American Home Products
(AHP)
said today that it will cut about 2,500 jobs to boost productivity. The company had previously expected 1,000 jobs to be cut.
BP Amoco's
(BPA)
board gave the green light to the company's plans to buy
Atlantic Richfield
(ARC) - Get Report
, according to
The Wall Street Journal
, which cited unnamed people familiar with the negotiations. The paper also noted that the merger may run into problems with statutory limits on the exploration acreage companies may control in Alaska.
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
announced plans to sell $400 million worth of auto parts to
Shanghai GM
, a joint venture between GM and
Shanghai Automotive Industry
.
Ford
(F) - Get Report
today completed its $6.45 billion acquisition of
Volvo Cars
, having integrated it with Ford's
Premier Automotive Group
division, which also includes the
Aston Martin
,
Jaguar
and
Lincoln
brands.
Blame it on
Coca-Cola
(KO) - Get Report
.
Pepsi Bottling Group's
(PBG)
100-million-share IPO opened flat, closing down 1 5/16 to 21 11/16, off their offering price of 23 a share. Yesterday Coke readied the Street for disappointing first-quarter global sales.
For more news on companies and stocks, click
here.
Tech
America Online
(AOL)
is renegotiating a two-year, $70 million content sharing deal between its
Netscape Communications
unit and Web directory
Excite
(XCIT)
, according to
CNet News.com
. The Web site said that AOL may seek to either salvage or cancel the deal, which has become less crucial to Netscape since it was bought by AOL, whose content Netscape's
Netcenter
portal may now use for free.
For more tech news and commentary, click
here.
General News
President Clinton
has earmarked $50 million, to be drawn from an emergency fund and the
Defense Department
, for aid for Kosovar refugees. Meanwhile, Russia said it will station a warship in the Mediterranean in response to the
NATO
airstrikes, although it claims it will not enter the conflict.
TSC
this morning
addressed the Balkan turmoil and the market's seeming
unconcern.
The
Commerce Department
released seasonally adjusted figures showing the nation's
gross domestic product
increasing at a 6.0% annual rate during the last three months of 1998, down 0.1 percentage point from the department's previous estimate.
International
The British government today announced that it has agreed to subsidize
BMW's
troubled
Rover
unit in its production of a new sedan at a plant in Birmingham, England. Britain did not specify the terms of the deal, which still needs approval from BMW's board and the
European Union
.
Japan's
Mitsubishi Electric
, part of the massive
Mitsubishi
keiretsu
, announced plans to cut 14,500 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, over the next three years. The company had already announced cuts of 2,600 jobs for this year.
Surprising economists who expected a slight drop, the French government released figures showing unemployment in that country jumping 0.3% in February to 11.5%.
For more international news and commentary, click
here.
Elsewhere
Butta-
fuoco
, Butta-
fuoco
... is that still funny? Maybe not, but the bizarre saga of
Amy Fisher
continues. Saying that she has forgiven Fisher for shooting her in the head seven years ago,
Mary Jo Buttafuoco
has joined prosecutors in support of a motion to vacate Fisher's conviction on the grounds that she was denied effective legal counsel when she pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. If the judge rules in Fisher's favor, she'll enter a new guilty plea on the same charge, for which prosecutors will recommend a lesser sentence that would make her eligible for parole in August.
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really
dumb question? Even better. Send it to
MonEmailbag@thestreet.com, and I'll do my best to answer. Include your full name, and please, no questions seeking personal financial advice or regarding personal brokerage disputes. And this reminder: Because of the volume of mail, personal replies can't be guaranteed.
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here to read the last Saturday's MonEmailbag.
