BIZWATCH : MARKETS.MARKET LOGIC: The stock market fell for a second day Thursday, pulled further from a record high reached earlier in the week as a weaker dollar and lower bond prices undermined the market's strength. The Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial AverageThe best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. lost 92.75 points Thursday to close at 6,927.38. MEMO MATTHEWS MAKES DEAL: Burbank-based Matthews Studio Equipment Group has bought privately held Media Lighting Supply Inc. of Miami for close to $1 million in cash and stock options. Media Lighting Supply's management team will remain in place. Matthews said the deal will allow it to expand in the southeastern United States, Caribbean Islands, Central American and South American markets. MERC See Maximum expected return criterion. Merc See Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). PULLS PLUG: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. on Thursday pulled the plug on its Globex after-hours electronic trading project with Reuters Holdings PLC, which was plagued with trouble from its start. The exchange will join the New York Mercantile Exchange New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) The world's largest physical commodity futures exchange. in adopting an electronic trading system run by French futures exchange Futures Exchange Traditionally, a term referring to a central marketplace where futures contracts and options on futures contracts are traded. More recently, with the growth in electronic trading, it is also used to describe the activity of futures trading itself. Marche a Terme International de France, or MATIF MATIF Marche A Terme International de France (Paris Futures Exchange) . In exchange, MATIF and the Paris bourse Paris Bourse National stock market of France. will get to use the American exchanges' system for clearing trades at the end of the day. WAL-MART AWARD SLASHED: A federal appeals court Thursday further reduced a $50 million award to a Missouri woman who accused her supervisor and an assistant store manager at Wal-Mart of sexually harassing her. A federal judge already had cut the award to $5 million in 1995, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals slashed it Thursday to $350,000, calling the previous amounts too excessive. STRIKE ENDS: A three-week strike at plants in Plymouth, Mich., and Oberlin, Ohio, that make seats for Ford Motor Co. ended Thursday with tentative labor contracts between the United Auto Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, officially the United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union and Johnson Controls Inc. The UAW (spelling) UAW - Misspelling of "IAW"? said the plants' contracts provide wage increases of 22 percent to nearly 50 percent over the next two years, a fixed-benefit pension plan, and the same paid holidays that Big Three autoworkers get. EARNINGS WELLPOINT STOCK RISE: WellPoint Health Networks Inc. shares rose $1.625 to $38.875 after the Woodland Hills-based health maintenance organization reported fourth-quarter earnings almost quadrupled as membership in its managed health-care plans increased. Net income was $47 million, or 71 cents a share, above the average Wall Street forecast of 66 cents. J.C PENNY EARNINGS FALL: J.C. Penney Co. Inc. said Thursday its earnings fell nearly 73 percent in the fourth quarter due primarily to charges resulting from its purchase of several drugstore chains. In the quarter ended Jan. 25, Penney's earnings were $94 million, or 36 cents a share, compared with $326 million, or $1.31 per share, in the same period a year ago. Penney has been gobbling up several drugstore chains including, 1,724 Eckerd's stores, 200 Rite Aid stores, 97 Kerr Drug stores, and Fay's drugstore chain in the Northeast. CAPTION(S): 2 Charts Chart: (1--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS (2--Color) BIZ FACTS WALL STREET`S LARGEST Largest U.S. securities firms following the merger of Morgan Stanley Group with Dean Witter, in billions of dollars of capital Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion