BRIEFCASE EARNINGS ESTIMATE FOR DISNEY RAISED.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

BURBANK - Wall Street brokerage Sanford Bernstein on Thursday raised its earnings estimate and recommendation for The Walt Disney Co., saying the entertainment giant's lagging ABC television network had turned the corner.

Disney shares rose almost 6 percent to $17.26 following the change, and Bernstein analyst Tom Wolzien set a price target of $20 for the next year. Rueters News Service reported that Wolzien raised his rating on Disney shares to ``outperform'' from ``market perform'' and increased his earnings per share estimate to 65 cents from 62 cents for fiscal 2003, ending Sept. 30.

The analyst is still close to the bottom end of the 64-cent to 71-cent range of Wall Street estimates compiled by Thomson Financial/First Call.

ABC, which is last among the big-three networks in ratings, will provide earnings growth thanks to a new slate of shows that have boosted the number of viewers recently, while debt costs would be less than previously expected, Wolzien said.

30-year mortgage at 5.85 percent

WASHINGTON - Mortgage rates began the new year the same way they ended the old - by hitting a new low.

The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.85 percent for the week ending Jan. 3, down from 5.93 percent in the previous week, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey of mortgage rates.

This week's rate was the lowest since the mortgage giant began tracking 30-year mortgage rates in 1971. The rate for this week and last week both surpassed the previous records in the survey of 5.94 percent set in the middle of November.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular option or refinancing, fell this week to 5.24 percent, compared with 5.32 percent in the prior week.

For one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, rates edged up slightly to 4.06 percent, compared with 4.01 percent the previous week.

Manufacturing index rebounds

NEW YORK - The U.S. manufacturing sector grew in December for the first time in four months, stimulated by a surge in new orders, a private industry group reported Thursday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of business activity hit 54.7 in December, much higher than November's 49.2 reading and the first time the index has been higher than 50 since August. A reading above 50 means the manufacturing sector is growing; below 50 indicates it's contracting.

Analysts had forecast the index to come in at 50.1 for December.

Burger King Corp. ramps price war

DES MOINES, Iowa - Burger King Corp. will put its flagship Whopper hamburger on sale for 99 cents beginning today, with the promotion running until Jan. 20, the chain said Thursday.

The move is likely to intensify, and prolong, the burger price wars that have been roiling the U.S. fast-food industry in recent months.

N.Y. bank settles on Enron dispute

NEW YORK - J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has reached an agreement with its insurance companies to settle a $1 billion dispute over failed trading pacts with the now-bankrupt Enron Corp.

The New York bank said that under the deal announced Thursday, the 11 companies will pay ``approximately 60 percent of the amount of the surety bonds they wrote,'' or about $655 million.