Nightly Business Report - 2009-02-24 (partial)

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Tell Nightly Business Report it could

[0:02] come as soon as Friday. Erica Miller,

[0:05] Nightly Business Report, New York.

[0:07] >> Meanwhile, another bank taking TARP

[0:09] funds is in hot water with lawmakers.

[0:12] House Financial Services Committee

[0:13] Chairman Barney Frank wants Northern

[0:15] Trust Bank to repay some of the $1.6

[0:18] billion in bailout funds it received

[0:20] from Uncle Sam. The bank used part of

[0:23] that cash to host a golf tournament.

[0:25] Northern Trust sent hundreds of clients

[0:27] and employees to that tournament, put

[0:29] them up at posh hotels, and brought in

[0:31] bigname musicians to entertain. The bank

[0:34] says the event, the Northern Trust Open,

[0:36] is a key part of the firm's global

[0:38] marketing.

[1:06] US home prices continued their record

[1:08] slide during the final three months of

[1:10] last year. Two new reports released

[1:13] today show no letup in the housing freef

[1:15] fall. The standard Impor's Kate Schiller

[1:18] home price index shows prices fell by

[1:20] more than 18% in the fourth quarter from

[1:23] the previous year. That's the sharpest

[1:25] decline on record. Another report by the

[1:27] government shows a more than 3% drop in

[1:30] prices. And Paul, while that's also a

[1:32] record, that second study is based on

[1:35] loans by Fanny May and Freddy Mack.

[1:37] Those homes typically cost less than the

[1:39] ones included in case Schiller. And it

[1:41] wasn't surprising, Susie, that the

[1:43] steepest price plunges were in

[1:44] California, Arizona, Nevada, and

[1:47] Florida. Now, let's take a look at some

[1:49] stocks in the news tonight.

[1:55] Big board volume leader on 78.3 million

[1:57] shares. City Group moving up a hefty 46

[1:59] cents. That's a 21.5% gain. As you

[2:02] heard, Fed Chief Bernani downplayed

[2:04] nationalizing the bank. Bank of America

[2:06] benefited by that, up 82 cents. GE 23

[2:10] gain. JP Morgan Chase up $1.51.

[2:13] Yesterday it cut its quarterly dividend

[2:14] from 38 cents to just a nickel. But

[2:16] today, Cityroup boosted its first

[2:18] quarter earnings estimates. Wells Fargo

[2:20] doing well, up $22. Sprint XL up 27

[2:24] cents. Fizer at 32 advance. Exon Mobile

[2:27] up 279. Oil in New York today up a

[2:30] dollar and a half to just below the $40

[2:32] per barrel level. Compania Valley up 93.

[2:35] US Bank Corp. doing well up a$121.

[2:39] Home Depot gained $1.96. Fourth quarter

[2:42] results excluding one-time items, 19,

[2:45] well down from 40 cents in earnings a

[2:47] year ago, but that was 4 cents above the

[2:49] street estimate. And sales were down

[2:51] 9.2%. Incidentally, Nordstrom, the big

[2:54] retail chain, up $2.36. Fourth quarter

[2:57] earnings plummeted to 31 cents from 92

[2:59] cents last year, but that was a penny

[3:01] above the street estimate. And same

[3:03] store sales of 8 1/2% were a little

[3:05] better than expected. that was down

[3:07] 8.5%. Macy's up 89 cents a share. First

[3:12] fourth quarter earnings a$16 down from

[3:14] 173 last year but the company noted

[3:16] those earnings were 4 to6 cents above

[3:18] its most recent earnings guidance.

[3:21] Aerrol postall the clothing retailer up

[3:24] a $180 company is in a cost cutting

[3:26] program and apparently the cowan

[3:28] brokerage liked it because it boosted

[3:29] earnings estimate repeated and

[3:31] outperformed rating.

[3:33] PY Homes the home builder up a$114.

[3:36] Credit Swiss upgraded it from

[3:37] underperformed to neutral and that

[3:38] boosted a number of other home building

[3:40] stocks. Royal Caribbean Cruises gained

[3:43] a$120.

[3:45] Credit Swiss upgraded it from neutral to

[3:47] outperform and that helped rival

[3:49] Carnival Cruise rise a $168 to $2025.

[3:53] Marvel Entertainment a big day up $363.

[3:56] Fourth quarter earnings, a big increase,

[3:58] 80 cents, up from 35 cents last year on

[4:01] sharply higher revenues. Then the power

[4:03] company Quant Services gained $280.

[4:06] Fourth quarter earnings rose to 24 cents

[4:08] from 18 last year. Revenues up 4.8%. And

[4:12] the company notes that uh it's had a

[4:14] significant rise in its backlog.

[4:17] Mohawk Industries, the carpet maker,

[4:19] down a 141 fourth quarter loss of $187

[4:22] versus earnings of over $5 last year.

[4:25] Sales were down 18% and the company sees

[4:27] a first quarter loss of 80 to 89. Radio

[4:31] Shack down $264. Fourth quarter earnings

[4:33] dropped to 50 cents from 77 a year ago,

[4:36] 23 cents below the street estimate sales

[4:38] down 94%.

[4:40] Apple topped the NASDAQ active list up

[4:42] $330. Google did well up $15.39.

[4:46] Microsoft a 4cent drop. The editor of

[4:48] Silicon Valley Insider publication

[4:51] thinks Microsoft should buy Research in

[4:53] Motion to enhance its mobile division.

[4:55] Intel was up 65 and Research in Motion

[4:57] on that news was up $3 a share doing

[5:00] well. Qualcomm up $1.71. Argus Research

[5:04] upgraded it from hold to buy on the

[5:05] company's good long-term prospects.

[5:08] Cisco 63 advance. Amazon.com up $389.

[5:12] First solar jumped $12.84 84 and Oracle

[5:16] up 58 cents a share. Map Pharmaceuticals

[5:19] lost nearly 76% of its value today,

[5:22] plunging over $8. Late stage trials of

[5:25] the company's asthma treatment for

[5:26] children showed no significant benefit

[5:29] over placeos.

[5:31] Those are the stocks on the news

[5:32] tonight. Susie

[5:34] >> Paul. While many industries are laying

[5:36] off workers, the US healthc care

[5:37] industry is still hiring. Much of the

[5:40] growth in that area is fueled by aging

[5:42] baby boomers. But where the jobs are may

[5:45] surprise you as we continue our series

[5:47] reviving the economy jobs. Jess Yasine

[5:50] looks at the latest trends in healthcare

[5:52] hiring. Take a breath.

[5:55] >> Josie Shrader Ghoul always wanted to be

[5:57] a nurse and she'll soon get her wish. In

[6:00] a few weeks, she'll graduate with a

[6:02] nursing degree from Miami's Barry

[6:04] University. While healthc care is

[6:06] supposed to be immune from the recession

[6:08] pain felt elsewhere, Trader Ghoul sees

[6:11] the job market for nurses tightening up.

[6:13] >> I started looking for jobs probably last

[6:17] year. Um, just like looking around, see

[6:20] where I wanted to go, what I wanted to

[6:21] do. Um, last year it wasn't so hard

[6:24] getting in contact with nurse like nurse

[6:26] recruiters and getting their time of

[6:27] day, but now it's getting a lot harder

[6:31] cuz they're not wanting to talk to us.

[6:33] We just we don't have anything

[6:34] available. So that's it.

[6:35] >> On the surface, healthcare hiring

[6:37] remains vigorous. The nation's healthc

[6:39] care providers added nearly 20,000 jobs

[6:42] last month and more than 330,000 jobs

[6:45] last year. But those January gains were

[6:48] the smallest of recent months. More

[6:50] disturbing, the number of hospitals

[6:52] reporting mass layoff events rose

[6:54] sharply last year. 112 cut their staff

[6:57] by 50 people or more. Rick Gundling of

[7:00] the Healthcare Financial Management

[7:02] Association says the recession hurts

[7:04] healthcare just like everything else.

[7:06] >> Hospitals and and the healthcare

[7:08] industry is not immune to the other uh

[7:10] factors that impact a um a community. So

[7:13] it is we are definitely seeing regional

[7:15] changes. Um Michigan, the Detroit area

[7:18] where um higher unemployment is

[7:20] affecting um workers. We're seeing

[7:23] higher uninsured and that impacts um the

[7:27] hospitals as well. But other regions

[7:28] like Port St. Lucy, Florida, are still

[7:31] seeing job growth in healthcare. Rich

[7:33] Kita runs a local staffing agency.

[7:36] >> I would say that right now um the

[7:38] majority of my business is healthcare

[7:40] related in some form or fashion.

[7:43] >> But he says many of the positions are

[7:45] non-clinical, meaning people who work in

[7:48] the back office, not with patients.

[7:50] That's really been a huge uh increase in

[7:53] the call center environment from a

[7:55] healthcare perspective as well as you

[7:57] know billing and collecting. Um and as

[7:59] long as you know the government is going

[8:00] to continue to look at ways of

[8:03] streamlining

[8:05] medical billing and collecting I think

[8:06] that's going to be an area that's going

[8:07] to continue to to grow. That's hardly

[8:10] reassuring for the physicians, nurses

[8:12] and other hospital staff who have been

[8:14] laid off. They're faced with either

[8:16] moving to parts of the country where

[8:18] healthc care jobs are still plentiful or

[8:20] waiting out the recession like everyone

[8:22] else. Jeff Hastine, Nightly Business

[8:25] Report, Miami. Tomorrow, interest in

[8:27] gold is heating up as stocks melt down.

[8:30] So, our street critique guest takes on

[8:33] investing in gold.

[8:55] I want

[9:01] you down.

[9:15] Down

[9:20] here down.

[10:12] In tonight's of mutual interest, John

[10:14] Wagner says in a market like this,

[10:16] boring funds are good. He's mutual fund

[10:19] columnist at USA Today.

[10:22] In a steaming, rip roaring stock market,

[10:24] bold funds that invest in small, rapidly

[10:26] growing companies turn in the best

[10:27] performance. Unfortunately, this is not

[10:30] one of those markets. And if you're

[10:31] tempted to dive back into the stock

[10:33] market, you want funds that are in touch

[10:34] with their inner cowards. In short, you

[10:36] want funds that buy stocks of big,

[10:38] stodgy companies that pay regular

[10:39] dividends and never do anything

[10:41] unexpected. A dividend, after all, is a

[10:44] direct payment of a company's earnings

[10:45] to shareholders. Over time, dividends

[10:47] play an enormous role in your total

[10:49] return. For example, the Standing Empors

[10:51] 500 stock index has gained 726% the past

[10:54] 30 years. Toss in dividends, though, and

[10:56] the index was stored, 1900%.

[10:59] Companies that pay dividends only do so

[11:01] if they can comfortably afford to.

[11:03] Jumped into the driver's seat while the

[11:04] driver was in the bathroom. He started

[11:06] the bus without the keys. One witness

[11:08] said, quote, "The bus came charging

[11:10] toward me like a dancing dragon." Police

[11:12] are still trying to reach his parents

[11:14] last we heard.

[11:15] >> Yeah, I don't think that would go over

[11:16] real well anywhere, but especially in

[11:17] China. kind of impressed but alarmed at

[11:19] the same time that he hotwired a bus.

[11:21] >> Way to sum it up. Exactly right. See you

[11:23] tomorrow.

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[12:59] >> Insurance isn't just business. It's a

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