Marketplace: News Archives

Thursday, October 19, 2000
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It's Thursday, October 19, 2000. I'm David Brancaccio.

High-tech companies that complained about the dominance of the software giant Microsoft would have to give credit to founder Bill Gates and his crew today. Stocks in a wide variety of technology companies shot skyward today after Microsoft said it's earning some very fine profits indeed. The Nasdaq Composite index went up 247 points, a rise of 7 point 8 percent. This is the third biggest percentage rise ever for the index. On this, the 13th anniversary of the 1989 stock market crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 167 points or 1 point 7 percent to close back above 10-thousand after bobbing below the surface yesterday. From New York, Marketplace's Michelle Brier reports.

Brier: just a few months ago, public sentiment was lodged firmly against Microsoft and consumers seemed to be rooting for the justice department in its anti-trust case against Bill Gates and company. Today, investors are cheering Microsoft and the impact of its glowing earnings on the stock market.

Bull: They can kick them in public and smile in private at the fact that their portfolio's are increasing.

Brier: Catherine Bull is an editor at Info World Magazine.

Bull: People do like to trash Microsoft, they are an easy target. Their behavior is easy to criticize but a lot of the economy and a lot of what people worry about in terms of investments is tied to Microsoft's performance.

Brier: That performance appears as strong as ever: Microsoft reported a net profit of 46 cents a share, way ahead of analyst predictions. The company credited reductions in its operating costs, investment gains and growing sales of its Windows 2000 computer operating system for the higher earnings. In New York I'm Michelle Brier for Marketplace.

Microsoft shares ended up 19 and a half percent. Microchip maker Intel rose 9 point eight percent. The cell phone company Nokia rose 27 percent today.

U.S. balance of trade numbers take a while to calculate and if we can direct your thoughts all the way back to August of this year, and way back then oil prices had dropped from a peak, even though they're back up now. Since America imports a lot of oil, this helped the balance of trade. The figure for August is out today and it shows the gap between what America sold overseas and what it imported narrowed by about 8 percent compared to July. That gap was still nearly 29 and a half billion dollars. One practical side of this, the decline in the trade gap was said to help bonds today, with the yield on the ten year treasury note falling to 5.65 percent.

It's supposed to be used for animal feed, but it turns out there's a lot more of that genetically-manipulated corn out there than first thought. The company that makes the bioengineered seed confirmed to the Washington Post that millions of bushels of the corn have made their way into the human food supply chain, and quite possibly a wide array of food products. The corn is toxic to bugs, but it's not known if it might cause food allergies in people. Bob Moon reports.

Moon: We tried to reach the U.S. arm of Aventis CropSciences, but they declined to provide anyone for an interview. They did send us a statement that nearly 90 percent of the altered corn has been accounted for, and what's left out there amounts to one-100th percent of the total U.S. crop. Though the corn's not cleared for human consumption, the company suggests it's just a technical/regulatory issue, not one of product safety. Biotech food critic Charles Margulis of Greenpeace says you bet it's a regulatory

Margulis: "From the very start, the biotech industry has said this is the most strictly regulated technology, this is the most tested technology. And this really shows that government regulators have let the industry off the hook, and it's up to environmentalists and consumers to protect ourselves, it's really not the way it should be."

Moon: We heard today from corporate headquarters for Albertsons, a supermarket chain with 25-hundred stores, mostly in the Western U-S. Earlier, we pointed out Albertsons and apparently other chains were quietly pulling recalled taco shells, snack chips and other Mission Food and private-label products without notifying consumers, and that even some store managers we talked to seemed confused.

Moon: "'You can assure me that these corn chips that I just bought are safe and wholesome?'

Manager: 'I don't know, I haven't received anything that said that they weren't. I mean, you can buy a candy bar and you think that's safe and wholesome?'"

Moon: Now, Albertsons is changing how it's handling the recall.

Enochson: "We understand that there was some confusion, so we do want to make sure that something is posted at the local level so that customers not only can talk to our employees about it, but they can also read it."

Moon: The company's Jenny Enochson says shoppers can return anything for a refund. Similar recall policies are in effect at various chains across the country - ask your local grocer. I'm Bob Moon for Marketplace.

Britain's National Health Service - free to all, but supported by taxes - is launching a new set of world-wide web services. There'll be internet kiosks set up in libraries and supermarkets and the like, with touch screen health advice on scores of medical problems. And as Marketplace's Helen Palmer reports from the Health Desk, there's also a push to get potential organ donors to sign up on line.

Palmer: Most folk in Britain reckon the National Health Service - now 50 plus and showing her age some - could use a bit of a face-lift. That's the Government's take too - hence recent promises of a huge cash influx - and the push to bring her up to date on the internet.

Hunt: The NHS as a national service has got to keep pace with all new developments like the web; it is the modern way of communicating - we must make sure we're part of it.

Palmer: That's the health minister - the thoroughly modern Lord Philip Hunt. He says they're excited about the launch their new organ donor site - and hope lots of web-savvy young Britons will join the 8 million - like me - who already carry an organ donor card.

Hunt: We have a big problem. There are 6000 people in this country waiting for life-saving organ transplants, but at the moment we can only carry out about 2800 transplant operations a year.

Palmer: That "big problem" though, seems small compared with the US. Some 12 times as many people - 72,000 - are waiting for organs here - and last year 6000 died still waiting. The non-profit UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, handles donations in the US. Their spokesman, Joe Newman, reckons there are some lessons to be learned from the staid old British NHS.

Newman: I think using the internet is a very unique approach and a very innovative approach - it does put the access to the donation decision wherever people are.

Palmer: Newman says there's currently no unified national registry of potential donors in the US, though many states are setting them up when people register for a driver's license. Having such a nationwide system here could certainly boost numbers of potential organ donors, he says - though he adds a caveat.

Newman: The key, I think, would be to have it with supportive information to help address people's questions and any concerns that they have to help them make that decision.

Palmer: Log onto the UK website - at www.nhs.uk/organdonor - and it seems to answer those concerns - it gives u facts and figures - and answers your questions - there's a "telling your family and friends" section - you can download a donor card - there's even an information line.

Info Line: Good afternoon, thank you for calling the organ donation information line, my name's Graham how can I help?

Helen: I just wanted to find out about your new website?

Info Line: Right - the address you mean?

Helen: Yeah, that kind of stuff

Info Line - Okey dokie - sorry no and it ain't there - sorry about this - we don't seem to have the website address at all. Sorry about this.

Palmer: Oh well - it is the website's first day - I suppose there are bound to be a few glitches. From the Health Desk at WGBH Boston, I'm Helen Palmer for Marketplace

The genial white-haired guy who runs Wendy's has dropped his active status in the Screen Actor's Guild amid the a long-running strike that was keeping him from appearing in his own commercials. Wendy's founder, Chairman and TV pitchman Dave Thomas is still a paying member of SAG, but he won't be able to vote in union matters. Bob Bertini is a spokesman for the fast-food chain.

Bertini: We're doing what we think is in the best interest of our employees, and Dave feels that his job is to tell the public about Wendy's and he's remaining a member of the union, and we're moving forward.

Gregg Chrizman is national spokesman of the Screen Actors Guild.

Chrizman: It appears that they have started shooting non-union spots, and that's why we were picketing at their shoots in Las Vegas, Nevada over the past few days.

Representatives of the advertising industry and SAG members resumed contract negotiations in New York today with noise coming from both sides that progress is being made.

And that's the top of our news for Thursday, October 19, 2000. To review the top Marketplace story today, the Dow went up 167 points, one point 7 percent to close at 10-thousand 142. The Nasdaq had its third strongest day ever, a rise of seven point eight percent. More details when we do the numbers.