By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Friday so "It's Only Money," a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.
As of Thursday's close, the Dow Jones Average was up 275 points for the week. If we can hold that gain, it will be the fifth straight week on the upside. But once again Friday arrives, bringing another possible scandal with it. Solomon Smith Barney's research practices are being investigated by the New York State attorney general's office. Citigroup Inc., a unit of Solomon, became one of the primary underwriters for AT&T's lucrative deal to raise money for its wireless unit. Citigroup won this controversial contract after former telecom analyst Jack Grubman at Solomon upgraded AT&T stock to a buy. Now Grubman had been bearish on AT&T up until this move. Why wasn't this investigated in April 2000?
And keeping with the "Top Executives Are Cheaters" theme, the SEC would like to know why the boys and girls running AOL Time Warner were selling their own stock at the same time they were forecasting a bright and prosperous future for the company? AT&T, AOL ... these are not small companies. I want to know who was sleeping on the regulatory job? If these same people that were wearing blinders are still around now, I want 'em out!
Fort Worth-based Radio Shack shocked Wall Street this week with a lower than expected outlook for their third quarter. Radio Shack expects earning to range from 23 to 26 cents a share. Earlier they were expecting 33 cents. Analysts expected 34. For some unknown reason, people stopped going into Radio Shack on August 1st. July was in line, but since then, the stores are empty. After this news on Wednesday, their stock sank 16%. The value: $800 million was erased.
And a very, very Happy Birthday to the folks at the Dallas Business Journal, privately owned by American City, which publishes 41 like business journal in the U.S. American City is a unit of Advanced Publications, which also operated Conde Nast Magazines and The New Yorker to name a couple. The Dallas Business Journal turns 25 today. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.