Dow Indicator
Dow Record
The Dow Jones Industrial Aver age hit and closed above the 12,000 mark last week, a new all time high. A strong third-quar ter performance by IBM helped to boost investor confidence in blue-chips stocks. But Caterpil lar cast a pall on the occasion with disappointing results on Friday.
Ford Strikes Back
Ford Motor launched its Edge crossover utility vehicle, as it seeks to regain lost North Amer ican market share and go head-to-head with Toyota's crossovers.
Going Shopping
Wal-Mart Stores agreed to ac quire a hypermarket chain in China for about $1 billion. The chain, made up ot giant stores that sell a wide range of general merchandise and food, could give Wal-Mart the biggest store net work in China.
Debtor Nation
Net foreign purchases of U.S. se curities reached an all-time high of $116.8 billion in August, accord ing to the Treasury Department. Japan remained the biggest sin gle holder of U.S. Treasuries, 'kith China second.
Tracking Inflation
The underlying U.S. inflation
rate accelerated to 2.9% in the 12 months ended September, the highest annual rate in over a de cade. But consumer prices fell 0.5% in September; the Labor De partment said.
Hot Commodities' Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings said it would buy CBOT Holdings for about $8 bil lion. The deal will create a huge global derivatives exchange \vith combined daily trading of about nine million contracts. (See star:." on page 19.)
Bringing Up Barbie
Barbie the doll did her bit for Mattel, helping the company post a 6% jump in third-quarter profits. The toy maker credited a rejuvenateci Barbie line and strong early shipments of TMX Elmo, the Sesame Street character.
Fitch Pitch
Fitch Ratings launched Derivative Fitch, the first rating agency to provide the $33 trillion credit- deriva tives market with ratings, research, analytics and evaluation services.
OPEC Meets
OPEC agreed to reduce crude oil output by 1.2 million barrels a day-a 4.3% drop from Septem ber's levels - at an emergency meeting to prop up faltering prices. But the New York crude oil futures market was unim pressed, as contracts fell below $57 a barrel Friday, their lowest level since November 2005.
Home Alone
The National Association of Home Builders' index for sales of new single-family homes rose one point in October, to 31, ending an eight-month string of declines. The increase this month followed an unrevised September reading of 30, the lowest monthly index in 15 years. The government re ported housing starts in Septem ber rose by 5.9%, after three monthly declines.
Grasso Cut
A New York state judge ordered former New York Stock Ex change Chief Executive Richard Grasso to return tens of millions of dollars of his $187.5 million pay package. The executive-com pensation case was brought by New York State Attorney Gen eral Eliot Spitzer, who is running for governor.
Overseas Package
UPS and Paste Italiane an nounced the completion of an agreement for UPS to carry the Italian postal service's interna tional express shipments. Ser vice starts Nov. 27. UPS also re ported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings of 96 cents a share, about a 9% gain from a year ago.
Odds In' Ends
- Adopted: Davie Banda, a 13-month-old baby boy from Malawi, by pop star Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie.
- Filed: divorce papers from Heather Mills McCartney claim ing her estranged husband, pop icon and ex-Beatle Sir Paul Mc Cartney, abused her.
- Victorious: The St. Louis Car dinals, outlasting the New York Mets 4 games to 3 for the ~'ight to face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
