By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 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 Midday.
Texas Instruments is getting the credit for the only up day in the stock market this week. Yesterday Wall Street and investors were very pleased to hear TI's earnings not only beat analysts' expectations, but the company's raising its outlook for 2003. Unfortunately, no follow-through in the market today. It's not that earnings haven't been good. For the most part, expectations on earnings have been met, and a good portion of companies are beating them. But when you start getting into the business of projecting a future that is so uncertain, how can you express anything but caution? And it's the cautious outlooks that have been causing the recent downturn in the market. This is exactly why Coca-Cola decided they would no longer give warnings or projections on earnings - especially after what the economy has been through. It will take time for corporate America to recover. In the lifetime of a company, what's one or two years to get momentum flowing and stable? And really, I just have one question - when is the future ever certain?
Except in Martha Stewart's case. If investigators do find that Martha lied about how and why and when she sold her ImClone stock, her future is pretty much written. People close to the investigation say the probe is nearing an end. This week, investigators called in more Merrill Lynch employees in hopes of pinpointing the details of the sale. And after last year, whatever the truth is, we're going to get it.
And please, no sympathy for Wall Street firms. Oh sure, bonuses were down 37% for 2002, but no tag day just yet. According to a survey by the New York state comptroller, $7.9 billion worth of bonuses were paid to Wall Street employees. That number was divided among the 164,000 securities-industry employees in New York City. The Comptroller reported an average bonus of $48,500 a person. That's their bonus! The median household income in the U.S. is $42,000.
For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
Email Maxine Shapiro.