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 Midday.
Not a good week for the Dow, and definitely a pretty lousy week for the technology heavy NASDAQ. Earnings season was a nice diversion. The majority of the news was constructive and positive, and it gave investors something to sink their teeth and money into. Unfortunately, the ether wore off and it's back to the old, conflicting economic news syndrome. The best antidote for this disorder will be a holiday season where consumers overspend, where some securities fraud isn't making the daily headlines and most importantly, where worldwide terrorism comes to a halt. We'll see what Santa brings.
But it's too early to talk about him, so let's talk Martha. Try as she might, the poor misunderstood domestic diva could not convince a judge to drop two of the five securities fraud indictments against her. So in less than two months, it'll be "lights, camera, action" on the steps of the New York U.S. district courthouse. Now, repeat after me: "Innocent until proven guilty, innocent until proven guilty." Very good.
As if this society wasn't high strung enough, thanks to a Starbucks on every corner (which I can find blindfolded), you'll soon be able to travel through Wal-Marts and get your coffee delivered to you. L.A.-based Kicks Coffee Caf is conducting a test market of this service at the Plano Wal-Mart at Park and Preston. And heaven forbid McFastfood should be one-upped on anything. McCafe - that's not a joke - a new gourmet coffee bar concept, is also being test-marketed in ten of their gazillion existing McDonald's. They already tried it in Chicago. It closed after a year. Bottoms up. For KERA, Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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