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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wal-Mart Cuts Prices on Toys This Holiday Season
Aired November 19, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little 'Business Buzz.' Forget about Star Wars, toy wars are on this holiday season. Good deals can be found if you shop around.
Carrie Lee has our report from the Nasdaq market site.
So what toys are hot this year?
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Hokey Pokey Elmo, Carol, the latest Elmo version, we probably heard about, most people have probably heard about it by now, but Wal-Mart is really the 800-pound gorilla here, coming in with very low prices. And this means that other toy companies are having a tough time competing. They, in fact, put the Hokey Pokey Elmo on sale at $19.46. That's a 22 percent discount to the Toys 'R' Us price. Quite a big difference here.
These cuts came three months before Christmas and one month before hot holiday toys are normally promoted. By mid-October, Wal- Mart had cut prices on more than a dozen toys. Banc of America Securities did a survey and found that Wal-Mart prices were 12 percent cheaper than Toys 'R' Us, 8 percent less than Target.
Obviously, parents like news like this. They want to save as much money as possible. Other companies, though, are having a very tough time competing with Wal-Mart. And in fact, Toys 'R' Us earlier this week acknowledged that the discounts were hurting its results. Toys 'R' Us stock is down 17 percent this week on that news, Carol. So good news for parents, not good news for Wal-Mart competitors, though.
COSTELLO: No.
Quick look at the market before you go.
LEE: Yes, technology issues do look weak this morning. Other than that, we are expecting a pretty flat open. We did see some selling yesterday, of course, tech leading the way down. You can see the Nasdaq down 27 points. That's a loss of about 1.5 percent. The Dow, the S&P down almost 1 percent.
After the close of trading, we will hear from Hewlett-Packard tonight reporting profits for the recent quarter. We are expecting an increase in profitability over last year's quarter -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site this morning. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 19, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little 'Business Buzz.' Forget about Star Wars, toy wars are on this holiday season. Good deals can be found if you shop around.
Carrie Lee has our report from the Nasdaq market site.
So what toys are hot this year?
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Hokey Pokey Elmo, Carol, the latest Elmo version, we probably heard about, most people have probably heard about it by now, but Wal-Mart is really the 800-pound gorilla here, coming in with very low prices. And this means that other toy companies are having a tough time competing. They, in fact, put the Hokey Pokey Elmo on sale at $19.46. That's a 22 percent discount to the Toys 'R' Us price. Quite a big difference here.
These cuts came three months before Christmas and one month before hot holiday toys are normally promoted. By mid-October, Wal- Mart had cut prices on more than a dozen toys. Banc of America Securities did a survey and found that Wal-Mart prices were 12 percent cheaper than Toys 'R' Us, 8 percent less than Target.
Obviously, parents like news like this. They want to save as much money as possible. Other companies, though, are having a very tough time competing with Wal-Mart. And in fact, Toys 'R' Us earlier this week acknowledged that the discounts were hurting its results. Toys 'R' Us stock is down 17 percent this week on that news, Carol. So good news for parents, not good news for Wal-Mart competitors, though.
COSTELLO: No.
Quick look at the market before you go.
LEE: Yes, technology issues do look weak this morning. Other than that, we are expecting a pretty flat open. We did see some selling yesterday, of course, tech leading the way down. You can see the Nasdaq down 27 points. That's a loss of about 1.5 percent. The Dow, the S&P down almost 1 percent.
After the close of trading, we will hear from Hewlett-Packard tonight reporting profits for the recent quarter. We are expecting an increase in profitability over last year's quarter -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site this morning. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
