Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

News of Strong U.s. Economic Expansion Unsettled Asian Stocks

Aired October 31, 2003 - 05:18   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: News of a strong U.S. economic expansion unsettled Asian stocks. Let's see what's happening, financially speaking, in Europe. Let's cut live to London and Todd Benjamin.
Todd, you would have thought it had a positive effect on stocks over there.

TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, but, you know, there's an old adage on Wall Street: buy on the rumor, sell on the news.

Everybody knew this was going to be a strong number. The street was expecting about 6 percent. It came in stronger than that, 7.2 percent, but still a lot of people thought let's take some money off the table and regroup. There are a lot of people who still feel the market can go higher. They actually think it's healthy that we see a little pause here, because as you're well aware, Carol, we've just had a terrific run off those March lows.

Now right now, because of that sort of dull finish on Wall Street, the FTSE here in London is off a quarter of 1 percent. The DAX in Frankfurt is flat and the CAC is off about 1/2 percent.

In terms of what we can expect from Wall Street today, the futures market is pointing to a flat open when trading begins later in the day and a lot of people still feel there's going to be a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter, because consumers spent so much in the third quarter, businesses basically have to restock their inventory, so that's going to be a plus, as well as continued consumer spending and business investment. Add it all up, people think the economy could grow around 4 percent, maybe even a little more. We'll see how it unfolds.

Back to you. Have a great weekend.

COSTELLO: You too. Thanks, Todd.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Stocks>


Aired October 31, 2003 - 05:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: News of a strong U.S. economic expansion unsettled Asian stocks. Let's see what's happening, financially speaking, in Europe. Let's cut live to London and Todd Benjamin.
Todd, you would have thought it had a positive effect on stocks over there.

TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, but, you know, there's an old adage on Wall Street: buy on the rumor, sell on the news.

Everybody knew this was going to be a strong number. The street was expecting about 6 percent. It came in stronger than that, 7.2 percent, but still a lot of people thought let's take some money off the table and regroup. There are a lot of people who still feel the market can go higher. They actually think it's healthy that we see a little pause here, because as you're well aware, Carol, we've just had a terrific run off those March lows.

Now right now, because of that sort of dull finish on Wall Street, the FTSE here in London is off a quarter of 1 percent. The DAX in Frankfurt is flat and the CAC is off about 1/2 percent.

In terms of what we can expect from Wall Street today, the futures market is pointing to a flat open when trading begins later in the day and a lot of people still feel there's going to be a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter, because consumers spent so much in the third quarter, businesses basically have to restock their inventory, so that's going to be a plus, as well as continued consumer spending and business investment. Add it all up, people think the economy could grow around 4 percent, maybe even a little more. We'll see how it unfolds.

Back to you. Have a great weekend.

COSTELLO: You too. Thanks, Todd.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Stocks>