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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (54414)	1/5/2001 8:57:52 AM
From: James F. Hopkins	Respond to of 436258

Ya I just edited my take, it sure back down turned fast. CSCO still most active and it's still up but most other mo mo turned down

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (54414)	1/5/2001 9:05:09 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

>>GM to close eight plants temporarily By Nikki Tait in Chicago Published: January 5 2001 01:39GMT \| Last Updated: January 5 2001 10:05GMT General Motors, the US car and truckmaking giant, will temporarily close eight plants in North America, making idle about 21,000 employees, as it tries to pare back automotive inventories in the face of the industry slowdown. The announcement comes a day after GM revealed that its December sales fell by more than 17 per cent, compared with the same month a year ago, and that stocks of unsold vehicles had risen to about 100 days' production. The company acknowledged that the stock figure was higher than it would like, although it said the monthly sales drop had been exacerbated by the timing of some fleet sales. GM said that the closures were part of its previously-announced plan to cut first-quarter production by nearly 15 per cent. Separately, DaimlerChrysler, which announced its own round of production cuts on Wednesday, said it would discontinue production of the Jeep Cherokee by the middle of the year. The company is preparing to launch the new Jeep Liberty, and said on Thursday that it will invest an extra $35m in the Toledo plant, where this will be manufactured, to increase production flexibility. Jeep Cherokee production had originally been due to end in November last year.<< news.ft.com

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (54414)	1/5/2001 9:05:52 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

>> Sears to close 89 stores By Christopher Bowe in New York Published: January 4 2001 17:43GMT \| Last Updated: January 4 2001 21:44GMT Sears Roebuck, the second largest US retailer, said on Thursday it would close 89 poorly performing stores and take a write-down on its loss-making pest control business. The company, which operates almost 3,000 department and specialty stores, said it had started to close 53 of its NTB auto parts stores, 30 hardware stores and four department stores. Sears expects to complete the closures in the first quarter of this year and plans a $150m pre-tax charge to cover severance and other shutdown costs. The announcement follows a slow holiday shopping season for most US retailers. Sears' holiday sales fell 1.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with last year, blamed on general industry softness and severe winter weather conditions. Revenues were $4.42bn for the five weeks ending December 30. The closures are the first moves by Alan Lacy, Sears' new chief executive, to weed out operations dragging on the retailer's overall profitability. In November, Mr Lacy admitted that Sears' retail stores were not profitable enough, particularly when compared to competitors such as Wal-Mart, the largest retailer, and Home Depot. He said he wanted to boost Sears' profit margin to near 5 per cent from the current 3.3 per cent.<< news.ft.com

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (54414)	1/5/2001 9:20:56 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

>>Russia To Skip Debt Payment By Jim Heintz Associated Press Writer Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001; 9:21 p.m. EST MOSCOW –– Russia won't make its first-quarter payments this year on the billions of dollars of debt owed to nations known collectively as the Paris Club, a government spokesman was quoted as saying Thursday. But the decision "does not mean and has nothing to do with a declaration of default," the Interfax news agency quoted Gennady Yezhov, spokesman for Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, as saying. "A decision on the former USSR's debts will be found after an International Monetary Fund mission comes to Moscow in late January or early February," he said. The government information department later said that Russia plans to pay all the amount shceduled for this year, the news agency ITAR-Tass reported. Russia owes about $48 billion, racked up by the Soviet Union, to the Paris Club countries, a group of industrialized nations that includes the United States. The debt was defaulted on in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and again in the August 1998 financial crisis when the ruble's value plunged. But Russia's economy has shown signs of significant growth over the last year and the reason for the delayed payment was not announced. Yezhov could not be reached and the ministry said no one else could comment. Russia owes about $3.5 billion in interest payments on the debt this year, and the missed first-quarter payment amounts to about $1.5 billion. The Russian parliament passed a balanced budget for 2001, the country's first ever, and some analysts speculated that the missed payment reflected unwillingness to tamper with what was considered a historic achievement. Russia's total foreign debt, including to the Paris Club, is about $148 billion. The huge amount is an impediment to the nation's development. The IMF failed to reach an agreement with Russia last month on new loans.<< washingtonpost.com