Submitted by admin on Sat, 2005-10-08 00:00. ::
On Monday it will have been three years since the Nasdaq bottomed out at 1,108.49, having fallen from an all-time high of 5,132.52 seven months to the day earlier. The high point of the index's recent run-up, notes Market Map columnist Tomi Kilgore, came at 2,219.91 -- meaning that the Nasdaq had only retraced 27.6% of its bear-market slide. This week it was back in retreat. Cause for concern? Not necessarily, Tomi writes, laying out a technicals-based case for long-term investment opportunity. See full column.
Federal Reserve bank presidents kept up a steady drumbeat warning that higher inflation is the biggest threat to the economy from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. See full story.
Looking to cash in on an expected jump in reinsurance prices after Hurricane Katrina, many Bermuda-based companies in the industry are raising new capital to muscle up for the drive to win more new underwriting business at higher and potentially more profitable prices. See full story.
The potential for a global flu outbreak that could cause widespread death and disruption is finally being put under a public microscope -- though the scientific community has been sounding the alarm since at least 2003. At least one expert hints that the Bush administration may have learned a lesson from its widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina: that deferring action in the face of daunting costs can come back to bite officialdom, while ultimately costing far more. See full story.
Crude-oil tallied a loss of almost 7% for the week, and natural-gas prices closed Friday at a nearly two-week low as traders weighed a fall in U.S. oil demand against recovering energy-production capacity in the Gulf of Mexico. See full story.
U.S. consumers were quick to complain when retail gasoline prices passed $3 a gallon in early September, yet when diesel-fuel prices hit that peak this past week -- and kept going -- there wasn't even a whisper, notes Commodities Corner columnist Myra Saefong. If only they knew that diesel prices could have a far broader impact on the economy and pinch their wallets far more aggressively. See full column.
Parmalat Finanziaria SpA (IT:312164: news, chart,profile) returned to the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan Thursday -- a year and a half after collapsing into bankruptcy under the weight of an epic corporate fiasco dubbed "Europe's Enron" -- with rivals already eyeing the dairy-goods giant. See full story.
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