Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 16

MetroEdition Winston Salem JOURNAL Thursday December 7 2000J wrlrtiD2 77 Hl nyseD3D5 MCX VLX I Mutual unds D4 Briefcase Winston Salem Journal 114 112 110 108 106 104 102 too 08 06 94 92 90 88 86 84 change Gainers close yesterday Galey Lord i l225 25125 Burlington Inds 144 13 95 APAC Customer 3 8 28 80 US Airways Grp1 42 38 2 50 63 Analog Devices 58 87 337 61 change Losers close yesterday LTV Corp 50 i13 200 Insteel Inds 25 200 Network Systems 263 44 143 Guilford Mills 1 56 25 138 Oakwood Homes 56 06 99 Salem JournalBloomberg News Bloomberg Index Nov Dec BifiSS? Sfga 7 BiB Percent Change A 1 104 Ill yesterday A past montHl I 089 I 085 JI 070 Jj Bargain movie theater closes move surprises University Plaza Winston only bargain movie house University Cinemas 1 2 at University Plaza has closed University Cinemas screened second run films charging $2 a ticket The decision took the shopping leasing agent reeman Commercial Real Estate by sur prise Ladd reeman one of the brokers said yesterday The cinema has operated at Uni versity Plaza for at least 15 years al though the business has changed hands several times No reasons were given for the closure but reeman said that the market difficulties being experi enced by many second tier movie theaters were well known Several major movie theater companies re cently filed for Chapter 1 1 bank ruptcy protection and two other movie complexes in Winston Salem closed reeman said that his company will re lease the space vacated by University Cinemas Business activity In Southeast Increased In third quarter Business activity in the South east increased 07 percent or 28 percent on an annualized basis in the third quarter of this year ac cording to the Wachovia Southeast Business Index The index is 29 percent higher than it was for the same period last year The seasonally adjusted unem ployment rate for the region was 38 percent in the third quarter un changed from a revised second quarter but slightly lower than the jobless rate for last third quarter Nationally the third quar ter unemployment rate averaged 4 percent Of the 13 Southeastern states tracked by the index only Missis sippi and Kentucky reported a higher value for building permits in the third quarter compared with the second quarter The largest de clines were reported in Tennessee and Arkansas The average manufacturing workweek in the Southeast was lower at 41 hours while new claims for unemployment benefits rose 87 percent the largest increases were in North Carolina and Kentucky Nonagricultural employment rose 1 percent Aladdin Travel acquires North Point Travel Associates Aladdin Travel Meeting Plan ners has acquired North Point Trav el Associates Both travel agencies are based in Winston Salem Nancy Dunn the president of Aladdin declined to give the pur chase price but said that the acqui sition makes Aladdin roughly a $35 million company in annual sales Through the merger North Point agents will work for Aladdin but continue to work out of the North Point office on North Point Boule vard Dunn said She said that Yvonne Wilkerson the president of North Point will continue to be associated with the company as a consultant The travel agency acquired Greensboro Travel last year With the North Point acquisition it has 60 employees Have a business story idea? Call 727 7374 or send it to business newsjournalnowcom JOURNAL STA AND WIRE REPORT Wachovia ends production of magazine Changes in technology cause bank company to stop making By Jane Seccombe JOURNAL REPORTER Wachovia long time glossy maga zine for business customers has made its final run overtaken by a fast paced infor mation rich age The financial holding company said yes terday that it has discontinued publication of Quarterly: The Wachovia Magazine for Business because its needs have changed It said it plans to focus on more timely and convenient forms of communi cation but no details were disclosed magazine was one of the old est corporate publications in the nation starting in 1909 under the title of" The Solic itor" A business novelty in those days the magazine was used by Wachovia to tell peo ple about its services including the then revolutionary notion of putting money into banks for safekeeping The format changed over the years evolving into a colorful 32 page pub lication that profiled activities and the success stories of individual corpo rate clients both domestic and foreign Its 30000 copy all its final issue highlighted growing in ternational financial services In a letter to magazine recipients John McLean Jr a senior executive vice president said that in age of fast paced development of tech nology and access to Wachovia has to provide information that is relevant to the needs of its clients believe that performance driven business clients are concerned with news and insights that are timely and sharply fo cused on their unique business he said As a result Wachovia is developing new forms of business communication using all See WACHOVIA Page D2 slowdown in the economy) change because of kind George Pierides ox Asset Management Inc in Little Silver NJ Bank SA a SBHEr SBBSEBHHk 1 4 AP PHOTO Traders on the New York Stock Exchange work out a deal The Big Board was busy with more than 135 billion shares traded Short Rally Computer related shares lead a decline in stocks BLOOMBERG NEWS NEWYORK Stocks fell yesterday as fresh evi dence of slowing corporate profit growth erased optimism left from rally Computer related shares led the decline after Apple Computer Inc said it will have an unexpected quarterly loss Intel Corp Compaq Computer Corp Dell Computer Corp Interna tional Business Machines Corp and Hewlett Packard Co dropped we saw (the news from) Apple that brought the reality back into focus" after the Nasdaq compos ite record gain Tuesday said George Pierides who helps manage $2 billion at ox Asset Management Inc in Little Silver NJ The slowdown in the economy change be cause of kind The Nasdaq dropped 9329 or 32 percent to 279651 erasing a 09 per cent gain That followed an increase of almost 105 percent when ederal Re serve Chairman Alan Greenspan sug gested the ed is prepared to cut inter est rates if the economy slows further The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 23434 or 21 percent to 1066438 The Standard 500 Index slipped 2508 or 18 percent to 135146 More than four stocks fell for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange More than 135 billion shares traded on the Big Board ac cording to preliminary figures the eighth most on record and 23 percent more than the three month daily av erage The performance of US stocks in 2001 is dependent on ag interest rate cutting said David Bowers chief global investment strategist with Merrill Lynch Co Although comments lifted optimism about the possibility See STOCKS Page D5 Productivity increased 48 in 3rd quarter Gain is good news for the economy ed should be happy BLOOMBERG NEWS The productivity of American workers in the third quarter showed the second largest year over year in crease in 17 years and kept a lid on labor costs a government report showed yesterday Productivity a measure of how much a worker produces for every hour on the job was 48 percent high er in the third quarter than the same three months a year ago the Labor Department said That was close to the 53 percent second quarter rise which matched the largest gain since the third quarter of 1983 ability of output per hour to advance at a strong pace in the face of a sharp economic slowdown is noth ing but very favorable news for the said Joe Lira an analyst at Stone McCarthy Research Associ ates in Princeton NJ likely to comfort ederal Re serve policy makers who have cited long term gains in productivity as the reason for the record US expansion and the relatively low US inflation rate productivity has been See PRODUCTIVITY Page D5 lowers profit forecast Bank of America blames an increase in bad loans for drop BLOOMBERG NEWS CHARLOTTE Bank of America Corp lowered its profit projection for the second in less than a month yesterday say ing that fourth quarter earnings miss targets as the number of bad loans increases The largest US bank said it ex pects fourth quarter earnings per share of between 85 cents and 90 cents down from $123 a year ago Analysts in a irst CallThomson inancial survey had been expecting the company to earn $117 per share Shares fell $331 yesterday to $3787 Bank of America said it expects to write off between $11 billion and $12 billion for bad loans in the fourth quarter vs the $435 million it wrote off in the third quarter Last month in its previous warn ing the company said that write offs would be more than double the third quarter levels The bank's loans are deteriorating as the economy slows and cus tomers find it difficult to repay debt Bad loan levels have been rising throughout the industry since the second quarter company represents a good part of the economy and the econo my is said John Moore an analyst at Wachovia Securities The company also said it antici pates higher losses from bad loans next year Earnings per share next year are likely to be between $510 and $520 it said compared with $546 expect ed by analysts Bank of America made the an nouncement to investors at a Gold man Sachs Group Inc conference in New York The bank said that its investment banking business is being hurt by slower growth in the loans initial public offerings and mergers it arranges Its trading revenue is "not as ro and the company will likely write down some of its investments in venture capital amid declines on the stock market James Hance the chief financial officer told in vestors ear of cold weather fuels 19 jump in gas futures Worries about shortages spark increase wholesale prices are soaring BLOOMBERG NEWS NEWYORK Natural gas futures blew past a record high set just this week increasing as much as 19 percent yesterday on mounting fear that cold weather will drain inventories of the heating fuel before the end of winter Soaring wholesale gas prices this year mean costs will jump by 50 percent from last winter the Energy De partment said DuPont Co said that the rally hurt third quarter earnings in its pigments and chemi cals businesses and Phelps Dodge Corp said that its copper mining costs are higher crazy total mayhem down Eugene Croutier a natural gas trader with Arb Oil Inc said from the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange Natural gas for January delivery rose as much as $1416 to $880 per million British thermal units on the Nymex It was the first time in 10 years of natural gas futures trading that prices rose above $8 per million Btu It was also the biggest one day gain market wants to go to Crouti er said Lows overnight ranged from 10 degrees in Chicago to 17 below zero in argo ND both well below normal An arctic air mass this weekend will bring even colder weather forecasters said The cold comes with gas inventories 17 percent below year ago levels Analysts expect an industry report today to show the gap is widening looks like December is going to come out being much colder than normal and very bullish for natural said Kyle Cooper an energy analyst with Salomon Smith Barney in Houston Prices have risen almost fourfold the past year and have been at or close to record highs since June on concern that invento ries are too low to avoid spot shortages dur ing the winter heating season when de mand peaks The weather now a precursor the baby of a much stronger low pressure sys tem that will enter the Rockies and western Plains during the late said Joel Burgio a meteorologist at Weather Services Corp of Lexington Mass See NATURAL GAS Page D5.