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Pozen says FDA sets 6-mo review for migraine drug

POZEN Announces Trexima(TM) (Sumatriptan Succinate and Naproxen Sodium) Amended Response Accepted for Review by FDA
Thursday March 22, 4:54 pm ET

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--POZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: POZN - News), today announced the amended response to a previous FDA approvable letter for Trexima(TM) has been accepted for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Trexima is the proposed brand name for the combination of sumatriptan succinate, formulated with RT Technology(TM), and naproxen sodium, in a single tablet for the acute treatment of migraine. The FDA has also notified POZEN that it expects a Class II review (six months), which could result in a new decision date of August 1, 2007. Pending FDA approval, the product could be available to patients in the second half of 2007.

LOS ANGELES, March 22 (Reuters) - Pozen Inc. (POZN.O: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for review the company's amended marketing application for experimental migraine drug Trexima.
The FDA expects a six-month review, which could result in a new decision date of August 1, the company said.
Shares of Pozen were up 7.5 percent at $15.70 in after hours trading.
The FDA issued a so-called approvable letter for Trexima last June but decided Pozen's initial response to the letter was incomplete and requested more information in December, delaying the drug's final approval.
Pozen is developing the drug in a partnership with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile , Research).
Trexima combines Glaxo's existing migraine drug Imitrex with the painkiller naproxen, an older non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID.
Imitrex is part of a class of drugs known as triptans used to stop but not prevent migraines. The drugs aim to relieve pain by allowing better blood flow. Adding naproxen helps extend the relief.

投資大師風格雖異 習慣相同

提到投資，很少有人沒有聽說過股神巴菲特或被稱為金融鱷魚的索羅斯。巴菲特全球第二富；索羅斯富可抵國，一 手搬倒英鎊並製造了亞洲金融風暴。二位傳奇式投資家，來自不同的州，家庭和文化背景，具有截然不同的投資風格，理念和標的，但卻擁有特別相似的投資習慣。 「巴菲特和索羅斯成功的投資習慣」一書，對這兩位大師的投資風格與習慣作了系統分析，可供投資者借鑒。

背景和成就。從表格1中，不但可以看出兩位投資家取得的巨大成就，也可以對其背景和投資風格略見一斑。二者家庭背景，投資標的，投資風格，投資理念，投資方法等截然不同，但他們的投資習慣和心理建設卻有驚人的相似之處。

生存是成功的先決條件。投資有風險，失敗在所難免，但投資人必須學會避免致命的失敗。在賭場上有句熟語，不下注就不會贏，但賭注沒了，就不能玩了。所有成 功的投資人都應具備一個基本的理念，就是先生存。巴菲特就說，投資「定律一是不虧錢；二是不忘記定律一」；索羅斯則認為應，「先生存，再賺錢。」

索 羅斯在回憶其父親時曾說，老索羅斯從俄羅斯革命中破獄獲生，二次大戰中又逃避了德國納粹對猶太人大屠殺的經歷中學習了生存的潛意識。巴菲特出生在地球的另 一端，在小巴菲特一歲生日前，其父所在的銀行在美國經濟大蕭條中倒閉，全家所有儲蓄隨銀行倒閉而去，童年的貧困生活使得巴菲特從小就打工，學會了生存的技 能。

風險控制。控制風險是生存的工具和方法。巴菲特選擇價值被嚴重低估的公司作為安全邊際來控制風險的工具，因為如果一個公司值十元，但現 在的價格是二、三元，即使暫時下降，只是提供了投資更好的機會。索羅斯不是價值投資人，因此他建立一個四步控制風險程序，不投資，降低風險，管理風險和保 險；索羅斯合夥人羅杰斯說，「當不知道做什麼，就什麼都不做」；在趨勢開始之前，作試探性小投資，待趨勢確認以後再大規模投資；通過對在趨勢發展過程中的 判斷，調整投資比例；對風險采取保險，使得即使在失誤的情況下，也不至於有致命的打擊。

敢於認錯。所有成功的投資人的共同特點就是敢於認 錯，並且馬上改正。1987年10月美國股市大崩盤前，索羅斯對美國和日本的股市犯了一個重大錯誤，即其看多美國和看空日本，結果美國股市大崩盤、而日本 走強，索羅斯在一天之內受損3.5億萬，但他不象一般人束手無策，而是不計代價，賣出美國股票，轉入賣空美元，至1987年底其基金不但彌補了大崩盤的損 失，且有正回報18%。巴菲特不只一次在年報上承認所犯的錯誤。

不作分散。分散投資是一個被大多數投資人所接受的投資錯誤理念，投資界的一個最大誤區。奧尼爾說，「過於分散是對無知的掩飾」；索羅斯說，「分散是膽小而為」 。

巴 菲特管理上千億元的資產，也只投資十幾個股票；索羅斯投資往往只有二、三個大方向。試想如果有二個投資組合，一個有一百支股票，另一個5支股票。如果其中 有一支股票成長100%，第一個組合成長1%，而第二個組合成長20%，如果第一個組合有同樣20%回報，那麼要有20個股票上漲一倍或一個股票上漲20 倍。適當的分散是應該的，但過於分散是永遠都賺不到錢的。

投資不能感情用事。投資中最大的敵人是貪婪和恐懼。就如利物莫在1920年曾說，「一般投資人往往是在應該貪婪時恐懼，而該恐懼時卻貪婪」。個人的情感，學歷，社會地位和驕傲，對投資有害無益，尊重市場是投資的良師益友。

預 測經濟和市場。二位以及所有成功的投資人都承認，包括他們自己在內，沒有人可以長期准確預測經濟和市場，他們的成功和這個能力沒有如何關係。不要相信內部 消息，聽從別人的意見和所謂的市場專家。真正在市場上能賺錢的投資人從來不在電視，雜誌和報紙上分享自己對投資的看法，巴菲特和索羅斯從來不在公開場合評 論他們的投資，他們投資行為是最高機密。

促FCC調查芥蘭鼠報導

促FCC調查芥蘭鼠報導
黃克鏘籲全美華人投訴
全美餐館反暴力聯盟會長黃克鏘9日呼籲全美華人，向聯邦通訊委員會(Federal Communication Commis-sion,簡稱FCC) 投訴報導「芥蘭鼠」的CW11電視台，要求有掌管廣電節目內容之責的通訊委員會進行調查。

黃克鏘表示，CW11報導「芥蘭鼠」的新聞未經確實查證，是有違新聞道德的做法，身為主管的聯邦通訊委員會，有查核之責。但是他說，如果沒有人向FCC舉報，委員會可能不會注意到這件事，所以他呼籲全美華人，向電郵或寫信的方式，向FCC投訴11台的報導違反新聞專業。

黃 克鏘說，向FCC投訴可以直接上網http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475B.cfm，填寫投訴表格，相當方便，也 可以寫信到：445 12th Street SW Washington, DC20554，或打電話：(888)225-5322。

另外，黃克鏘還說，最早報導「芥蘭鼠」的CW11電視台記者Chris Glorioso，今年因為其他報導，獲得紐約艾美獎(NewYork Emmy)提名。

他本來想在4月1日頒獎現場進行抗議，但是因為當地沒有足夠空間容納千人的場地，所以決定4月2日在CW11電視台的大樓前持續抗議活動。

黃克鏘說，抗議的行動是長期抗戰，要持續下去，不能中止。

Mouse or chicken meat? The APA community says the CW11's reports are sensationalistic.

Mouse or chicken meat? The APA community says the CW11's reports are sensationalistic.

By Lynda Lin, Assistant Editor
Published February 16, 2007

It looked like it had little paws and a tail, but the identity of the piece of mystery food found among a New York patron's order of take-out Chinese food has ignited protests over what Asian Pacific American leaders are calling ethnic stereotyping by a local television news station.

New York's CW11 (WPIX-TV) first reported on the story, "Sickening Surprise," Jan. 29 during its 10 p.m. news broadcast with footage of reporter Chris Glorioso confronting an employee of the New Food King restaurant in Canarasie, a neighborhood in the Eastern portion of the Brooklyn borough. A patron had ordered chicken and broccoli, but was so convinced a piece of her "chicken" was a "mouse" that she checked herself into the hospital and contacted the CW11 News where she appeared on-air to say she would "never eat Chinese food again."

"The news piece was conducted from a prejudiced, biased and unethical standpoint. I see it as an insult to American justice that says everyone is innocent until proven guilty," said Steven Wong, 52, a community activist and president of the Chinese Restaurant Alliance.

The APA community was enraged over the story's depiction of Chinese restaurants and the news piece's use of "fried mice" as a word play on "white rice."

This isn't the first time the news station has gotten in trouble with the APA community. In November 2001, the CW11 accused a Korean restaurant in Flushing of selling dog, but the story was later unsubstantiated.

The APA restaurant community has continued to suffer racial discrimination because of that 2001 story and this more recent story has fueled the fire, said Wong. The fallout has been felt nationwide. Since the piece aired, Wong said he's heard from restaurant owners from as far as Georgia complaining that people don't want to order chicken with rice anymore.

In the report, Glorioso also asked several customers outside the restaurant what the morsel in question looked like and all responded that it was a deep-fried mouse. CW11 aired a follow-up report Jan. 31 with a biologist from Ameritech Laboratories confirming the piece in question was "likely a mouse or rat."

But relying on simple observation is faulty and renders a false indictment on the restaurant and other Chinese restaurants, said APA leaders, including Councilman John Liu who called the follow-up piece a "cover up."

"The reporter here acted as the judge and jury," said Wong.

Wong joined Liu and 500 other members of the New York APA community Feb. 4 to protest in front of the CW11's Manhattan station. They demanded an apology and called for Glorioso to be fired.

The war of words continued Feb. 8 when Wong and John Yong, the attorney for the owners of the New Food King restaurant held a press conference to announce that a private investigator discovered the Ameritech biologist who conducted the test of the specimen is not licensed - an allegation that the CW11 calls untrue.

In a statement, the CW11 said Ameritech is a reputable laboratory used by many other news stations and media organizations.

"CW11 stands behind the accuracy of this news report, and believes the story provides no basis for legitimate controversy," the news organization said in the statement. "CW11 met with Councilman John Liu and representatives from The Organization of Chinese Americans, who continued to question the intent of our story and the perceived effect on the Asian community. We re-iterated that this was not an ethnic story, but rather the story of a single restaurant within our community that happened to serve a customer a questionable item that was verified as a rodent from a reputable lab. This was a story that addressed a matter of public health and falls within the context of many recent reports about tainted and adulterated food."

John Yong, the attorney for the owner of the New Food King restaurant, called the Ameritech report "bogus" and "not scientific" in a phone interview with the Pacific Citizen. Yong has asked for the piece of food in question to be surrendered to the community for further testing, but has not received a response from the CW11.

Video footage of the CW11 news reports were released online, but at press time YouTube.com had removed the Jan. 31 follow-up report citing a "copyright claim by WPIX, Inc.," but the original report remains online.

Sara Markt, deputy press secretary with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that in a Feb. 2 inspection of the New Food King, the restaurant passed inspection.

"We found no evidence of vermin infestation," said Markt.

"The news report has destroyed their business," said Yong, who confirmed that legal action would be taken against the news station. "They can't make their mortgage and they can't make rent."

New Food King has thrived for three years, but the business hit rock bottom with the newscast. The restaurant receives 50 or more telephone calls a day from people ordering mice and telling owner You Yong to go back to China.

Still, the doors remain open.

"She's a strong woman. She knows the only way to fight and win is to stay open," said Wong.

The APA community is planning another protest in front of the CW11 station Feb. 26 - this time with thousands of participants expected.

March 1, 2007

Chinese Shrug Off Losses as Market Swings Back

By DAVID BARBOZA and KEITH BRADSHER

SHANGHAI, Feb. 28 — Seated before a row of computer terminals flickering with stock charts in a large brokerage house in this bustling city, Li Ruichang insisted he was not too worried about Tuesday’s huge stock sell-off.

“Things like that happen,” said Mr. Li, a 63-year-old engineer. “But I’m not worried about a crash. After a five-year-long bear market, the bull market shouldn’t end that fast.”

Mr. Li, a self-professed speculator, said the Chinese stock market was like a giant government-regulated “slot machine.”

Little did Mr. Li know how this regulated “slot machine” of a market, which fell nearly 9 percent Tuesday, set off a global sell-off in stocks. It recovered a substantial amount of those losses on Wednesday.

Most international markets traded off sharply Wednesday for a second day, with losses of 2 percent or more on many major Asian exchanges and 1 percent declines common in Europe. But the New York Stock Exchange began advancing from the opening bell at 9:30 a.m.; the Dow Jones industrial index closed 0.43 percent higher at 12,268.63.

China indirectly reassured its markets Wednesday, with its state-controlled media reporting that the government might allow greater foreign investment in Chinese stocks — up to 10 percent of the market — and would not impose capital gains taxes on stocks soon.

But while China’s markets rebounded, markets around Asia fell in reaction to the sharp drop on Wall Street and to disappointing figures on the American economy.

Investors here say there is no clear explanation for the plunge in the benchmark Shanghai composite index, which fell 8.8 percent on Tuesday, or for that matter Wednesday’s partial recovery. The index gained 3.9 percent to end at 2,881.07, about 100 points above where it was at the start of February. It is still up about 120 percent from a year ago.

“Yesterday was very normal,” said Wu Xiaowei, a 50-year-old who calls himself a professional investor. “It’s a rule that in a bullish market the stock index always falls fast in an adjustment period.”

[On Thurday, markets in Shanghai opened lower on concerns that stocks were too costly. In Tokyo, the Nikkei dropped more than 1.5 pecent as investors continued to be worried about the United States economy.]

Some investors blamed rumors about new government taxes for Tuesday’s steep market decline; others called it profit taking; and still others said many investors had celebrated too much on the first day of trading after the Chinese New Year by bidding shares up to record highs on Monday.

The managing director general of the Asian Development Bank, Rajat M. Nag, said in an interview in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning that the fundamentals of most Asian economies remained strong.

But he cautioned that the region remained dependent on exports to markets, especially the United States, where growth prospects were cloudy. China is among the most dependent of all, he said, with international trade in goods equal to 65 percent of its economic output last year.

“We are still fairly bullish on the Chinese economy’s growth potential,” Mr. Nag said, but its dependence on exports “is a vulnerability.”

One reason is that China has managed its currency, the yuan, limiting its rise against the dollar to keep exports strong. In doing so, Chinese officials may have indirectly helped create what some experts say are speculative bubbles in China’s stock and real estate markets.

The government has bought dollars from exporters and foreign investors on a huge scale, issuing hundreds of billions of yuan notes to pay for them — currency that otherwise might not have entered circulation.

The government has tried to contain the potential inflationary effect of issuing so much currency by having banks and individuals buy government bonds, then effectively tearing up the yuan notes. Since not all the yuan can be clawed back this way, many of them end up in the stock and property markets instead, driving up prices.

This excess of cash helps feed a bullish attitude toward the economy held by many Chinese individual investors, who still keep much of their money in bank accounts and saw Wednesday as a buying opportunity.

“I lost some money yesterday, but this morning I gained some,” said Qin Changhai, a 37-year-old shoe salesman turned day trader. “You see, this is what we go through every day.”

Other Asian markets initially turned their backs on the recovery in China’s markets. Instead, Asian investors reacted to potential weaknesses in the American economy. Shares of Asian companies that export to the United States, like Toyota, suffered heavy losses Wednesday after the Commerce Department’s report that orders for durable goods fell 7.8 percent in January.

“There is a worry that U.S. consumption could slow substantially, and that is a much bigger factor than China’s stock market,” the chief Asia economist in the Hong Kong offices of Credit Suisse, Tao Dong, said.

On top of concerns about a slump in American demand, analysts said the prospect of cuts in interest rates by the Federal Reserve to head off such a slump was also worrisome. Many investors in Japan appeared to be watching for signs of whether the sell-off would continue in New York.

“What comes next here really depends on New York, not Shanghai,” said Eiji Kinouchi, chief technical analyst at the research arm of Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

The worst performer in Asia on Wednesday was the Philippine market, which fell nearly 8 percent. The broad extent of the decline in Asia underlined the region’s deepening connection to global financial markets and growing reliance on exports to the industrialized world.

“Every morning, most traders will get a fix on how the Asian markets are trading and how did the Nasdaq close — I think people have gotten more globalized,” said Sandeep Nanda, head of research at Sharekhan, a large retail brokerage firm in India.

Tim Condon, the head of financial markets research at ING Financial Markets in Singapore, said that the most significant feature of the worldwide drop was that it was the first such global shock to financial markets to emerge from mainland China.

In Japan, one of the biggest fears for investors is the possibility of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, which could start narrowing the gap with Japan’s rock-bottom rates. Japanese overnight lending rates are 0.5 percent, compared with 5.25 percent in the United States.

If the gap shrinks, it could slow or halt the so-called yen carry trade, in which investors borrow hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of yen to invest in stock markets around the world in search of higher returns.

If this flow of money stops, or reverses, it could prompt larger sell-offs on Wall Street and drive the yen even higher, hurting Japanese exporters even more, analysts said.

“Bernanke holds the trigger,” said Kiichi Fujita, a strategist in Tokyo for Nomura Securities, referring to the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. “If he cuts interest rates in America, the worry is that the yen carry trade will unwind.”

Back in China, though, state-controlled newspapers put on a positive spin Wednesday, reporting that more than 188,000 stock market accounts were opened. In the English-language Shanghai Daily, news of the stock slide was placed, perhaps somewhat deliberately, on Page 2.

After shares collapsed in 1996, the government put in circuit breakers that restricted the market from falling more than 10 percent in a single session. Worried about a stock market bubble, government officials recently warned investors about “blind optimism” in the stock market.

“The government doesn’t want to see this go up or down too quickly,” said Frank M. Song, director of the Center for China Financial Research at the University of Hong Kong. “Their goal is to try to maintain stable growth.”

Stability seemed to rule again Wednesday at the Liaoning Securities brokerage house, where retirees lounged around, their feet up on the tables, watching the market go up.

Ji Manli, watching a computer screen, said she had done “pretty well.” Her return was 300 percent.

“But I still think I didn’t do well enough,” said Ms. Ji, 67, a retired electrical engineer. “When some stocks hit their highs, I sold them. Other people did much better.”

David Barboza reported from Shanghai and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong. Martin Fackler in Tokyo; Wayne Arnold in Singapore; Carlos H. Conde in Manila; Thomas Fuller in Bangkok; Anand Giridharadas in Mumbai, India; and Hilda Wang in Hong Kong contributed reporting.

From Shanghai, Tremors Heard Around the World

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: February 28, 2007

SHANGHAI, Feb. 27 — In China’s wild, cowboy stock market, record-breaking run-ups have been followed by minimarket crashes that have been largely confined within this country’s borders.

But on Tuesday, China’s worst one-day tumble in a decade set off a tumult that rolled through markets around the globe, from Tokyo to Frankfurt to Brazil to Wall Street. Speculative frenzy had lifted the Shanghai Composite Index above the 3,000 point milestone on Monday and then gave way to a tumultuous sell-off on Tuesday that sent shares plummeting nearly 9 percent.

The stock wreck shattered all sorts of records, and analysts say there was no clear reason for Tuesday’s dramatic drop in Shanghai, equivalent to an 1,100-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial index. But the Chinese stock market was rife with rumors that the government was considering new measures to tame the world’s hottest stock market before a bubble developed.

To many investors and analysts here, however, the massive sell-off was just the latest indication that share prices in China have been defying expectations. Millions of everyday investors are rushing blindly into stocks, emptying out their savings account to “play the market,” as many of them here say.

Perhaps the most remarkable sign of the recent irrational exuberance underpinning China’s stock markets is that during the past year, when a company has announced bad news, its stock price has been shooting through the roof.

Early this year, for instance, when a group of 17 Chinese companies was cited by regulators for misappropriating corporate funds, their stock prices all skyrocketed. When the Tianjin Global Magnetic Card Company failed to report quarterly earnings last April, its stock doubled.

With shares in Shanghai tumbling, stocks listed in Shenzhen also collapsed, falling 9.3 percent. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.76 percent, and in Japan, the Nikkei dropped about half a percent to 18,119.92.

But none of the world’s major stock markets has been as volatile as in China, where people refer to the stock market as “dubo ji,” or the slot machine. The gyrations have become almost commonplace for a stock market that suffered through a five-year depression until 2006, when it rose more than 130 percent, the world’s best performance.

The Chinese government, however, is worried about an exuberance that could produce a bubble and then a crash that could send bankrupt individual investors into the streets in protest.

Analysts say that at least in some cases, the stocks of tainted companies have risen because the companies were viewed as shedding old problems and starting anew. Still, some of these problems reflect deep cultural attitudes and are unlikely to be fixed overnight.

Analysts also argue that the market has been rising because of stronger fundamentals, rising profits, improved regulations and oversight by officials and confidence in the market’s long-term growth prospects.

But in this current run of market mania, even corruption appears to be a buy signal. That was the case for the Shanghai Bailian Group, which reported on Dec. 29 that its chairman was under investigation for fraud. The company’s shares have climbed 45 percent since then.

Two weeks ago, after the chairman of Shanghai Hai Niao Enterprise Development Company was detained, his company’s shares rose 15 percent.

“There’s just too much liquidity out there, too much,” says Chang Chun, a financial reform expert at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “This is a psychological thing.”

China’s stock market system is still relatively immature, and trustworthy information about a company’s performance is still hard to come by. So the average investor does little or no research.

Just to find names of stocks to buy is a task for new investors. So if they see even a mention in the news, positive or negative, they start buying.

If alert investors are lucky, they might get a tip. If state television mentions a company, it must be worth something, and if they don’t catch the full story, they at least have a name.

“If I hear a stock mentioned on the TV news I will pay attention to it,” says Xu Xiaochen, a 55-year-old retiree.

In any case, many investors here seem to believe that the secret to picking stocks is about luck and about confidence in the government, not the fundamentals of any particular company. “I don’t know how to choose a stock,” says a 61-year-old retiree who gave her name as Miss Hou at a local brokerage house a few weeks ago. “But I trust those technology companies. Maybe the names of some companies sound lucky to me so I choose to buy these stocks.”

Government officials began cautioning several weeks ago against “blind optimism” in the stock market. Banks were ordered to stop making loans to people who were speculating in the market. Trading volumes have been so high that the Shanghai Stock Exchange recently warned that the country’s electronic trading system could be destabilized.

Stock prices fell sharply for four consecutive days in early February as investors seemed to contemplate the possibility of an overheated stock market.

After a brief pause, they rushed in again. Foreign money is also piling in, according to JPMorgan, and hardly an analyst is willing to bet against the stock market.

“You can’t be a fundamental investor in China,” said Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University. “You can only speculate. Fundamental investors make long-term cash flow projections. In China, there’s not good information or corporate governance.”

Mr. Pettis, who has long been a market skeptic here, is now raising a fund to invest in Chinese stocks, based on his projections of the inflow that will push up prices.

“There’s a huge amount of money in the banking system with nowhere to go,” he said. “I think you’re going to see that money getting out of the banking system.”

Mutual funds also are helping some individual investors, while others are scrambling into initial public offerings, which over the past year have had a strong opening-day track record.

Of the 15 companies that went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, 12 of them saw opening-day rises of more than 10 percent. In Shenzhen, not a single company listed there saw its stock fall on the first day of trading last year. On their first day of trading, 34 stocks jumped more than 70 percent. One company’s shares climbed 332 percent.

Now, regulators are seeing a growing number of stock scams targeting small investors. And Chinese officials worry that investors still are relying on a “welfare” state — which is increasingly disappearing — to take care of them.

As for the companies that are seeing their stock prices climb despite their troubles, they may be hard-pressed for explanations, but are trying to defend the phenomenon in any case.

“The stock is the stock, and the C.E.O. is the C.E.O.,” said a woman working in the executive office at Shanghai Haixin Group after she acknowledged that the chief executive was under investigation. “As for our C.E.O.’s bad news, yes, it happened. But it is outdated and not newsworthy at all,” she tried to explain. “As for the stock price, we don’t know either.”

U.S. Stocks Drop Sharply After Slide in China

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 27, 2007

Filed at 4:51 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, briefly hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 500 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.

The steepness of the market's drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets, which had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years.

A 9 percent slide in Chinese stocks, which came a day after investors sent Shanghai's benchmark index to a record high close, set the tone for U.S. trading. The Dow began the day falling sharply, and the decline accelerated throughout the course of the session before stocks took a huge plunge in late afternoon as computer-driven sell programs kicked in.

The Dow fell 546.02, or 4.3 percent, to 12,086.06 before recovering some ground in the last hour of trading to close down 416.02, or 3.29 percent, at 12,216.24, according to preliminary calculations. Because the worst of the plunge took place after 2:30 p.m., the New York Stock Exchange's trading limits, designed to halt such precipitous moves, were not activated.

The decline was the Dow's worst since Sept. 17, 2001, the first trading day after the terror attacks, when the blue chips closed down 684.81, or 7.13 percent.

The drop hit every sector of stocks across the market. Riskier issues such as small-cap and technology stocks suffered the biggest declines.

But analysts who have been expecting a pullback after a huge rally that began last October and sent the Dow to a series of record highs, were unfazed by Tuesday's drop.

''This corrective consolidation phase isn't just going to be one day, but we don't believe this is going to be a bear market,'' said Bob Doll, BlackRock's global chief investment officer of equities.

Some investors also tried to put Tuesday's slide into a longer-term perspective.

''All who invest should feel grateful that we've had a great run for the last 12 to 18 months,'' said Joel Kleinman, a Washington, D.C. attorney, adding that he has learned to not read too much into any short-term ups and downs. ''This is another day in the market.''

Still, traders' dwindling confidence was knocked down further by data showing that the economy may be decelerating more than anticipated. A Commerce Department report that orders for durable goods in January dropped by the largest amount in three months exacerbated jitters about the direction of the U.S. economy, just a day after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the United States may be headed for a recession.

''It looks more and more like the economy is a slow growth economy,'' said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund. ''Moderate economic growth is good -- an abrupt stop in economic growth scares people.''

The market had been expecting the government on Wednesday to revise its estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth down to an annual rate of about 2.3 percent from an initial forecast of 3.5 percent, and grew increasingly nervous on Tuesday that the figure could come in even lower.

The housing market, which the Street had been hoping had bottomed out, also looked far from recovery after a Standard & Poor's index indicated that single-family home prices across the nation were flat in December. A later report from the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales climbed in January by the largest amount in two years, but the data didn't erase housing-related concerns, as median home prices fell for a sixth straight month.

But a growing feeling that Wall Street, which has had a big run-up since October, was due for a correction also played into Tuesday's decline.

''I think that the market was prepared to pull back. The constellation of issues that were worrying the market came to a head,'' said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at The Hartford.

Just a week ago, the Dow had reached new closing and trading highs, rising as high as 12,795.92.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 50.33, or 3.47 percent, at 1,399.04, and the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index was off 96.65, or 3.86 percent, at 2,407.87.

A suicide bomber attack on the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan where Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting also rattled the market.

China's stock market plummeted Tuesday from record highs as investors took profits when concerns arose that the Chinese government may try to temper its ballooning economy by raising interest rates again or reducing more of the money available for lending.

''Corrections usually happen because of a catalyst, and this may be it,'' said Ed Peters, chief investment officer at PanAgora Asset Management. ''The move in China was a surprise, and when a major market has a shock it ripples through the rest of the market. With all the trade that goes on with China, there tends to be a knee-jerk reaction with that kind of drop.''

The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 8.8 percent to close at 2,771.79, its biggest decline since it fell 8.9 percent on Feb. 18, 1997. Since Chinese share prices doubled last year as investors poured money into the market after the completion of shareholding reforms, trading in Shanghai has been very volatile.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 1.8 percent, and Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 2.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell a more moderate 0.52 percent, but European markets were rattled -- Britain's FTSE 100 lost 2.31 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 2.96 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 3.02 percent.

Bond prices shot higher as investors bought into the safe-haven Treasury market, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note down to 4.47 percent, its lowest level so far this year, from 4.63 percent late Monday. The bond buying was sparked primarily by the durable goods orders, which the Commerce Department said fell 7.8 percent, much more than what the market expected.

The durable goods drop raised the chance of the Federal Reserve easing interest rates later in the year -- a possibility that makes the bond market an attractive place to be right now.

The hope for slowing inflation could be dashed, though, if energy costs keep rising. Oil prices initially fell Tuesday on worries that Chinese demand could be dampened should its economy slow down, but later rose on escalating tensions in the Middle East. Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell 62 cents a barrel to $60.77 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar slipped against other major currencies, while gold also fell.

The Dow has been climbing at a steady rate since last summer, but over the past few trading sessions, stocks have pulled back on the worry that the market is due for a correction. Many analysts have noted that the Dow hasn't seen a 2 percent decline in more than 120 sessions.

Data indicating a slower economy had recently been giving stocks a boost on the hopes that the Fed will lower interest rates, which could reinvigorate consumer spending and the struggling housing market. But the market may fall further before that happens, analysts said.

''If in a week or two, the psychology in the U.S. market turns to the realization that we're in a modest growth economy of 2 to 3 percent growth, that will help temper inflation pressures going forward. If that perception evolves, there's an increase in the likelihood that the Fed will be lowering rates rather than raising rates. Structurally, it's a development that should be good for the equity market, but it might be an event that unfolds after prices are lower,'' Strauss said.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 7 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 2.38 billion shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 31.03, or 3.77 percent, at 792.66.

^------

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

華爾街跌掉6000億

由於中國股市27日大幅下跌，引發美國投資者擔心美國與中國經濟將疲軟並波及全球股市，以及股市價值過高，導致27日華爾街股市暴跌，被稱為「黑色星期二」。道瓊指數一度下跌500多點，收盤下跌416.02點，是自從九一一恐怖分子襲擊以來美股最大單日下跌點數。

分析師說，包括紐約在內全球股市大跌的主要原因是中國市場，上海證交所指數劇跌約9%，因為市場擔憂中國政府可能打擊推動當地股市創紀錄的投機炒 作。此外，開盤前商務部公布1月耐久財訂單意外大幅下跌7.8%，引起市場進一步擔心經濟成長放緩，令股市猶如雪上加霜。一些分析師最近已經預期股市會有 修正，而中國股市暴跌則成為導火線。

受海外交易影響，紐約股市開盤即跌，下午則因電腦驅動的出售程式啟動而加劇。雖然紐約證交所發言人表示，後來出現的電腦問題沒有影響股 價，但推動交易量大增。紐約證交所約有24.1億股股票易手，遠高於去年日均18.4億股；那指市場約有30.2億股易手，也高於去年20.2億股日均 值。

交易中，投資者拋售與中國生意眾多的公司股票，其中重型設備生產商開拓履帶車（Caterpiller）跌2.43元或3.6%，收盤價為64.83元。

道瓊指數大跌416.02點或3.29%，至12216.24點收盤；史坦普五百指數下挫50.33點或3.47%，以1399.04點收 盤；科技股雲集的那斯達克市場綜合指數下跌96.65點或3.86%，以2407.86點收盤。道指30支成分股可謂哀鴻遍野，全面走低，跌幅最大的艾克 森美孚石油（Exxon Mo-bil）下跌3.57元，跌幅4.7%，收盤價71.83元。

盤中，道瓊指數一度跌546.02點或4.32%，至12086.06點，為自從2001年九一一恐怖分子襲擊以來最大的單日點數跌幅。那指與史坦普指數跌幅也創近四年來最大。股市下跌之後，三大指數今年收益全部煙消雲散，均為負數。

此外，追蹤華爾街憂懼程度的芝加哥期權交易所(CBOE)波動指數VIX一度飆升70.5%至19.01，為該指數創立17年來最大單日升幅，收盤為18.31，升幅為64.2%。

史坦普公司資深指數分析師西魏布倫特（Howard Silverblatt）估計，股市狂跌使得史坦普五百指數逾4300億元市值消失殆盡，幾乎相當於去年一年該指數成分公司回購股票的總額；而整個市場損失可能高達6000億元。

經濟沒問題 專家仍看好

經濟沒問題 專家仍看好
房市最壞情況已過 股市回檔應屬短期
雖然聯準會前主席葛林斯潘26日警告今年底美國經濟有衰退的可能，但多數經濟學者認為今年美國經濟衰退的可能性不大，中國經濟衰退的機會更小。經濟學者大都認為27日美國股市下跌並不會影響聯準會對經濟的信心。

紐 約德意志銀行首席經濟學家胡波說，依聯準會的最新資料，就業市場繁榮，消費者有信心，因此美國經濟仍是看好，至多是在房市影響下，成長速度減緩而已。但穆 迪（Moody）首席經濟學家桑迪也表示，葛林斯潘的看法，對股市仍然有相當作用，到底他過去近20年對股市有重大影響，而且長久以來他說的都對，所以雖 然他已不做決策，但大家已經習慣信賴他。

雖然葛林斯潘的講話仍有影響，但許多經濟學者認為衰退的機率應該不到20%。在過去五年的經濟擴張 後，分析師說現在最大的威脅是房市，擔心的是影響到房貸業者，導致金融危機。但最近全國房地產商協會發表的成屋銷售，今年1月成長3%，是兩年來最大的成 長，顯示房市最壞的情況可能已經過去。經濟活動的主力是消費者，據工商協進會的調查，2月消費者信心指數上升到五年半來的高點。

曾經擔任舊金山聯合銀行總裁的林修榮對27日股市下跌表示，其顯示的是市場的投機現象，並不表示經濟基本面有重大改變，所以第一步他覺得是不要慌，先觀察一陣。

他說，幾天來的股市相關新聞報導中，不管是在中國或是美國，看不出任何足以促使股市大跌的原因，美國最近發布的經濟報告或盈餘公告，都屬正常，所以他的判斷是屬於短期現象，只是股市近年不斷增長下，發生回檔整理的現象。

他說中國股市近期投機風很盛，許多人借錢或是抵押借款買股票，前一陣中國官方有控制房屋投機風的講話，但政府還沒有採取行動，股民投機擔心，就自己先獲利回吐，導致大跌，並不代表中國股市基本面有何變化。

投資人忙應變

投資人忙應變
有人脫手股票 有人逢低承接 買賣熱絡
股市長黑，使許多華裔投資人哀叫連連，芝加哥地區的券商及財務顧問表示，由於美國股市近來已經連漲多時，27日的大跌，可算是適時修正，股民應以平常心看待，不過，專家也呼籲豬年不確定因素過多，投資者仍宜謹慎保守。

華埠興昌股票經紀人林玉英27日股市開盤後，就接到無數通關心股市資的客戶電話，林玉英說，客主要希望了解是否應該出脫手中股票，也有一些客戶希望逢低承接績優股，買進賣出忙碌萬分。

林玉英表示，27日的股市收黑，為2001年911事件後六年來最慘重的跌幅，而股市慘跌，與美國本土經濟是否已經真正開始衰退，以及中國大陸可能升息等因素有關。她說，儘管27日的長黑主要由投資大眾心理因素造成，但是美國股市屢創新高點，本來上漲空間就已經有限。

林玉英建議投資大眾今年慎選股票投資，手中盡量保有現金，近期內股市恢復高點較為困難，未來幾天是觀察重點。

資深蘇姓華裔財務顧問表示，美國股市從去年8月起，已經幾乎連漲好幾個月，一般預期今年應該會回跌修正，27日的股市受到香港、中國大陸股市崩盤波及，大跌了四百多點，儘管跌幅很深，但是仍舊算是正常修正。

她建議股民不要過於慌張，但在包括美伊戰爭、亞洲經濟等許多不確定因素影響下，豬年股票投資，最好還是謹慎保守為宜。

波 士頓財政科學（Financial Sci-ence）公司副總裁何寶樹說，此次股市下跌，對融資（margin）買賣股票者，或買Hedge Fund的投資人影響較大，多半必須立刻行動，否則血本無歸。普通以現金購股的投資人無需心急，放著等回升，或應查看自己擁有的投資組合，乘機處理掉受影 響的不好股票。

他認為，一些與中國有關聯，如金、銅、鋁等金屬公司股票，很可能不會在短期內回升；但如醫療健保等基礎好的股票，即使在此次風波下跌3%到5%，日後會恢復。他說，許多專家有不同的預測，他個人較信「數日內下跌指數，會回升一半」的說法。

僑界蒐證 發動集體訴訟

僑界蒐證 發動集體訴訟
認「芥蘭鼠」報導影響超過九一一 號召紐約、費城中餐館為生存作戰
黃克鏘在昨日的示威結束後正式表示，僑界準備擴大起訴，並開始在紐約、費城兩地收集證據，號召其他因CW11「芥蘭鼠」報導「嚴重影響聲譽及生意」的中餐館，一起提出集體訴訟（class action）。

黃克鏘稱，他們已開始製作問卷表格，在紐約、費城閩籍社團的協助下，在各中餐館，特別是外賣餐館裡發放，了解在CW11「芥蘭鼠」報導之後，各餐館生意的下滑情況。

黃克鏘表示，根據他們的了解及現有資料，幾乎所有的中餐館都受到芥蘭鼠報導的影響，不少外賣餐館受到電話點餐「芥蘭鼠」，民眾在餐館門前惡意挑釁的事件也時有發生。

他們將聘請強大的律師團隊，繼續向CW11施壓。

「集 體訴訟」是同行業、同地區、同類別的人士，在對方某些不當行為下造成壞的影響，由這個受害的群體集體提出訴訟。「新福建」餐館訴訟代理律師之一翁振信說， 「新福建」案件提出企圖訴訟的可能肯定存在，但也並不容易，除了需要有效的組織，充分的數據材料外，資金也是一大問題。

新福建餐館已通過律師在本月22日對電視台及記者、主播提出了賠償訴訟，餐館對CW11前後兩次的報導，共求償兩百萬元，指電視台未經求證的報導及後續報導，嚴重詆毀該餐館形象，對其生意造成致命衝擊。

美國長樂潭頭聯誼會的楊建明表示，他開餐館十多年，這次芥蘭鼠事件對中餐館的影響最大，甚至超過九一一事件，所以如果發動集體訴訟CW11，他絕對願意參加。

大費城華人餐館協會常務副會長劉用敬也說，CW11有關芥蘭鼠的報導，令當地許多中餐館生意下降，部分餐館投訴生意額減少一半，這是攸關生存的問題，他們絕對願意參加集體訴訟。

芥蘭鼠 主流媒體多不願介入

芥蘭鼠 主流媒體多不願介入
社區領袖指為中餐館爭權益 華人應大聲反彈
由元月30日CW11電視台報導「芥蘭鼠」迄今，中文媒體大幅報導社區反彈情形，英文媒體則罕有相關報導，華裔社區領袖認為，這顯示主流媒體對此事持謹慎態度，不願介入，華人要為自己的權益大聲爭取，否則此事將成為中餐館的另一個致命傷。

黃克鏘26日在示威時，講了一個七○年代味精的故事，他說，當尼克森訪問中國大陸時，中美關係一片大好，吃中餐的美國人越來越多，中餐館一片紅火，但當時一報紙報導說味精會致癌，中餐館都用味精，卻沒有提到其他義大利餐館、法國餐館、甚至連有些罐頭也用味精。

黃克鏘表示，這篇味精報導至今已有20多年，許多中餐館現在還會被顧客詢問「是否有放味精」。現在中美關係又開始上揚，另一段中國熱又再開始，卻又有媒體開始打擊中餐館業，這是華人賴以生存的主要行業，「如果我們對芥蘭鼠事件不反應，對未來的的影響將十分巨大。」

昨天參與示威的餐館業者，不論是從紐約、新澤西州還是從費城來的，都表示在芥蘭鼠事件後，餐館生意受到一定程度的影響而下滑。