Wall St. Awaits Econ Data

Wall Street investors have been trying to read recent data for evidence the U.S. economy is outperforming expectations. Today they'll have more numbers to digest when the Conference Board issues Leading Indicators for June, and the Commerce Department reports on housing completions for June. The Dow Jones industrial average opens today at 8,198.45 after eking out a 4.41 point gain yesterday. The Nasdaq index opens at a record high 1,605.45 after gaining 11.12 on strength in technology stocks. Tokyo stocks closed lower for the third straight session today. The Nikkei average shed 153.62 points to end at 19,514.45. The dollar was trading at 118.70 yen.

UPS Strike Enters Day Two

A national strike against United Parcel Service has entered its second day with no talks scheduled between management and the Teamsters union. The idling of UPS facilities that began early yesterday spells more trouble for American businesses and consumers, who are being forced to seek alternative means for shipping their packages and documents. President Clinton says he won't intervene at this point to stop the strike, but a top White House aide met with negotiators from both sides yesterday to assess the impact of the strike.

Continental Pilots Issue Threat

Continental Airlines pilots are threatening a strike during this year's peak holiday travel season if they are unable to come to terms on a new contract with the carrier. But industry analysts say it is unlikely federal mediators will allow them to break off talks that quickly. A Continental spokesman said the carrier still expects to come to terms with the union before an Oct. 1 deadline. Negotiators with the Independent Association of Continental Pilots and the Houston-based carrier are set to resume talks in Florida today with a federal mediator overseeing the contract bargaining sessions.

Treasury to Sell Bonds

Starting today, the Treasury will sell $38 billion in three- and 10-year notes and 30-year bonds in its quarterly refunding, which raises money to pay off maturing bonds and fund government operations. Early last week, many traders had wondered how well Wall Street would absorb the new supply, with yields at their lowest levels in a year and a half. But after a double dose of strong economic data last week Treasury yields jumped about two tenths of a point the last three sessions, which traders said could make new Treasury bonds more attractive.

Anticipation Boosts Apple Stock

Apple's stock is continuing its month-long climb on speculation that the growing involvement of co-founder Steve Jobs could help to turn the ailing company around. Jobs, who is serving as a full-time adviser while Apple looks for a new chairman and chief executive, will deliver the keynote speech tomorrow at the Macworld trade show in Boston. Some industry watchers have speculated Jobs will announce the appointments of new, more computer-savvy members to the company's board of directors. A French newspaper reports billionaire Larry Ellison will be among them. Ellison has long had an interest in buying Apple with his personal fortune.

Intel, SAP in Joint Venture

Chip giant Intel and German management software firm SAP AG are expected today to announce a joint venture to develop electronic commerce software. SAP, which is based in Frankfurt, Germany, manufacturers a business management software package called R/3, its flagship software product. It allows large corporations to control manufacturing, purchasing, personnel and financial data. Analysts say the venture is expected to address the market for direct business-to-business communications over the Internet with software for Intel-based personal computers running Windows NT.

Microsoft Announcement Due

Microsoft plans to make an announcement with VXtreme today, amid reports the software giant is planning to buy the Internet startup. Officials of the two companies confirm that VXtreme will be part of a Microsoft announcement but decline to comment on industry reports of an imminent purchase that have circulated on the Internet and in trade newspapers. VXtreme makes software to allow "streaming," or continuous delivery of audio and video over the Internet.

Study Finds Loan Discrimination

A study of 9,300 lending institutions finds that blacks are rejected twice as often as whites when seeking home-mortgage loans. The findings are contained in a report released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council based on 1996 government data. The report finds that last year, 48.8 percent of black applicants were turned down when they sought a conventional home loan from a bank or other financial institution. That compares with 24.1 percent of whites. For Hispanic applicants, the rejection rate was about 34.4 percent.

HarperCollins Jobs Cuts

News Corp. says it is cutting 420 jobs at its HarperCollins book publishing unit and will take a one-time charge of $270 million for restructuring the troubled operation. But the huge media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch says it has no plans to sell HarperCollins after a year-long effort to restructure the book publisher. Publishing executives say the announcement could pose new problems for HarperCollins if some agents choose to keep their authors away from the publisher.

Chrysler Speeds With LH Car

Chrysler is set to announce good news today about its next-generation LH family of large cars. John Miller, general manager of large car engineering for Chrysler, says the company developed its new LH family eight months more quickly than it took it to bring the current LH models to market in 1992. Miller says he will tell an automotive conference in Traverse City, Mich.that Chrysler's refined platform teams and advanced computer-aided design techniques shaved $75 million to $80 million off the LH cars' engineering costs. Chrysler plans to launch production of two of the new LH cars -- the Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde -- in September. Two more, the LHS and 300M, will debut next year.

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