THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: On Wall Street, market analysts are wondering if yesterday's relative calm could be a reassuring sign for investors. So let's go live to New York's financial district to get a preview from CNN's Amanda Lang -- good morning, Amanda.
AMANDA LANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
LIN: It really looks like the airlines are in trouble, but their stocks seem to have gotten a bit of a bounce yesterday.
LANG: One of the positive signs in this market. Yesterday airlines -- some of them at least -- found room to rise, a sign that some people out there felt that they have fallen enough.
Now, the airlines, of course, struggling with the current crisis. They have cut their flight schedules up to 20 percent; they are laying off staff. And, in fact, overnight United Airlines, as expected, saying that it's cutting 20,000 jobs -- 20 percent of its total work force. That follows Continental's 12,000 work force reduction, US Air's 11,000. This is all, of course, in the context of a hoped government bailout.
That had stocks up yesterday, but interestingly some of them sold off after no specific package was announced, no dollar figure given. We saw some of them giving up some ground, and in fact, Continental ended the day down yesterday. It was, though, seen as a sign that there is a bottom in some of these stocks. So a very good time for this market yesterday, which, as you know, at least held its ground -- didn't give up more territory in any big kind of way.
LIN: Sure, but, of course, the market always looking ahead.
Do you have any profit warnings to tell us about today?
LANG: We're continuing to hear from companies. We've heard from about 17 so far. Now, we have to remember that this is the so-called confessional period. It's towards the end of the calendar third quarter. It's around the time when companies would have been telling us anyway, and we didn't expect it to be a very good quarter before last weeks' tragedy, so some of these warnings likely would have come in any case.
But we heard from "The New York Times" warning that the slowdown in advertising likely to hurt them. That's something we're hearing from a lot of media companies.
We have, of course, heard from some blue chips, among them: General Electric, Honeywell, American Express, all warning. This morning, perhaps not surprisingly, Visteon adding itself to the group. It's an auto parts maker -- VC is the ticker. It used to be owned by Ford, and Ford is still a big customer. When the car company said it was going to cut production this quarter that hit right into Visteon's bottom line.
LIN: So, Amanda, for anybody out there who is hoping to buy on the rumor and sell on the news, do you have any bright spots to report on today?
LANG: Well, one -- a couple of areas you might want to watch: telecoms doing well in Asia. Now, Asia not always a perfect indication of what will happen here, of course. But it's a sign that there is some buying in that sector.
We're also seeing some selective buying in names that have been beaten down. Again, a very good sign for those that are hoping there's a bottom on some of these stocks.
United Technologies, a Dow component, which was hammered on Monday, rose yesterday; similarly, IBM, a Dow component, up $3 yesterday. Keep your eye on the stocks that some investors might consider a good value now -- Carol.
LIN: Indeed we will. OK. Thanks so much, Amanda Lang. I think that was the first bit of good news we've had all day.
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