Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:00 AM ET  

WASHINGTON, D.C. -(<a href=www.quicken.com>Quicken.com-Dow Jones)- The chairman of ChevronTexaco Corp. (CVX, news) said Tuesday the company is optimistic about future investment prospects in Latin America, but warned that key conditions must be addressed to enhance the possibility of further investments.

Speaking at a Council Of the Americas-sponsored conference at the U.S. State Department, David O'Reilly said that Latin America has 125 billion barrels of estimated oil reserves; and not only do new discoveries await, but also, thanks to technology, heavy oil can also be developed. But certain conditions must prevail before companies such as ChevronTexaco, which has $4 billion invested in the region, increase their investments.

Nationally and internationally recognized legal structures must be in place, economic structures must provide for a return on risk, and social structures must provide for the assurance of security to company employees and the broader society, O'Reilly said.

On specific countries, O'Reilly said, "if Argentina is to maintain investor confidence, it must not raise artificial barriers to trade and investments." It should rethink raising taxes on oil and other commodities exports, he said.

In Brazil, he said, local-contents requirements "must not endanger investments." He noted that ChevronTexaco's partners in many countries are local in any event and said that for one job created in the petroleum industry, an additional five jobs are generated in ancillary industries.

Turning to Venezuela, O'Reilly said that the new hydrocarbons law requiring the national oil company to take a 51% stake in new upstream oil projects denies the country access to new forms of financing.

Mexico's constitutional ban on foreign investment in the upstream industry severely limits Mexico's ability to offset declines in reserves, he said.

Given that the investments of the oil industry are long-term in nature and may take 20 to 30 years to mature, "we must have confidence in the long-term stability and growth in the region."

Free trade accords, O'Reilly noted, help to encourage investment and growth, which in turn raise the standard of living and lessen social inequality in countries. "That's why we support free trade agreements," as they accelerate economic reforms, he said.

-By Charles Roth, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2226; charles.roth@dowjones.com

Dow Jones Newswires 04-29-03 1100ET

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 By: VHeadline.com Reporters

London's Observer newspaper says the April 11 coup d'etat against the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez Frias has been linked to US President George W. Bush's team: "Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the 80s encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez, writes Observer WorldView correspondent Ed Vulliamy from New York.

"The Observer has established that the failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government ... they have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time."

Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere ... it also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.

The Observer: One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the coup ... it immediately endorsed the new government under businessman Pedro Carmona ... but the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours.

Now officials at the Organization of American States (OAS) and other diplomatic sources assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it ... presuming it to be destined for success.

The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began several months before the coup and continued until weeks before the putsch ... the visitors were received at the White House by the man President George W. Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.

Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported, in theory, to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan's National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House.

North was convicted and shamed for his role in Iran-Contra, whereby arms bought by busting US sanctions on Iran were sold to the Contra guerrillas and death squads, in revolt against the Marxist government in Nicaragua.

Reich also has close ties to Venezuela, having been made Ambassador to Caracas in 1986. His appointment was contested both by Democrats in Washington and political leaders in the Latin American country ... the objections were overridden as Venezuela sought access to the US oil market.

Reich is said by OAS sources to have had "a number of meetings with Carmona and other leaders of the coup" over several months ... the coup was discussed in some detail, right down to its timing and chances of success, which were deemed to be excellent.

On the day Carmona claimed power, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office ... he said the removal of Chavez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned, and was "responsible for his fate." He said the US would support the Carmona government.

But the crucial figure around the coup was Abrams, who operates in the White House as senior director of the National Security Council for "democracy, human rights and international operations" ... he was a leading theoretician of the school known as "Hemispherism," which put a priority on combating Marxism in the Americas.

It led to the coup in Chile in 1973, and the sponsorship of regimes and death squads that followed it in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere. During the Contras' rampage in Nicaragua, he worked directly to North.

Congressional investigations found Abrams had harvested illegal funding for the rebellion. Convicted for withholding information from the inquiry, he was pardoned by George Bush senior.

A third member of the Latin American triangle in US policy-making is John Negroponte, now Ambassador to the United Nations ... he was Reagan's Ambassador to Honduras 1981-1985 when a US-trained death squad, Battalion 3-16, tortured and murdered scores of activists. A diplomatic source said Negroponte had been "informed that there might be some movement in Venezuela on Chavez' at the beginning of the year (2002)."

More than 100 people died in events before and after the coup. Chavez's chief ideologue -- Guillermo Garcia Ponce, director of the Revolutionary Political Command -- says dissident generals, local media and anti-Chavez groups in the US had plotted the President's removal: "The most reactionary sectors in the United States were also implicated

Tue April 29, 2003 09:11 AM ET (Adds quotes, details) By Elizabeth Lazarowitz

NEW YORK, April 29 (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Stocks are poised to start Tuesday's session a touch higher as a fresh batch of earnings reports underpins investor hopes that companies have seen their worst, while Wall Street awaits key data on the U.S. consumer.

Expectation-beating first-quarter results from corporate America have fueled a sharp rally in the past seven weeks, and investors were sifting through more earnings from companies, including chemical maker DuPont Co. DD.N , drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY.N and semiconductor manufacturer Altera Corp. ALTR.O .

"It's a follow-through from yesterday where psychology seemed to change," said James Volk, managing director of equity trading at D.A. Davidson & Co. "People were encouraged that the earnings season is just about behind us and there were no major downside surprises, as well as the perception that the economy really has, if not turned around, bottomed."

As Wall Street looks for signs that the economy is poised for a rebound, the market could take its early cues from the Conference Board's consumer confidence index.

Stocks roared higher on Monday, giving the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average .DJI its biggest gain in about a month, as investors celebrated solid results from McDonald's Corp. MCD.N and Procter & Gamble Co. PG.N

Standard & Poor's 500 stock index futures for June were up 3.30 points at 916.90, while Nasdaq futures for the same month were up 4.50 points at 1,112.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey, due at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), could give investors a look at how the American consumer -- the linchpin of U.S. growth -- is holding up. Many economists expect that, with the resolution of major fighting in Iraq, consumer confidence got a big boost. The index is expected to read 69.8 in April, up from 62.5 in March.

Ahead of the open, the government reported U.S. employment costs in the first quarter of 2003 jumped by the highest margin in nearly 13 years as health insurance and pension plan costs shot higher.

The market is bracing for a barrage of economic data due later this week, including a closely watched gauge of the manufacturing sector and the government's monthly payrolls data.

"This will tell the market what the state of the economy is and it is probably not going to be as good news as earnings has been," said Bill Strazzullo, market strategist with State Street Corp. He said investors may be encouraged to lock in profits after the market's recent rally.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index .SPX , which is nearing three-month highs, is up more than 14 percent since it hit its 2003 lows on March 11.

Weaker oil prices, which soothed worries corporate profits could take a hit from higher energy costs, were also encouraging stock investors.

DuPont, the second-largest U.S. chemical company, on Tuesday returned to a first-quarter profit, as stronger sales offset surging energy and raw material costs, but it warned that second-quarter profits would miss Wall Street forecasts.

U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb reported its quarterly profit fell as competition from cheaper copycat medicines continued to hurt results.

Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC.N , the No. 3 U.S. defense contractor, on Tuesday posted higher quarterly earnings, excluding certain items, largely due to the new businesses recently acquired.

Halliburton Co. HAL.N , the world's No. 2 oilfield services company, on Tuesday said first-quarter earnings rose as North American drilling activity overcame international results hurt by war and political unrest in Venezuela, Nigeria and the Middle East.

Altera, a maker of programmable semiconductors, posted higher first-quarter profit than a year ago, beating Wall Street estimates on strong sales of new products and replenishing inventories that were depleted late last year.

In overseas trading, European stocks rose as corporate results from chemical giant BASF BASF.DE as well as telecom equipment titans Ericsson ERICb.ST and Alcatel CGEP.PA pleased investors.

The FTSE Eurotop 300 index .FTEU3 of pan-European blue chips rose 0.78 percent to 833, while the euro zone DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index .STOXX50E gained 0.8 percent to 2,363.

In Monday's U.S. session, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI finished up 165.26 points, or 1.99 percent, at 8,471.61, its biggest rally since an advance of 215 points, or 2.6 percent, on April 2. All 30 Dow components ended higher, pushing the blue-chip Dow average back up into the black for the year.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 16.03 points, or 1.78 percent, to 914.84. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC gained 27.70 points, or 1.93 percent, to close at 1,462.24, based on the latest available figures.

(With additional reporting by Doris Frankel)

Washington, April 28 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Alejandro Dopazo, the Venezuelan Finance Ministry's director of public credit, speaks about the country's oil production, relationship with the U.S., debt repayments and outlook for economic recovery. He speaks at a Council of the Americas Crisis and conference.

05:05 Venezuela's oil production and debt obligation payments 01:43 So where does Venezuela stand today? 03:08 The relationship between Venezuela and the U.S. 02:40 "The year 2003 will be a very difficult year..." 01:40 Dopazo discusses political differences in Venezuela. 01:42 Questions: U.S. investment in Venezuela, exchange controls 02:23 Mercosur trade block, Venezuela's relationship with Brazil 03:10 Manufacturing jobs, foreign exchange control regime

Running time 21:31. Last Updated: April 28, 2003 18:11 EDT

Tue April 29, 2003 08:00 AM ET

NEW YORK (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Halliburton Co. HAL.N , the world's No. 2 oilfield services company, on Tuesday said first-quarter earnings rose as North American drilling activity overcame international results hurt by war and political unrest in such key markets as Venezuela, Nigeria and the Middle East.

Houston-based Halliburton, which was hired in March by the Defense Department to control Iraqi well fires and repair the country's oil infrastructure, said its net income rose to $43 million, or 10 cents per share, from $22 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.

In December, the company announced a $4 billion settlement package to more than 200,000 asbestos claims against it, the final details of which were still being negotiated. The settlement with plaintiffs who said they were harmed by asbestos products made by a Halliburton subsidiary is expected to take effect later this year.

Halliburton's stock closed up 11 cents at $21.31 per share Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.