Executive Business Briefing

www.upi.com From the Business & Economics Desk Published 3/3/2003 3:02 PM View printer-friendly version

Here is a look at more of Monday's top business stories:

-0- War fears keep markets on unsteady footing

NEW YORK, March 3 (UPI) -- Concerns about a possible war against Iraq rattled financial markets, and stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market were mixed in early afternoon trading Monday.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average was up 32.21 points, or 0.41 percent, at 7,923.29. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was off 1.90 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,335.62.

The broader New York Stock Exchange composite index was up 29.27 points to 4,745.34, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 2.78 points at 843.93, the American Stock Exchange composite index was down 0.91 point at 829.72, while the Wilshire 5000 Index was up 23.82 points at 7,996.42.

U.S. Treasury prices rose. The 10-year bond was up 3/32 to 101 20/32. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, was down to 3.68 percent from 3.69 percent late Friday.

-0- Brazil close to power company takeover

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, March 3 (UPI) -- The Brazilian state development bank is likely to take control of a U.S.-owned utility that failed to meet its debt payments, local media reported.

The BNDES development bank has refused to roll over a $329 million debt payment owed it by a subsidiary of AES Corp., the U.S. electricity company, according to local reports.

The bank has the right to collect its collateral -- shares in Eletropaulo, Latin America's largest electricity company, which would give it control of the outfit.

Foreign investors have kept a close eye on this situation, as many fear it could signal the re-nationalization of privatized companies under the new leftist President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

BNDES declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement. The bank said it was up to AES to inform its stockholders and the public of the decision, made at the start of Brazil's carnival season, when offices are closed.

AES has yet to comment on the matter.

AES has asked BNDES to renegotiate its debt, and BNDES had already rolled over an $85 million payment owed it by AES in January.

The Virginia-based AES owes BNDES some $1.2 billion in debt, money borrowed to invest in three Brazilian utilities during the aggressive privatization of the late 1990s.