Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, January 1, 2001

Chase completes J.P. Morgan deal

NEW YORK -- Chase Manhattan Corp. completed its acquisition of J.P. Morgan & Co. yesterday.

Chase paid 3.7 shares for each J.P. Morgan share, valuing the transaction at $32 billion as of Friday's closing price, according to Bloomberg News. The combined company has been named J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and will trade under the "JPM" ticker.

Chase and J.P. Morgan, two of the oldest U.S. banks, merged to compete better with the most profitable Wall Street firms.

Report: Wal-Mart to invade Japan

TOKYO -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open its first store in Japan next year, joining a rush of big foreign retailers scrambling to set up shop in the world's second-largest economy, a Japanese business newspaper reported today.

The world's largest retailer plans to form a Japanese subsidiary this summer and open a U.S.-style discount megastore as early as 2002, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing sources.

A Wal-Mart task force has already begun recruiting employees for a Japanese subsidiary and scouting sites for the store, the report said, adding that the company is expected to unveil its plans by June. Jay Allen, a spokesman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, said today it is company policy not to comment on speculation.

High seas delay Taiwan-China link

QUEMOY, Taiwan -- The first Taiwan vessel permitted to sail directly to rival China in more than 50 years was forced to turn back today, beset by heavy seas.

The yacht ferrying more than 50 tourism industry businesspeople from the Taiwan-held frontier island of Quemoy to the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen turned back after sailing for about 15 minutes, passengers said. The vessel would have been the first to take advantage of the Taiwan cabinet's decision last month to permit direct travel between the islands of Quemoy and Matsu.

---

Of Mutual Concern

News for mutual fund investors

Stock funds' inflows plunged in November

NEW YORK -- The Nasdaq's 23 percent decline sorely tested the loyalty of stock market investors in November. New money flowing into stock mutual funds dwindled to a net $8.82 billion, according to data released last week by the Investment Company Institute, the fund industry trade group. That was less than half of the $19.16 billion of new money put into stock funds in October, the ICI said.

Investors also poured $56.19 billion into money-market funds in November, indicating they were becoming increasingly cautious about the volatile stock market. That was more than double the $26.01 billion of new money that went into money-market funds in October. Aggressive growth funds, which bore the brunt of technology losses, continued to lose popularity. That category of mutual funds had an inflow of $5.06 billion in November, down from $7.09 billion in October. Growth funds had a cash inflow of $3.99 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $8.59 billion in October. Growth and income funds had an inflow of $1.69 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $262 million in October. Investors continued to yank money out of stock funds that invest abroad, which had an outflow of $2.88 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $206 million in October.

Fidelity gives customers 'view' to their accounts

BOSTON -- Fidelity Investments has launched a free service that lets customers view all of their investment records and bank accounts at once on the Fidelity Web site (www.fidelity.com).

The service, called Full View, is the result of a multimillion-dollar effort by Fidelity to help build customer loyalty. The investment giant is among the first wave of institutions to invest in so-called "aggregation" technology many believe will quickly become the norm.

Full View can be accessed with a click on Fidelity's Web site. To use it, customers must spend a few minutes entering financial account numbers and the online PIN numbers used to access bank accounts, credit card accounts, mortgages, investment accounts and retirement portfolios. The service can also track frequent-flier miles and e-mail.