Business Channel 2007-03-26&28

Stocks were treading water ahead of that Federal Reserve announcement and then exploded higher.After discussing the state of the economy for two days,the Fed kept its key short term interest rate unchanged at 5.25%.But that's not what actually sparked the rally in Wall Street.Investors 1 were cheered because the Fed dropped the key phrase from previous statements.It's no longer talking about the possibility of additional firming or rate hikes,something that had been in every Fed statement for the last 15 months.The Fed did indicate that it's more concerned about both economic growth and inflation than it was at its last meeting in January.Insight of the problems in the housing sector 2 and the acknowledging signs that the economy may be actually worsening.At the same time,the Fed said inflation is still its primary concern.The major average soar on the hope that a rate cut may happen later this year.The Dow up 159 points.The NASDAQ's gaining nearly 2%.The S&P 500 saw a more than 1.5% increase on the day.Now, by the way,the NASDAQ and the S&P are back in the plus column for the year while the Dow is slightly below where it began at two, in the beginning of 2007.


A lot of good news here, Falecia.

Not bad, right?

Yeah,we'll take it.

Hey, also good news if you are a flyer and you like Southwest as well as JetBlue..... and know competitor in that market space which may mean more options, lower prices.

Exactly.Leave it to Richard Branson.Virgin 3 America has been given a preliminary green light from Federal regulators to begin flying in the United States.Virgin Airlines is behind the new start -up budget carrier which will base in San Fancisco. But before Virgin America can start flying,it must get rid of its current CEO.The government just concerned that he's too close to Virgin Chairman Sir Richard Branson.Of course, he is British and US regulations require that airlines based here be controlled by someone more independent.

So, the question is ,and I'm,I'm listening very carefully, when will these flights be avaible for Virgin America?

Well, it could be just a matter of months.There are a few more hurdles 4 before it's official, but barring any serious turbulence 5, Virgin America plans to begin New York to San Francisco flights this summer.And that include Las Vegas,Los Angeles,San Diego and Washington Dullas. By the way, Virgin claims its fleet of planes will have the largest seat back TVs of any US carrier and plans to offer free TV and some free video games.Richard?

And I think they can get some good deals in A380, the way things are going for that company as of now(exactly) ... Ha ha



That'd be a big plane though.

Hey, this last story you got for us.You know, I've deleted files before and I've liked , you know, I've hit my head but evidently you're about to tell us about some person who deleted a file worth billions of bucks 6.

Wow,this is a doozy!OK,it happened in Alaska.A computer technician was reformatting a disc drive at Alaska Department of Revenue when he accidentally deleted the information on a 38-billion-dollar account.Then to make matters worse,he even deleted the backup drive.The accountant question was applicant 7 information for an oil funded account on thousands of Alaskan residents.In case we were aware that account is one of the state's biggest benifits.All residents of the state share in Alaska's oil revenues.Haaaa. good news is, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime 8 to re-enter all of the information.Most Alaskans are gonna get their oil payments


Notes：　

1. tread water

[color=red]Expend effort that maintains one's status but does not make much progress toward a goal, as in He was just treading water from paycheck to paycheck. This idiom alludes 9 to the term's literal meaning, that is, "keep one's head above water by remaining upright and pumping the legs." [/COLOR=red]

2. NASDAQ

National Association of Securities Dealers 10 Automated 11 Quotation 12 System

Created in 1971, the Nasdaq was the world's first electronic stock market. The Nasdaq is a computerized system that facilitates trading and provides price quotations 13 on some 5,000 of the more actively 14 traded over-the-counter stocks.

The Nasdaq is traditionally home to many high-tech 15 stocks. The big ones include Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Cisco.

3. Nasdaq Composite

The Nasdaq Composite is a stock market index of all of the stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock market, meaning that it has over 3,000 components 16. It is the most watched index of the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies. Since both U.S. and non-U.S. companies are listed on the NASDAQ stock market, the index is not an exclusively U.S. index.

4. doozy or doozie

slang. Something extraordinary or bizarre.

5. A380

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner 17 manufactured by EADS (Airbus S.A.S.) It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse in France. Commercial flights are scheduled to begin in 2007 after lengthy 18 delays. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX. The nickname Superjumbo has become associated with the A380.