NEW YORK -- Wall Street's momentum extended into a new week Monday, its optimism from a month of gains boosted by approval of Microsoft's antitrust settlement. \nTechnology enjoyed the biggest gain Monday. The Nasdaq composite index closed up 35.82, or 2.6 percent, to 1,396.52, according to preliminary calculations. \nThe market's other gauges were also sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 53.96, or 0.6 percent, to 8,571.60, getting most of its boost from Microsoft. The Dow pulled back from an earlier 213-point surge as some profit takers stepped in. On Friday, the Dow climbed 120.61. \n"People are certainly in a buying mood," said Brian Belski, fundamental market strategist for US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. \nThe market built on four straight weeks of advances that followed better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and hopes that the economy is indeed getting stronger.
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Monday announced two voluntary safety recalls on the Ford Focus for 2000 and 2001 model years, covering more than 572,000 vehicles. \nOne recall involves a bolt in the front suspension assembly that may be loose and cause noise, vibration or, in a small number of cases, separation of the ball joint, the company said. \nThe other recall involves Focus vehicles with Zetec engines in which potential problems with battery cable routing could result in smoke, wire melting or a fire. \n"We are serious about improving not just the quality of the new Focus, but also the reliability of Focus cars from prior model years," Sue Cischke, vice president for environmental and safety engineering, said in a statement. "Although these two concerns are rare occurrences, they could have safety consequences and we want to ensure our customers' peace-of-mind."
WASHINGTON -- Harvey Pitt is undermining public confidence in the Securities and Exchange Commission and should quit as chairman, succeeded by someone who can "clean this mess up," the House's top Democrat said Sunday. \nWhite House advisers publicly praised Pitt's record as a corporate fraud fighter but offered no defense of his handling of the selection of former FBI Director William Webster to head a new accounting oversight board. \nAs a result of the latest controversy, President Bush and top aides are losing patience with Pitt but have not decided whether to seek his ouster, a senior White House official said over the weekend. \n"People are wanting to regain their confidence in the way corporations are run and the way their stocks are handled. And he is doing everything but giving them confidence," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. "In fact, the way he's acting is tearing down confidence."
HOUSTON -- Andrew S. Fastow, the chief architect of complex financial schemes blamed for fueling Enron Corp.'s swift collapse last year, has been indicted on 78 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and other charges. \nThe indictment handed down Thursday by a grand jury in Houston alleges that Fastow was at the center of multiple schemes that produced phantom profits and let him skim off millions of dollars for himself, his family and friends. If convicted, he could be sentenced to hundreds of years in jail and millions of dollars in fines.
\nmer official of the failed energy giant charged so far in the Justice Department's probe, nor his lawyers were present when the indictment was presented in federal court. His arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday. Fastow, 40, is free on $5 million bond. \nThe indictment mirrored a criminal complaint filed Oct. 2, except for a new charge of obstruction of justice. \n"These charges are full of sound and fury, but the truth about Enron has yet to be told," said Fastow's attorney, John W. Keker. "When that truth is told, to a jury of 12 honest Americans, Andy Fastow will be set free."
sh: Co. Accused of Helping Terror Group
NEW YORK -- Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds has helped finance Saddam Hussein's regime and a terrorist group by distributing cigarettes in Iraq, the European Union alleges in a new civil lawsuit. \nR.J. Reynolds called the civil suit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, "completely absurd." \nThe EU claimed R.J. Reynolds did business with Iraq as part of a global smuggling scheme that has cheated the 15-nation EU out of billions of dollars in tax revenues over the past decade. The suit alleges company executives used Italian, Russian and Colombian organized groups to smuggle the cigarettes, then laundered proceeds through banks in New York. \n"The defendants have, at the highest corporate level, determined that it will be a part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations and to accept criminal proceeds in payment for cigarettes by secret and surreptitious means," said the suit, filed Wednesday. \nA federal judge had dismissed a similar claim by the EU, ruling that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction in foreign tax issues. The new suit takes a new tack by alleging money-laundering was part of the plot. \nR.J. Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the maker of Winston, Camel and Salem cigarettes, denied any wrongdoing, and predicted the suit would again be dismissed. It is the second biggest U.S. cigarette maker behind Philip Morris Inc. \n"We operate our businesses in a legal, responsible manner," the company said in statement. "Any allegations that we were involved in, or aware of, money laundering, conspiracy or any other illegal activities are completely absurd"
