The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market are closed today as part of a national day of mourning for the funeral of President Gerald R. Ford. Other U.
S. financial markets plan partial closings. Emirates selling off U.
S. dollars for stronger euros DUBAI, United Arab Emirates The wilting U.S.
dollar is pushing the United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. ally, to convert 8 percent of its foreign exchange reserves into the healthier euros, the central bank governor said.
The Emirates' nearly $25 billion currency reserves are currently 98 percent dollars. That percentage will drop to 90 percent in six to nine months if the bank's directors approve the switch as is expected, Central Bank governor Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi said. The sale itself is a small one, worth about $2 billion.
But the implications of a cash-rich friend of Washington selling off its dollars is a sign that central banks elsewhere may be looking to cut losses from a dollar widely expected to slip further in 2007. "It's a prudent move and it's indicative of broader thinking," said Simon Williams, HSBC's chief Middle East economist. "It's another factor that will exert downward pressure on the dollar.
" A bigger worry for the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank is that the six energy-rich Gulf Arab countries may consider converting dollar holdings in their far larger government investment funds, which, Williams said, keep more than $1 trillion under management.
Gulf governments typically do not release the compositions of those funds. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Teenagers in the 1950s and '60s went wild over Elvis Presley, much to the consternation of their parents, but kids in the new millennium aren't so stirred by rock n' roll's original rebel.
"I can't try to sell somebody Elvis who doesn't know who he is ? that he's not just some guy who's been gone for 30 years," said Paul Jankowski, chief of marketing for Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. Next year, three decades after Presley's death, the multimillion-dollar Elvis business will try to connect with a new generation of teenage fans by turning to MySpace and YouTube.
"Our opportunity demographic is really going to be 12 to 34 (years old), with a sweet spot around the 18-to-24 area," Jankowski said. Next year more film clips, photos and other material from the vast Presley archives will be showing up online. PITTSBURGH The media company behind the PBS hit "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" is working on a new children's television series.
Kevin Morrison, chief operating officer of Family Communications Inc., told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the company is in talks with producers of several children's TV shows about a new program. Morrison said there is no timetable, and ideas are still being discussed.
One thing it won't be is an updated version of the original show, he said. "We're taking our time. We want to get it right," Morrison told the newspaper in Thursday's editions.
Production of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" ended in 2000, and Fred Rogers, the show's star, died in 2003, at age 74. The show still airs on most PBS stations.
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