This is intended to be a "Brief" review of the WSJ.  You are requested to look over the sections referenced below, extract the requested data and try to answer as many of the questions listed below as you can. To answer the questions, please look up your textbook, references on the Professor's web page, the Internet, etc. Page reference  (e.g., C1, etc.) is given beside each question. Good luck!

C1: “SEC Probe of Lucent Is Broader.” Who is to blame when a firm engages in questionable accounting/reporting practices? Who do you think is the biggest loser when corporations “cook their books” and report inflated numbers? (short answer please.)

C1: From Markets Diary (graphs bottom of page): Looking at the trend in the items graphed in Market Diary, can you explain why stock prices show a downward trend while interest rates have been declining? (Short answer please.)

C1: "Heard on the Street" is one of the oldest columns in the Journal. Is it a good time to buy bank stocks? (Short answer please.)

C1: "Fund Track" (on the right side of page) discusses “Funds use leverage to magnify returns…”  (What a timing as we just talked about financial leverage!) It is about “closed-end funds. Think of them as investment companies, like mutual funds, that trade like IBM and others on exchanges. We will sort out their difference from their cousins, “Mutual Funds.” For now, make sure to understand what leverage is and what it does! 

C2: "Market lineup": Compare the p/e ratio and the dividend yield for NASDAQ 100 (est. p/e) vs. S&P 500. 

C2: “Major stock indexes” under "Market lineup" (right side): Get to know the stock market indexes listed in the table – Dow Jones 30 industrials, S&P 500; NASDAQ Composite or NASDAQ 100; Russell 2000 and Wilshire 5000. Which do you think is the broadest barometer of the market? (You may want to go to each company's web site to learn about the indices.)

C2: Same page, left side of page: In which Dow-Jones average does Boeing, belong?  FedEx? 

C2: Same page, left side, “Most Active Issues”: Which stocks (top three) posted the largest trading volume?

C2: Same page, “Interest Rates and Bonds”: What does the slope of the “Treasury Yield Curve” foretell? 

C2: Same page, “Mutual Funds”: How did the top two MUTUAL FUNDS did over the past two years?

C3-6: From the NYSE Composite Transactions: Extract/interpret the quotations Citigroup, and Tele(com) NZ. Tele NZ is traded as "ADR". What is an ADR? 

C3: From CLOSED END FUNDS: Get a quote for BRAZIL FD. What type of fund is a closed-end fund? (kind of a repeat question as the Journal mentioned them on page C1 as well.) 

C4: Yields on Dow Composite: Which DOW stock has the largest DIVIDEND Yield?

C3: From the small ODD?LOT TRADING Table (lower RIGHT): For NYSE, what are total purchases vas total sales by 
odd?lot (i.e., small) investors? What is the relationship supposed to foretell?

C5: From NYSE HIGHS/LOWS (right side): How many stocks are having "new highs" vs "new lows" for the year! 

C5: BOND Snapshot: From the graph, what has happened to the difference in rates between top quality (investment grade) and lower grade bonds? What does it mean?

C6-C8: From NASDAQ National Market Issues: Extract and interpret quotation for Dell Computer (Cptr) and GranStBshr. Why do they have different PEs? 

C8: Why does "Small Stock Focus" appear on this page - that is, what is the connection to NASDAQ National Market? Why a graph of Russell 2000 Index on this page? 

C10: “Preferred Stock listings”: Extract and interpret the quotation for one of Citigroup's preferred stocks.

C10: From Exchange Traded Portfolios: The American Stock Exchange (ASE) has some of the most popular exchange traded portfolios. Get to know NASDAQ100 ("Cubes") QQQ, Diamonds DIA (“Diamonds”) and SPDR ("Spiders") SPY, the most popular ETFs (They have the largeest volume figures), plus  any one "Holder", e.g., InternetHolders (HHH). Try to find out about them by looking up the American Stock Exchange's web site under so-called “Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) or doing a search on the Internet. (Professor's web page has some info about the holders.) 

C11: From Listed Options Quotations: Get quotation for Amgen's call and put. (Note: there is a contract at a strike price of $35 expiring in Nov….and a contract at a strike price of $55 expiring in Jan.) Define "Call" and "Put".

C12: From NYSE Exchange BONDS: Interpret any of the ATT's bonds. Why a difference in "Close" prices?

C12: From Money Rates (towards bottom of the page), Credit Markets Page: Extract and compare interest rates for 13-week Treasury Bills and 90-day Dealer Commercial Papers (issued by corporation) of roughly the same maturity.  Why are they different?  Note that there's an auction held to price T-bills every Monday afternoon, with the result reported in "Credit Markets" section of the WSJ Tuesdays. 

C16: World Stock Markets: Skim over the article to learn what Salomon Brothers sees as the prospect for Asian stocks. 

C16: DJ Global Indexes: In US$, over the past 12 months which country's stock market produced the highest return? 

C16: From "International Stock Market Indexes": Name a stock market index for Hong Kong? France? Canada? Britain? Also, extract closing price for Telecom NZ (under Pacific) and compare it to its price on NYSE.  Why do the prices differ?

C16: From CURRENCY TRADING, “Exchange Rates” (Table to the right, in the middle): How much does it cost to buy a New Zealand dollar, a Japanese Yen, and one Euro? From the forward rates, is Yen expected to get weaker or stronger against US$? 

C13-15: From Mutual Fund Quotations: Get/interpret quotation for Fidelity Investment's "Magln" and Vanguard "Index 500" under Vanguard INDEX FDs (the top two funds in the world).  We will discuss the connection between Vanguard Index 500 and SPDRs traded on AMEX. What is a mutual fund? For more info, see http://www.morningstar.com