Money talks at the Nasdaq MarketSite
By Carrie Lee
CNN Headline News
 |
Producer Laurie Frankel and business correspondent Carrie Lee at the Nasdaq MarketSite.
Story Tools
RELATED
|
The D.C. part of the CNN Headline News puzzle.
|
|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's 5 a.m. in New York City, still dark outside and relatively quiet for a city that never sleeps.
But inside CNN's New York headquarters building, things are starting to bustle. I'm sitting in a make-up chair with the day's Wall Street Journal and New York Times, reading the business news headlines as a hair dryer and televised business newscasts compete to be heard.
A producer stops by to discuss two "business buzz" consumer-oriented segments. Today, it's a survey of the best drive-in-style fast food and a new television show devoted to automobiles. I will report the stories for CNN's "Daybreak." I'm also trying to get a handle on what will move the market today because as soon as my first CNN "hit" (i.e., live shot) is over, I have to switch gears for a CNN International update, covering the U.S. stock market.
By 6 a.m., producer Laurie Frankel and I have arrived at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange, where traders physically buy and sell shares of stock, the Nasdaq is an electronic trading network.
We fire up our computers and start poring over the never-ending slew of business news stories that are hitting wire services and Web sites. Laurie and I cast a wide net, reading everything from economic reports, stock and market news, and personal finance stories. Starting at 7 a.m., we will do 13 business news hits for CNN Headline News, every half-hour through 1 p.m.
I'm writing this on the first day of October, which is also the first trading day of the fourth quarter of 2003. After a weak September, early stock market indications ("futures" in industry jargon) look strong.
But a key national manufacturing report is due out about 10 a.m. ET, and if yesterday's reading on manufacturers in the Chicago area is any indication, the report could be weaker than expected.
Meanwhile, handheld device maker Palm Inc. reports that the two-year industry slump is starting to turn around, Microsoft has settled an antitrust lawsuit with customers who claim they were overcharged for software and Ford is reported to be cutting 12,000 jobs around the world.
Once we plan which stories will be done at what time (always knowing things can change at any moment), we get to work on our separate duties. I plan what I'm going to say when the anchors "toss" to me, Laurie starts making graphics, requesting video and, as segment time approaches, coordinating with the show's producers in Atlanta to make sure we can all see and hear each other.
Most of the early-morning hits are done from "the floor" -- the ground level of the Nasdaq MarketSite, which overlooks the corner of Broadway and 43rd Street. Tourists and New Yorkers on their way to work often peer through the glass to see what's going on inside. Behind me is "the wall," the backdrop for all of our reports, where an assortment of stocks and market indices move instantaneously as investors buy and sell shares. Before every hit, we tell the Nasdaq which stocks we need displayed and they punch up the data.
When the floor hits are finished, I walk through the Nasdaq control room, where engineers are constantly monitoring sound levels and camera angles for all of the network broadcasts. Climbing a metal, spiral staircase (in true Manhattan style, it saves space), I return to the CNN Headline News booth which is where most of our later segments take place.
Much of the daily stock market action (markets open at 9:30 a.m. ET and close at 4 p.m.) takes place in the first and final hours of trading. As the afternoon kicks in and we start to wind down, my CNN colleagues Jennifer Westhoven and Chris Moon are gearing up to keep the news coming from the New York Stock Exchange.
