Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Morning Market View(TM) for Thursday, May 24, 2001
as of 11:00AM EDT
Information provided by Standard & Poor's

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U.S. INDICES
(11:00a.m. EDT)

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Market            Value     Change

DJIA          11,073.40    - 32.10
Nasdaq Comp.   2,235.92     - 7.56
S&P 500        1,284.25     - 4.80
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NYSE Advancing Issues        1,142
NYSE Declining Issues        1,507
NYSE Trading Volume        266 mln
NASDAQ Advancing Issues      1,516
NASDAQ Declining Issues      1,553
NASDAQ Trading Volume      497 mln

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U.S. TREASURIES
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Value            Yield      Change

1-year bill       3.63%        n/a
5-year note       4.91%     + 3/32
10-year note      5.38%     + 1/32
30-year bond      5.81%    - 14/32

The tables above look best when viewed in a fixed-width font,
such as "Courier."

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U.S. TRADING SUMMARY

U.S. stocks are seeing a volatile session as bargain-hunters
battle profit-takers for supremacy. The headline indexes have
slipped into negative territory at midmorning, falling from early
session highs. A stronger-than-anticipated increase in jobless
claims, which suggests erosion in the labor market, and a
sharper-than-expected drop in new home sales has put some
pressure on stocks. Furthermore, with stocks enjoying solid gains
in recent weeks, traders are somewhat wary of jumping into the
market. Semiconductors, drugs, healthcare and computer software
have suffered the worst this morning. Meanwhile, financials,
electronic equipment and banks have been the best-performing
sectors this morning.

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JAPAN / EUROPE SUMMARY

European bourses moved slightly higher amid lackluster trading as
most countries across the pond celebrated the Ascension Day
holiday. Volume and interest remained extremely light as the
German DAX took the midafternoon lead, posting a gain of 1.1%.
Both the London FTSE and French CAC-40 followed closely behind
with gains of 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively. Across the Pacific,
Japanese shares made it three days in a row of losses as the
benchmark Nikkei-225 fell 1.2% when the yen surged against both
the dollar and euro. A stronger yen makes Japanese exports more
expensive and less desirable to foreign buyers, which will impact
the bottom line at Japanese companies. The broader Topix dropped
0.7%.

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CURRENCY SUMMARY

The U.S. dollar has stabilized, at least for the moment,
following the wild swings seen Wednesday. The greenback is
trading around the 120 yen level and at about 0.858 dollars per
euro. Note that the dollar is at some of the strongest levels
against the euro since last November.

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MAJOR COMPANY / INDUSTRY NEWS
(All prices as of 11:05 a.m. EDT)

** Defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NOC: 87.47, - 1.80) has
made a matching hostile offer for Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS:
64.27, + 0.50) even though Newport has already planned to merge
with General Dynamics (GD: 79.30, - 0.71). Northrop stated that
it would enter negotiations with Newport News if Newport allowed
Northrop to conduct its due diligence review. Newport makes
nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines. A merger with
Northrop would give the hostile bidder a leadership position in
the U.S. Navy surface ship market.

** Pride International (PDE: 27.71, - 4.94), a drilling
contractor, announced on Thursday that it has agreed to merge
with Marine Drilling (MRL: 26.97, - 0.75) in a deal worth about
$2 billion. The merger creates the oil industry's third-largest
offshore drilling contractor. The deal gives Pride shareholders
about an 18% premium for their shares based on the stock's
closing price as of Wednesday. The transaction is expected to be
accretive to earnings within the first year after the deal is
finalized.

** McDonald's (MCD: 30.29, + 0.05) apologized on Thursday for not
acknowledging the fact that it uses beef flavoring in its popular
french fries. The apology comes after a Hindu lawyer accused
McDonald's of not disclosing the fact that they use the flavoring
in their fries. Hindus abstain from eating beef due to religious
reasons and view cows as sacred animals.

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ECONOMIC NEWS

** Weekly initial jobless claims were 407K, up from the previous
392K and higher than the S&P MMS consensus estimate of 390K.

** New home sales for April were 894K, down from the previous
988K and less than the consensus estimate of 980K.

** FRIDAY - Preliminary first-quarter Gross Domestic Product,
durable goods orders for April, existing home sales for April,
University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment for
May.

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