Business Channel 2007-03-08&10

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The closing bell rang moments ago and it couldn't have come too soon for many investors² after this crazy week on Wall Street. It was another roller-coaster session for the market. Stocks actually edged into the plus column briefly³, but by the end it was another day of steep losses with energy and technology stocks leading the decline. And it kept the worst week for Wall Street in four years. Taking a look at the big board, the Dow Industrial slipped 120 points today. The NASDAQ dropped 1.5%, the S&P 500 fell 1%. And for the week, the Dow is down more than 600 points. The S&P 500 tumbled more than 4%. And the NASDAQ fared worst of all, plunging⁴ nearly 6%. Tuesday's 416-point tumble by the Dow was its biggest one-day point loss since the day the market reopened after the 9/11, 2001 attacks.

If you would like to work for the world's second richest man, there isn't an opening, but there are some very big shoes to fill. Legendary⁵ investor¹ Warren Buffett is looking for an understudy. He says he wants to train a younger person who could eventually succeed him as chief investment officer at his company Berkshire Hathaway. But don't expect the 76-year-old mega-billionaire to quit any time soon. In his annual report, Buffett says he's in excellent health, crediting his diet of cherry coke and hamburgers. On a more serious note, the report also shows Berkshire Hathaway, had more than a 29%-jump in net income last year. And for his outlook for this year, Buffett says the big unknown for mega-insurers is whether hurricanes like Katrina and Rita were aberrations⁶ or the first major warnings of major climate changes which could mean more heavy damage and more heavy insurance claims worldwide. By the way, Berkshire Hathaway stock is the most expensive in the world. It closed today up 3/10 of 1% at $107,000 a share.

And now here's a good story at the end of the tough week. Most of the time when you get a beer at a restaurant or a bar, it served in a V-shaped shaker glass. But according to Boston Beers' chairman and founder⁷ Jim Koch, that's not the best glass for your beer. Much like there are different shapes for different types of wine. Mr. Koch wanted to see if shape affected⁸ beer taste. And he says it does. After studying more than 100 glasses and getting the help of a German glassmaker, he claims to have found a perfect beer glass shape. The curvy glass has an angled lip and a narrow base. And it's designed to deliver beer to the front of the tongue. And at the same time, reduce the heat transfer from the drinker's hand. And perhaps the most interesting part of the glass design is a dime-shaped etching on the bottom of the glass which sends a constant stream of bubbles to the top of the glass.

I'm Valerie Morris and that is the latest from New York.