Business Channel 2006-10-17&19

There are plenty of skeptics though, if you think back to it, when Wall Street analysts¹ began talking about Google as a 400-dollar-a-share stock, do you remember that?

Yeah.

Well, on Thursday, it closed at 426 dollars, and after the close it posted a stellar quarterly earnings² report. Its profit nearly doubled from a year ago to 733 million dollars, just absolutely blowing past the Street's expectation, and the stock, Richard, is soaring again today.

All I gotta say is criminy. (hehehe) cri, I just, I mean, like, you are right, 400, I didn't expect it to hit that hard, er that high when they first had the, the IPO. I did not even believe the price they were asking. Er, you know, what these profit numbers are that you're just mentioning? Were they a surprise at all?

Oh, no, not really. I mean, you can never be 100% sure when it comes to corporate³ earnings. But in its very short life as a public company, Google has just surpassed Wall Street's earning expectations in seven out of eight quarters, typically by a wide margin⁴. And in a conference call late Thursday, Google CEO said, and I'm quoting here "business is very, very good here", end quote. Wall Street is certainly pleased with Google's results and one brokerage is even upping its price target on the stock too. Are you ready for this, Richard? 600 dollars.

Oh, man, (Yeah) I, I'm, eyes covered here. Er, I don't own any Google and I should have as ah, you can probably surmise⁵. What does it mean for folks like myself who don't have any Google?

Ah, like us, 'cause I don't have Google either. (Ok, alright) Un, we're all having to dig a little deeper. I mean shoppers, for example, spent an average of 738 dollars last year during the holiday season. According to a new survey, spending is expected to increase this year to more than 790 dollars. The National Retail⁶ Federation⁷, which sponsored the survey, says 62% of shoppers plan to spend their money in department stores. That's up, er, from about 50% back in 2003 and a lot of that traffic will be coming from younger shoppers, a very highly desirable demographic. Nearly 80% of the 18 to 24-year-old age group plan to shop at department stores for holiday merchandise and that is up from 66% just two years ago. So the question people ask is what is fueling the upcoming buying spree? The answer: lower gas prices, at least that's part of the factors. Er, the NRF says that that's giving consumers the confidence to celebrate the holidays in style.

***************************************************
1. stellar--adj. outstanding; Of or relating to a star performer.

2. criminy--Part of Speech: interjection

Definition: an exclamation⁸ of surprise, a mild oath; also written crimine,
Etymology⁹: Italian crimine 'crime'; euphemism¹⁰ for 'Christ'

3. surmise--verb. to conjecture¹¹ or guess

4. demographic--noun. a single vital or social statistic¹² of a human population, as the number of births or deaths.

1 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

2 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

4 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

5 surmise   

v./n.猜想，推测

参考例句：

• It turned out that my surmise was correct.结果表明我的推测没有错。
• I surmise that he will take the job.我推测他会接受这份工作。

6 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

7 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

8 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

9 etymology   

n.语源；字源学

参考例句：

• The hippies' etymology is contentious.关于嬉皮士的语源是有争议的。
• The origin of OK became the Holy Grail of etymology.OK的出典成了词源学梦寐以求的圣杯。

10 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

11 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

12 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。