The PS2 version of NBA Ballers from Midway Games was again the #1-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended April 25 showed Thurs. The title earned an additional $302,095 in its 3rd week available, for $778,546 total. Midway had one other top 10 title: The Xbox version of NBA Ballers, at #5 again ($174,338 in the week, $440,309 to date). Ubisoft also had 2 games on the list: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow for Xbox at #3 (down one in its 5th week, $211,199 in the week and $1.19 million to date) and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield for PS2 at #6 (down 3 in its 5th week, $173,465 in the week and $952,131 to date). But Electronic Arts (EA) again had the most top 10 titles -- 3 -- all for PS2: Need for Speed: Underground at #4 again in its 23rd week ($186,110 in the week, $7.32 million to date), Bond 007: Everything or Nothing at #7 again in its 10th week ($156,137 and $2.55 million) and NFL Street at #10 in its 15th week ($136,967 and $2.87 million). In its first week available, Hitman: Contracts for PS2 from Eidos was the #2- rented game ($230,412). Rounding out the top 10 were 2 more PS2 titles: Take-Two Interactive’s Mafia at #8 (down 2 in its 13th week, $154,767 and $3.43 million) and Activision’s True Crime: Streets of L.A. at #9 in its 25th week ($137,630 and $2.87 million).

The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.

Global Crossing said it was reviewing 2002 and 2003 financial statements out of concern about adequacy of the company’s accrued costs of access liability, access expenses, and the related internal control environment. Global Crossing’s preliminary assessment indicates its accrued cost of access liability -- $150 million at 2003’s end -- was understated by $50-$80 million that year. Its costs of access operating expenses during 2003 were $1.9 billion. The company said it would record expected adjustments of its accrued cost of access liability as a non-cash charge.

The ITA states that it has preliminary determined that cross-ownership exists between Alpanil and Meghmani and will treat them as a single entity for purposes of this CV duty investigation.

Consumer intentions on buying TV sets rose sharply in April from March, according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly consumer confidence survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 7.6% said they plan to buy a TV set in the next 6 months, vs. 6.7% in March, 7.4% in Feb., 7% in April 2003. The Consumer Confidence Index jumped 4.4 points from March, the Conference Board saying the improvement “was sparked by a more favorable assessment of current business and labor market conditions and increased consumer optimism about the next 6 months.”

Corning, riding strong demand for its LCD glass, reversed a year-earlier $205 million first-quarter loss to post a $55 million profit as sales rose to $844 million from $746 million.

Hollywood Entertainment CEO Mark Wattles favors taking the company private through a management-led buyout (CED March 30 p8) to give it “greater operating flexibility” and eliminate “the constraint of the public market’s emphasis on quarterly earnings,” Hollywood said in a preliminary proxy statement filed Fri. at the SEC. The proxy was for a special shareholders meeting to be convened to vote on the proposed buyout. No meeting date is set, but Hollywood has said it expects the buyout to be completed by 3rd quarter and the proxy said the deal would be consummated soon after shareholders approve it.

Midway Games had its strongest U.S. videogame rental week in memory, Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended April 18 showed Thurs. Rentrak said Midway had 3 SKUs in the top 10, led by #1 NBA Ballers for PS2, which jumped 8 notches in its 2nd week available and earned an additional $307,509, for $476,452 to date. Midway’s other 2 SKUs were the Xbox version of NBA Ballers at #5 ($183,169 in the week, $265,971 to date) and The Suffering for PS2 at #9 in its 6th week ($146,259 and $574,133). Electronic Arts (EA) and Ubisoft each had 2 top 10 games. EA’s were Need for Speed Underground at #4 (up one in its 22nd week, $184,642 and $7.13 million) and Bond 007: Everything or Nothing at #7 (down 3 its 9th week, $171,314 and $2.39 million) -- both for PS2. Ubisoft’s were Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow for Xbox at #2 (down one its 4th week, $242,531 and $982,227) and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield for PS2 at #3 (down one, 4th week, $186,704 and $778,665). Rounding out the top 10 were Take-Two Interactive’s Mafia for PS2 at #6 (up 3 in its 12th week, $178,917 and $3.27 million), Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden for Xbox at #8 (down 2 in its 7th week, $162,669 and $1.70 million) and Nintendo’s Pokemon Colosseum for GameCube at #10 (down 3 its 4th week, $141,174 and $615,174).

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty administrative reviews:

(BP has issued a new version of this ITT summary in order to correct the summary's BP Note listing the case numbers used for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) purposes. This new version, with corrected text between the double asterisks (**), supercedes the original version issued in ITT's 04/02/04 news as 04040225.)