NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 14, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services noted today that Duke Energy Corp.'s (A-/Negative/A-2) announcement that it will discontinue proprietary trading at Duke Energy North America and Duke Energy Merchants, while not material to affect ratings, provides a measure of support to credit quality. Standard&Poor's recognizes that trading and marketing activities can provide opportunities for earnings and possibly cash flow growth. However, Standard&Poor's also recognizes that such activities can increase business risk substantially by causing material losses and creating substantial collateral needs. Therefore, as such activities are reduced or eliminated a company's business profile should benefit. Standard&Poor's views the loss of the associated cash flow as insignificant relative to
