Bulls In Control As Stocks Close Up For Fifth Consecutive Day

Markets show resilience
coming back to close in green for fifth consecutive day; major indices
fractionally higher.

href=”https://tradingmarkets.com.site/news/Stock%20Alert/”>Stocks On The
Move

Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q2 Earnings Drop 51%; Reveals SEC Probe (full
story).  DELL shares fall by nearly 3% in today’s session.

FDA Asks Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Provide Addl. Data For Arxxant Drug (full
story).  LLY shares down nearly 2%.

Altria Group
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is trading at 52-week highs after federal judge found the company guilty of
lying about smoking risks, but did not not impose monetary penalties (full
story).  MO shares rise by nearly 4%.

Ann Taylor
(
ANN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q2 Profit Rises Six-fold On Strong Full-price Sales, Margin Expansion; Raises
FY06 EPS View; Authorizes $125 Mln Buy-back (full
story).  ANN shares fall slightly by 0.5%.

Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Reveals Preliminary Results Of Its Modified “Dutch Auction” Tender Offer;
Increases Ongoing Share Buyback Plan By About $16.2Bln (full
story).  MSFT shares trade up by over 4%.

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Loses One More Vioxx Case, Asked To Pay $51 Mln; Previous Victory Overturned;
Stock Plunges (full
story).  MRK shares close higher by nearly 2%.

Crude oil futures are trading higher by 0.5% to
$70.43.