$2 Billion Tech Deals

Stocks are
trading lower with the bears in control.

Biotech firm Abbott Laboratories
(
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announced it would
acquire diabetes test maker TheraSense
(
THER |
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for $1.2 billion.
TheraSense’s main product is its FreeStyle strip for testing blood-sugar
levels. US crude
(
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prices surged to a 10-month high, rising past $35 a
barrel. OPEC’s president said that if prices remain at current levels, it would
make it hard for the cartel to cut supplies next month.

Motorola ]
(
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and
Lucent
(
LU |
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will supply over $2 billion of goods to China’s largest
telephone and personal computer companies. Shares of both telecommunications
makers are trading higher on the news. At a conference in Berlin, Alan Greenspan
said that he saw no problems in the near term for the massive US trade gap but
warned that protectionist policies may make global economies less flexible.

Dow
-78.29

10406.71
S&P 500 -7.85
1119.40
Nasdaq
-14.48

2097.30

The day’s leading sectors are
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
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+0.67%, Oils
(
XOI.X |
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+0.66%,
Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
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Chart |
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+0.10%, and
Utility
(
UTY.X |
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+0.02%.

Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
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-2.81%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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-2.12%.

No Economic news
releases today.

10-year Notes are +65
at 114 055

The dollar
is +0.09 at 85.95

Gold is -3.10 at 424.45

Crude Oil is -0.40 at
33.85

Volume is 705,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,211,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1310 Up Vol
288
Declining 1855 Down Vol 472
Ratio 1.39 1.64
Nasdaq
Advancing 1023 Up Vol
369
Declining 2061 Down Vol
951
Ratio 2.01 2.56

Top Dow stocks are:

Honeywell
(
HON |
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PowerRating)
, +0.18% at 35.00,
United Tech [UTX|UTX
],
+0.11% at 92.22, and Altria [MO|MO
],
+0.01% at 53.14.

Stocks in the news:

E-Trade Financial
(
ET |
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rose after
confirming that it is in talks with Toronto-Dominion
(
TD |
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PowerRating)
on a
possible merger of online trading units.

Helen of Troy
(
HELE |
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PowerRating)
reported
third-quarter earnings of $25.1 million with sales rising 25% to $179.2
million. It also raised its full-year outlook ending in February to $2.05 a
share.

Faro Technologies
(
FARO |
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PowerRating)
is up 1%
after reporting sales that rose 49% in the fourth quarter. Sales came in at
$22.5 billion

Larry Ellison said that he would allow CFO Jeff
Henley to become chairman. Having worked at Oracle
(
ORCL |
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PowerRating)
for the
past 12 years, Henley is known as a financial disciplinarian who played a
critical role in rescuing the company from possible takeover or bankruptcy in
the early ’90s.

Drug store CVS
(
CVS |
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PowerRating)
reported a 9.4%
increase for December same-store sales with demand coming from cold remedies. It
also said that it expects to beat previous earnings forecasts.

bricew@tradingmarkets.com