Biotech Buyout
Stocks are lower today.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Motor Company will take a $1.65
billion charge on labor costs for Visteon
(
VC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) as a way to keep the
parts supplier competitive while lowering its own costs. Ford also gave a bright
outlook on strong sales of its new F-150 pickup. It is expected to earn at least
$1.05 a share for 2003. A report from the NYSE indicated that it may demand
ex-chairman Dick Grasso give up a big portion of the $140 million he
received. Drug-maker Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has agreed to acquire biotech firm
Esperion
(
ESPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Therapeutics for $1.3 billion. Esperion is involved
in cholesterol treatments.
| Dow | -4.36 | 10273.45 |
| S&P 500 | -1.75 | 1086.89 |
| Nasdaq | -9.21 | 1941.77 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.16%.Chemicals [CEX.X|CEX.X]
+0.90%, Health Providers
(
RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.88%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.45%,
Weak today is Airlines [XAL.X|XAL.X]
-1.23%, Health Products
(
RXP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.82%.
No Economic news
releases today.
10-year Notes are -110
at 112 185
Dollar is -0.25 at 88.28
Gold is +1.30 at 411.20
Crude Oil is -0.69 at
33.02
Volume is 549,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 649,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1587 | Up Vol 270 |
| Declining | 1507 | Down Vol 251 |
| Ratio | 1.01 | 1.08 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 339 | Up Vol 254 |
| Declining | 494 | Down Vol 366 |
| Ratio | 1.46 | 1.44 |
Top Dow stocks are:
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.09% at 24.81,
GM [GM|GM],
+1.83% at 51.37, Alcoa |AA|AA],
+1.34% at 84.51, and Honeywell [HON|HON],
+1.26% at 32.34.
Stocks in the news:
Conagra
(
CAG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on earnings news of
$3.9 billion in sales and net income of $270.1 million. It attributed the strong
income to lower selling and general expenses.
First Sentinel
(
FSLA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) agreed to be
acquired by Provident Financial Services
(
PFS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $642 million,
creating New Jersey’s eighth-largest bank. FSLA is up 15% on the news.
JP Morgan initiated coverage on XM Satellite
Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) at “overweight”. JPM said XM has the ability to introduce
new and lower-priced radios before its competitor Sirius
(
SIRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
which should give XM a competitive advantage.
Antigenics
(
AGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 5% after
receiving FDA approval to proceed with Phase III trials of its treatment for
kidney cancer.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com