Here’s How These Internet Search Engines Are Bulking Up
Stocks are
flat today on a mix of economic news.
Monthly income figures rose twice as fast as savings, with personal income
increasing by 0.4% and personal spending at 2%. Michigan Sentiment numbers were
revised higher to 95.8.
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating) is
paying $576 million for a European comparison site Kelkoo in a deal which
allows both companies to expand their global outreach and online marketing
services. Infospace
(
INSP |
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PowerRating) is acquiring rival Switchboard
(
SWBD |
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PowerRating)
for $160 million, a 28% premium over Thursday’s closing price. The combined
company will account for 25% of online yellow-pages searches.
Lehman Brothers upgraded the
oil and gas sectors on continued increases in demand forecasts and a steady rise
in prices. Analyst Thomas Driscoll also raised his 2004 oil price outlook for
West Texas Intermediate crude to $32 a barrel and 2005 forecasts to $28 from
$23. His natural gas forecasts were 25 cents per BTU for 2004 and he added
another 50 cents to 2005 forecasts at $4.75 BTUs.
| Dow | +17.78 |
10236.34 |
| S&P 500 |
+2.84 | 1112.01 |
| Nasdaq | +3.12 | 1970.29 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
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PowerRating) +3.20%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.48%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.27%, and Internet
(
ECM.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.20%.
Weak today are REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.59%, and Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.47%,
Economic news releases today
included better-than-expected personal income of +0.4%and lower personal
spending of +0.2%. Michigan sentiment was revised higher to 95.8.
10-year Notes are 180 at
115 150
The dollar
is +0.06 at 89.38
Gold is +3.90 at 420.80
Crude Oil is down
0.45Â at 34.35
The euro
is +0.08 at 121.09
Volume is 620,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 790,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSEÂ | Issues | Â |
| Advancing | 1834 | Up Vol      400 |
| Declining | 1240 | Down Vol  183 |
| Ratio | 1.49 | 2.21 |
| Nasdaq |  |  |
| Advancing | 1660 | Up Vol     513 |
| Declining | 1293 | Down Vol 218 |
| Ratio | 1.29 | 2.82 |
Top Dow stocks are:
General Electric
(
GE |
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Chart |
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PowerRating),
+3.03% at 30.59, Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.41% at 44.32, General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.38% at 46.23, and ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.39 at 44.30.
Stocks in the news:
Continental Airlines
(
CAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
decided to raise fuel surcharge fees by 50% as a result of much higher fuel
costs. New surcharges will cost passengers $15 for a one-way ticket or $30 for a
roundtrip ticket on top of various taxes. Last year, CAL’s fuel bill exceeded $1
billion.
SI International
(
SINT |
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PowerRating)
shot up 20% on its $800 million contract with the Air Force Space Command and an
upgrade from Jefferies.
E-Trade
(
ET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will replace
FleetBoston Financial
(
FBF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on the S&P 500 list starting April due to
the FBF’s Merger with Bank of America.
Grocer Albertsons
(
ABS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will purchase the Shaws division of J Sainsbury for $2.5 billion. The move will
enable Sainsbury to invest more in the UK and better compete against Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Morrison.