Markets Drop, Big Drug Study Fails, Icahn Quits Yahoo! Proxy Fight

  • July 21, 2008
  • David Goodboy

Stock indexes dropped across the board today on higher oil prices, profit taking, and drug makers earnings. The DJIA fell -29.23 to 11467.34, the Nasdaq gave back -3.25 to 2279.53 and the S&P 500 dipped -0.68 to 1260.00.

Yahoo!
(
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PowerRating) fell 3.43% or $0.77 to $21.68/share on news that Carl Icahn has quit his proxy fight for Yahoo in exchange for three board seats for himself and assigns.

Genentech
(
DNA |
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PowerRating) surged 14.51% or $11.87 to $93.69 on a mega buyout offer from Roche.

Badger Meter
(
BMI |
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PowerRating) advanced 9.53% or $4.89 to $56.19/share to an all time high after beating analysts estimates.

Merck
(
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PowerRating) collapsed 6.24% or $2.35 to $35.33/share after study showed cholesterol pill does not work for heart valve disease.

Oil climbed $2.74 to $131.62/barrel, Gold added $5.70 to $963.70/oz and the VIX fell 4.20% to 23.04.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -29.23 11467.34

NASDAQ

 -3.25 2279.53

S&P 500

 -0.68 1260.00

Economic
News

NY Empire State Index (Jul): Consensus -8.0, Consensus -8.7

Retail Sales (Jun): Consensus 0.4%, Prior 0.8%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Jun): Consensus 0.9%, Prior 0.8%

PPI (Jun): Consensus 1.3%, Prior 1.4%

Core PPI (Jun): Consensus 0.3%, Prior 0.2%

Business Inventories (May): Consensus 0.5%, Prior 0.5%

Core CPI (Jun): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.2%

CPI (Jun): Consensus 0.7%, Prior 0.6%

Net Foreign Purchases (May): Consensus $65.0B, Prior $115.1B

Capacity Utilization (Jun): Consensus 79.4%, Prior 79.4%

Industrial Production (Jun): Consensus 0.0%, Prior -0.2%

Crude Inventories (07/12): Consensus NA, Prior -5840K

FOMC Minutes (Jun 25)

Building Permits (Jun): Consensus 965K, Prior 969K

Housing Starts (Jun): Consensus 960K, Prior 975K

Initial Claims (07/12): Consensus 380K, Prior 346K

Philadelphia Fed (Jun): Consensus -15.0, Prior -17.1

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