Merger Monday — Here’s Where The Action Is
Stocks
are flat on light volume. Juniper Networks
(
JNPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire NetScreen
(
NSCN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a stock deal worth
about $4 billion. Juniper will swap
1.404 of its shares for each NetScreen share.
NSCN is a leading developer of network security and
is expected to assist Juniper in providing better security for its products. PeopleSoft
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rejected Oracle’s
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) $9.4 billion takeover bid, as
it believes it is worth more. Vodafone
(
VOD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) wants to acquire AT&T
Wireless
(
AWE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). According to a report from the Sunday
Telegraph, Vodafone may bid as much as $40 billion for AT&T while
Cingular Wireless
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) offered about $30 billion. At the G7 meeting,
finance ministers acknowledged that excess volatility and disorderly movements
in exchange rates were undesirable, implying the dollar’s fall against the euro
was overdone.
| Dow | +4.58 | 10597.76 |
| S&P 500 |
+0.44 | 1143.13 |
| Nasdaq | +7.95 | 2071.94 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.57%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.74%, Oil
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.35%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.22%,
and Disk Drive
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.88%,
Weak today are Health Care
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.58% and Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.57% .
Economic news releases included
Wholesale Inventories up 0.6% from a consensus of 0.3%,
10-year Notes are +75
at 114 080
The dollar
is +0.01 at 86.21
Gold is +2.60 at 406.80
Crude Oil is -0.04 at
31.70
Volume is 566,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 855,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1829 | Up Vol 324 |
| Declining | 1305 | Down Vol 222 |
| Ratio | 1.38 | 1.46 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1802 | Up Vol 470 |
| Declining | 1240 | Dow Vol 356 |
| Ratio | 1.49 | 1.31 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Eastman Kodak [EK|EK],
+2.02% at 29.98, Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.92% at 51.97, ExxonMobil [XOM|XOM],
+1.03% at 40.64, and General Motors [GM|GM]
+0.72% at 49.01.
Stocks in the news:
Boyd Gaming
(
BYD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will merge with
Coast Casinos for about $1.3 billion. Combined, both companies would have
revenue of $2 billion.
InterActive
(
IACI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of $153 million or 20 cents, due to higher depreciation costs and
increased outstanding shares. Revenue rose by 36% to $1.81 billion with strength
in its travel business.
ITT
(
ITT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a deal to
purchase Eastman Kodak’s remote sensing systems unit for $725 million. Kodak is
expected to post a $475 million gain from the sale.
Cypress Semiconductor
(
CY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported first-quarter pro forma earnings of 18 cents a share on revenue of $250
million. Higher demand for its WiFi and USB 2.0 products contributed to the
positive quarter.