Merger Monday! Here’s Who’s Involved
Stocks are higher on merger activity.
Duke Energy
(
DUK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is buying Cinergy [
(
CIN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Duke will
swap 1.56 shares of its common stock for each Cinergy share.
Ameritrade
(
AMTD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and ETrade
(
ET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are both trading
higher on merger speculation. The Wall Street Journal reports that ETrade
has expressed an interest in buying Ameritrade. Trader talk: the deal talk mans
that business is slow in retail trading. A study by Forrester Research said that
falling commission prices will eventually lead to zero-profit online trades.
McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) U.S. same store sales rose 4.7%; globally, sales
rose 2.8%.
Hillenbrand
(
HB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed and cut ’05 estimates.
King Pharmaceuticals
(
KG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat for Q1.
A NYSE seat holder–William Higgins–filed suit to block the merger between
the NYSE and Archipelago.
Strong sectors are: Â Brokers
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.29%Â Â Â
Oil ServicesÂ
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.42%Â Â Â
Weak sectors are:Â Internet
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.25%Â
Computer Hardware
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.14%Â Â
| Dow | +11.53 | 10,356.93 |
| Nasdaq | +2.86 | 1970.21 |
| S&P 500 | +3.57 | 1174.92 |
The dollar is -0.03 at
84.58
Crude Oil is +0.24 at
51.20
Gold is -0.50 at 426
1.52 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1895 | Up Vol 496 |
| Declining | 1165 | Down Vol 176 |
| 1.62 | 2.81 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1576 | Up Vol 373 |
| Declining | 1272 | Down Vol 205 |
| 1.23 | 1.81 |
Brice Wightman