Merger Monday! Here’s Who’s Involved

  • June 6, 2005
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks are higher on merger news.  Is
CEO behavior a good predictor for stocks? Traders think so, and point to the
strong M&A activity this year, implying plenty of cash as well as CEO
confidence. Stock buybacks and dividend increases have also been strong this
year

Washington Mutual
(
WM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is buying Providian in a $6.45
billion deal.

Catellus is being acquired by Prologis [PLD|{LD] 3.6 billion

Precision Drilling
(
PDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is selling its energy services division
to Weatherford in a $2.3 billion deal.

The Wall Street Journal  said Agilent
(
A |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is selling its
semiconductor products division; the sale could fetch $1.5 – $2 billion.

Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to switch to Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
chips, dumping IBM. The move is expected to save money on the McIntosh line.  

Oil is near a 6-week high; copper continues its rally. 

Strong sectors are:  Internets
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.83%   Gold
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.75%    REITs
(
$DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.65%    

      

Weak sectors are:    Disk
Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.45%    Semiconductors

(
$GSM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.20%     Networking
(
$GIP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.04%

Dow -15.30 10,445.67
Nasdaq -4.06 2067.37
S&P 500 -2.50 1193.52

The dollar is -0.47 at
87.57

Crude Oil is -0.51 at
54.52

Gold is +2.80 at 426.30

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 457 million on the NYSE and
677 million on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1444 Up Vol 179
Declining 1630 Down Vol 273
0.88 0.65
Nasdaq
Advancing 1265 Up Vol 256
Declining 1590 Down Vol 421
0.79 0.60

Stocks in the News

FuelCell Energy
(
FCEL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.06 but revenues were light.

Taser
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) customers will be subject to a 24-hour waiting
period–the same as gun buyers. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed the
legislation on Friday, which goes into effect January 1.

The Wall Street Journal reports Earthlink
(
ELNK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will
offer Internet calling on regular phones.

Teva Pharmaceuticals
(
TEVA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sadi Q4 earnings will we lower
because of a ruling which prevents it from selling the generic version of Abbot
Labs’ Biaxin.

ATI Technologies
(
ATYT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) slashed its sales guidance for Q3 and Q4.

ETrade is sweetening its offer for Ameritrade.

Brice Wightman

 

 

 

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