Microsoft May Buy Yahoo for $50 Billion

U.S. stocks are making fresh highs as talks of a
potential buyout of Yahoo! by Microsoft are circulating. 
Jobs data came in lower this morning, but investors are hoping
that will lead to Fed rate cuts later this year.

June crude futures are trading
flat this morning at $63.17 a barrel. 

June gold futures are up 1.2% to $692.80 an ounce.

Around Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
Index added 0.8% to close at 20,841.08, Tokyo’s Nikkei Index
finished unchanged at 17,394.92.

Today‘s

PowerRatings Heat Map
has started to show price action that is bearish,
especially after the broad market rallied over the past few sessions.  The sector with the highest amount of low PowerRatings
stocks is the Diversified Services sector and should be avoided.


Click here to see our new list of indicators that includes

Gaps Down 5% or More
,

2-Period RSI Below 2
,

Stocks Up 10% or More
.  Historically proven edges make
these a great place to start making a watch list.
 


Stocks in
Motion

Reports of Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Looking to Buy Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Sends YHOO shares flying.  YHOO shares are up 17.7%, while MSFT
shares fall by 1.5%.

Wells Fargo
(
WFC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
To
Acquire Greater Bay Bancorp
(
GBBK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
In $1.5 Bln Stock-for-stock Deal
(full
story
).  WFC shares are up 0.2%, while GBBK shares fall by 5.3%.

Reuters
(
RTRSY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Attract Buyers (full
story
).  RTRSY shares jump 25%.

Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q2 Earnings Rise, Meet Estimate;
Backs FY07 Views (full
story
).  SBUX shares lose 2.7%.

Hovnanian
(
HOV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Sees Wider Loss In Q2; Home
Deliveries Drop 30% (full
story
).  HOV shares fall 3%.

Weyerhaeuser
(
WY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Swings To Profit In Q1 On Domtar
Deal; To Explore Options For Containerboard Business (full
story
).  WY shares jump over 6%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+31.28 13,272.66

NASDAQ

+9.43 2,575.04

S&P 500

+5.42 1,507.81

 

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

1,116,154,000 942,836,000

Advances

1796 1555

Declines

1208 1281

Up Volume

652 592

Down Volume

322 272

New Highs

248 148

New Lows

10 35


   



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

GSTI Internet Index (GIN) GSTI Services Index (GSV)
Dow Jones Internet Commerce Index (ECM) Dow Jones Equity REIT Index (DJR)
CBOE Internet Index (INX) S&P Retail Index (RLX)


Economic
News

Unemployment Rate
4.5% vs 4.5% consensus

Nonfarm Payrolls 88K vs 100K
consensus

Hourly Earnings +0.2% vs +0.3% consensus

Average Workweek 33.8 vs 33.8 consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com