Positive Day

Greg Che is on
vacation. Duke Heberlein is writing Stock Market Recap in his absence.

The U.S. stock market enjoyed its first day in the green in four sessions,
lifted by a $58 billion  offer of AT&T’s cable arm by Comcast and the
strength of Nasdaq proxies Qualcomm
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and Oracle
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.

The Dow Jones Industrials fell slightly off their intraday high, but managed
to end at 10,299.40, up 46.72. The Nasdaq Composite fared a little better, still
slipping late in the session but gaining 22.55 to 2026.71, a gain of more than
1%. The S&Ps added 8.19 to close at 1198.78.

Early in the trading day it appeared that the offer for the cable division of
AT&T
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by Comcast Cable
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might provide the
impetus for the rally traders were desperately looking for, yet it never
materialized completely amid speculation the offer was not nearly enough for
AT&T to sign to deal. Some analysts suspected AT&T of holding out for a
bigger offer, which could have been the reason Comcast shares dropped 7.1 on the
rumor, losing 2.98 to 39.30, while AT&T gained 1.98 to finish at 18.70.

Qualcomm
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was aided by a bullish upgrade from SG
Cowan from a buy to strong buy, and consequently rose 3.54 to 61.72, a gain of
almost 7%. The analyst making the call, Scott Searle, added an 18-month
price target at $114 per share for the wireless giant.

Oracle
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was one the biggest volume issues on the Nasdaq
Monday, with over 32 million shares changing hands. The stock gained almost 4%
on the day and was a leader of the software group, as several issues attracted
buyers in Monday’s session. BEA Systems
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added 1.83 to 28.02.

International Gaming Technology’s
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bid for Anchor Gaming
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pushed Anchor’s stock upward. The pure stock swap valued around $1.3
billion would create a merger capable of producing estimated yearly revenues of
over $2 billion. IGT fell early on the news, yet recovered nicely to finish only
down 0.08 at 59.12.

In negative news, Corning
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announced plans to shut down three
plants and lay off 1,000 workers in addition to taking a $5.1 billion pretax hit
on its books. The stock was hammered for a 6.25% loss from its intraday high
after the announcement, ending the session at 15.10.

Looking ahead, two economic reports are due for release on Tuesday: the
Richmond Fed manufacturing survey for June and the Wholesale Trade {MWTR) report
for May, both at 10:00 AM EDT.