Stocks Hit Fresh Highs on Wave of New M&A Deals

  • May 4, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The major indices pushed to new highs after reports
that Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) may be going after Yahoo!

(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a $50 billion buyout.   MSFT shares
lost 1.4%, while YHOO shares added 10% in today’s session.

June crude futures closed down
2.1% to $61.89 a barrel. 
June gold futures finished the day higher by 0.8% to $689.70. 
The price of gold continued to rise against the falling dollar.

Around Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100
Index gained 1% to close at 6,603.70, France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1% to
6,068.83, and Germany’s DAX rose 0.5% to 7,516.76.

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. MSFT shares lost 1.4%, while YHOO shares
added 10% in today’s session.

Nokia
(
NOK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Siemens
(
SI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Networks Plans To Axe 9,000 Jobs; Jobs Cuts Initially
Planned In Germany, Finland (full
story). NOK shares dropped 1%, while SI shares fell 0.7%.

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 added 0.2%, while GBBK shares fell by 5.5%.

Reuters
(
RTRSY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Attract Buyers (full
story).  RTRSY shares jumped 27%.

Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q2 Earnings Rise, Meet Estimate;
Backs FY07 Views (full
story).  SBUX shares lost 3%.

Hovnanian
(
HOV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Sees Wider Loss In Q2; Home
Deliveries Drop 30% (full
story).  HOV shares fell 4.2%.

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

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +23.24 13,264.62

NASDAQ

 +6.69 2,572.15

S&P 500

 +3.23 1,505.62

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,692,366,000 2,177,044,000

Advances

 1759 1614

Declines

 1412 1434

Up Volume

 1410 1196

Down Volume

 992 757

New Highs

 299 188

New Lows

 19 53


   



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) Amex Networking Index (NWX)


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