Stocks Mixed, Mergers In Focus

• September 12, 2005
• Brice Wightman

Stocks were mixed Monday, with
the Nasdaq showing relative strength on several acquisitions.
Lower oil also helped drive stocks, with oil closing
down 0.74 at 63.34.

EBay
(
EBAY |
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PowerRating) confirmed last
week’s speculation and said it would buy internet phone company Skype for up to
$4.1 billion. Oracle
(
ORCL |
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PowerRating)
is buying Siebel for $5.85 billion, or $10.66/share. Siebel’s board voted
in favor for the transaction, which is expected to close in early 2006.

Ford is selling its Hertz unit to
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch for about $15
billion.

Campbell Soup
(
CPB |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.02.

Citigroup
(
C |
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PowerRating) was upgraded to overweight
at Prudential.

RenaissanceRe
(
RNR |
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PowerRating) said it won’t meet its previous forecast, citing Katrina.

Harry & David set its IPO price between
$13 -$15. Proposed symbol: HND.

Strong Sectors were:   Airlines 
(
XAL |
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News |
PowerRating)
+2.74%     Brokers 

(
XBD |
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News |
PowerRating) +1.11%    
 

Weak sectors were:   Oil Services 

(
OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.65%     Oil 
(
OIX |
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News |
PowerRating)
-2.29%      

Dow	+4.38	10,682.94
Nasdaq	+7.32	2182.83
S&P 500	-0.92	1240.56

Stocks in the news:

Books-A-Million

(
BAMM |
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News |
PowerRating)

lowered its Q3 and fiscal 2006 forecast.

A New York Times article discussed solar power stocks, such as
Evergreen Solar

(
ESLR |
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PowerRating), DayStar

(
DSTI |
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News |
PowerRating), Spire

(
SPIR |
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News |
PowerRating).

Intersections

(
INTX |
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PowerRating) was the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s this weekend.

Brice Wightman