Stocks Rise on Alcoa’s Bid for Rival Alcan

Stocks rose on further merger news.  The major
deal today was Alcoa’s $26.9 billion bid for rival Alcan.  AA
shares gain 6.4%, while AL shares jump 33%.

June crude futures are down 1%
to $61.29 this morning after speculation that U.S. refiners will
ramp up output ahead of the peak driving season. 

June gold futures are up 0.2% this morning to $691.20. 

Around Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 1.6%
to 17,669.83, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.3% to 20,896.64,
and South Korea’s Seoul Composite gained 1% to 1,584.46.

Today‘s

PowerRatings Heat Map
continues to display weakness across a wide range of
sectors.  These include Energy, Metals/Mining, Internet, and
Drugs. 


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

Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Bids $26.9 Billion for Rival Alcan
Inc.
(
AL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.  AA shares gain 6.4%, while AL shares jump 33%.

Armour Holdings
(
AH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Agrees To $4.1 Bln BAE Systems’
Buy Out Offer (full
story
).  AH shares 5.4%.

Liberty Mutual To Buy Ohio Casualty
(
OCAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
For
$2.7 Bln In Cash (full
story
).  OCAS shares soar 30%.

Hansen Natural
(
HANS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q1 Gross Sales Rise 37.6%,
Beats Consensus; Plans To File Form 10-Qs, 10-K Soon (full
story
).  HANS shares drop 2.6%.

Constellation Brands
(
STZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
To Buyback 16.9 Mln
Shares; Confirms FY08 EPS View (full
story
).  STZ shares rise 2.5%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

+36.73 13,301.35

NASDAQ

+3.67 2,575.82

S&P 500

+3.88 1,509.50

 

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

980,743,000 657,628,000

Advances

1809 1439

Declines

1236 1452

Up Volume

545 351

Down Volume

317 235

New Highs

239 132

New Lows

10 27


   



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

Nasdaq Insurance Index (INSRX) GSTI Internet Index (GIN)
Amex Airline Index (XAL) Dow Jones Internet Commerce Index (ECM)
Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI) Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index (XBD)


Economic
News

No economic reports
released today.

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com