This Deal Changes The Drugstore Landscape

Stocks are
continuing their upward momentum
with the
indices finding support above their 50-day moving averages.

Mandalay Resort Group
(
MBG |
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expects higher first-quarter earnings from
increased Las Vegas room bookings– more than $1.10 a share on reported
occupancy rates of 80% and an average nightly room rate of $240. Siebel
Systems

(
SEBL |
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raised its first-quarter earnings to $28 million on
higher-than-expected software licensing revenue which is expected to be 13%
higher. Three transactions exceeded $5 million.

JC Penney

(
JPC |
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is selling Eckerds to Canadian drugstore chain Jean
Coutu and CVS Corp
(
CVS |
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for $4.5 billion, making CVS the biggest
drugstore ahead of Walgreen
(
WAG |
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Dow
+24.30

10495.40
S&P 500
+1.58
1143.39
Nasdaq +5.20
2062.43

The day’s leading sectors are
Healthcare

(
HMO.X |
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  +3.59%, Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
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+1.08%,
Insurance

(
IUX.X |
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News |
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+0.93%, and Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.83%.

Weak today are REITs
(
DJR.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

-4.37%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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-2.61%,

Economic news releases today
included better-than-expected ISM services at 65.8.

10-year Notes are -140
at 112 160

The dollar
is +0.80 at 89.65

Gold is -5.60 at 416.00

Crude Oil is -0.17 at
33.70

Volume is 620,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 822,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
1196 Up Vol    
289
Declining 1995 Down Vol  312
Ratio 1.67 1.06
Nasdaq
Advancing
1550 Up Vol    496
Declining
1503 Down Vol 300
Ratio 1.03 1.65

Top Dow stocks are:

SBC Communications
(
SBC |
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+1.53% at 25.25, General Motors
(
GM |
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+1.00% at 47.06, General
Electric

(
GE |
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PowerRating)
, +0.99% at 31.37, and Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
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News |
PowerRating)

+0.99% at 23.30.

Stocks in the news:

General Electric
(
GE |
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said it would use
Critical Path’s
(
CPTH |
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PowerRating)
identity management software for its 400,000
employees. Shares of CPTH soared 60%.

Nortel
(
NT |
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PowerRating)
said the SEC has
launched a formal investigation into the restatement of its financial results.

Cigna
(
CI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
upped its
first-quarter earnings forecasts to $260 million and $750 million for the full
year, citing better-than-expected performance from its healthcare business.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com