Year-End Acquisition
Stocks
are lower today.
Shipping carrier FedEx
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced
plans to purchase copy center operator Kinko’s for $2.4 billion in cash. The
acquisition is expected to boost FedEx’s small-business customer base. FedEx
currently has 134 shipping centers at Kinko’s and is expected to expand to all
1200 Kinko’s stores. The FDA is expected to ban Ephedra, citing health risks.
Ephedra accounted for 7% of dietary-supplement sales according to the
Nutrition Business Journal. The consumer confidence index dipped to 91.3 below
analysts’ consensus, due to what is believed to be a deteriorated job market.
Gold hit a 14-year high at $418 an ounce.
| Dow | -16.30 |
10433.30 |
| S&P 500 | -0.48 | 1106.43 |
| Nasdaq | -1.88 | 2004.81 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Telecoms
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.93%, Oil Services [OSX.X|OSX.X]
+0.84%, Oil
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.50%, and Utility
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.25%,
Weak today are Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.38%, and Internets
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – 1.02.
Economic news releases included
lower consumer confidence numbers at 91.3, and chain store sales up 2.0% for the
week ending Dec. 27. Chicago PMI fell to 59.2.
10-year Notes are -135
at 113 000
The dollar
is -0.29 at 87.45
Gold is +1.80 at 417.10
Crude Oil is +0.55 at
32.95
Volume is 477,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 798,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1735 | Up Vol 248 |
| Declining | 1385 | Down Vol 210 |
| Ratio | 1.31 | 1.15 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1515 | Up Vol 456 |
| Declining | 1524 | Down Vol 319 |
| Ratio | 1.01 | 1.43 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.52% at 42.69,
Coca-Cola [KO|KO],
+1.23% at 50.70, ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.61% at 40.81, and McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+0.41% at 24.70.
Stocks in the news:
ChromaVision Medical Systems
(
CVSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose by as much as 250% after the FDA approved its ACIS system, the first
imaging device cleared to detect, count, and classify the presence of the HER2
protein found in breast cancer.
Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is up 2% after landing a
$9.6 billion Navy contract to build F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters.
Shares of Trinity Biotech
(
TRIB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose
another 23% on yesterday’s FDA approval of its 10-minute HIV test. It was up
60% on Monday.
Charter One Financial
(
CF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on JP
Morgan’s “overweight” recommendation, despite possible revenue problems.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com