Stocks Close Higher After Turbulent Session
04/23/08 - 05:51 PM EDT
Sarina Penn
Shipping-services firm UPS (UPS Quote - Cramer on UPS - Stock Picks) brought down its full-year forecast on broader economic worries while reporting an in-line first-quarter profit, and shares finished down 23 cents to $71.67.
Despite the deflating broad indices, however, Treasury prices continued to back off recently. The 10-year note was down 11/32 in price to yield 3.73%, and the 30-year bond sank 23/32 in price, yielding 4.49%. Among commodities, crude oil reversed earlier gains, ticking up 23 cents to $118.30 a barrel, even after the Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles rose by 2.4 million barrels last week. Gold futures settled off $16.20 to $909 an ounce. The U.S. dollar firmed against both the euro and the yen as the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, tacked on 0.7%. Back in equities, Safeco (SAF Quote - Cramer on SAF - Stock Picks) catapulted by 45.8% after agreeing to sell itself to Liberty Mutual for $6.2 billion, or $68.25 a share, in cash. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK Quote - Cramer on GSK - Stock Picks) agreed to take out Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (SIRT Quote - Cramer on SIRT - Stock Picks) for $720 million, bringing Sirtris stock up 81.9%. GlaxoSmith also outran first-quarter earnings estimates along with fellow health-care names Schering-Plough (SGP Quote - Cramer on SGP - Stock Picks) and Genzyme (GENZ Quote - Cramer on GENZ - Stock Picks). Shares were up between 2% and 6.6%. Similarly for health-care information provider Cerner (CERN Quote - Cramer on CERN - Stock Picks), which leaped 17.7% on stronger-than-expected earnings last quarter and above-par guidance for the full year. Health insurer WellPoint (WLP Quote - Cramer on WLP - Stock Picks) came in under Street targets and projected soft results for the full year, but shares were still better by 7.3%. The major overseas markets were mostly higher. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ticked up 0.2% overnight, and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong spiked 1.4%. As for Europe, matters improved after early strength in U.S. shares, and London's FTSE 100 reversed to add 0.8%. Germany's Xetra Dax was up 1%, and the Paris Cac climbed 1.5%.
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