Stocks in U.S. Tick Higher at the Open
Updated from 8:26 a.m. EDT
Stocks in the U.S. were edging higher at the open Tuesday as traders at least temporarily looked past mixed news on the corporate front and another report revealing plunging housing prices.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was up 10 points to 12,490, and the
S&P 500
added a point at 1377. The
Nasdaq Composite
climbed 5 points at 2450.
The moves came even though the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indicated that prices of U.S. homes tumbled 14.1% nationwide last quarter, a record decline for the 20-year-old index.
A bit later, investors will be looking for fresh clues on the state of the American consumer as the Conference Board puts out its May consumer-confidence numbers. The report is due at 10 a.m., as are new-home-sales data from the Commerce Department.
On the companies side,
Infineon Technologies
(IFX)
announced after the German market closed Monday that CEO Wolfgang Ziebart
has resigned
"due to different opinions on the future strategic orientation of the company." The chip company said Peter Bauer, a member of the management board, will assume the role of spokesman for that body.
Also departing will be the chief of Britain-based
Vodafone
(VOD) - Get Report
, which preliminarily announced that its full-year adjusted operating profit climbed 5.7% to $19.9 billion on a 14.1% jump in sales. CEO Arun Sarin will step down in July and be replaced by Vittorio Colao.
Elsewhere, a Belgian business paper reported that
InBev
, a beer giant based in Belgium, could start merger negotiations with Budweiser purveyor
Anheuser-Busch
(BUD) - Get Report
as early as today. On Friday, the
Financial Times
said it was preparing a bid worth $46 billion, or $65 a share.
In the prior session, stocks capped off a losing week with another slide as oil got back on an upward track and dismal news surfaced on the corporate front. In the end, the Dow plunged 146 points to 12,480, and the S&P 500 lost 18 points to 1376. The Nasdaq shed 20 points at 2445.
As for analyst actions, Bank of America and Bernstein each slashed second-quarter bottom-line estimates for
Lehman Brothers
(LEH)
,
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Report
and
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
, with each analyst citing concerns about more writedowns. BofA cut Lehman's target, in particular, to a loss from a prior profit expectation.
Elsewhere, Citigroup upped
American Axle
(AXL) - Get Report
to buy from hold after Friday's news that striking workers at the company had finally voted to accept an amended employment agreement and go back to work. The three-month strike had idled several
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
plants, as American Axle is one of GM's main parts suppliers.
GM, on the other hand, was cut to hold from buy at Citi. The automaker said Friday that the strike had cost it $1.8 billion before taxes in the second quarter.
Separately, KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded oil-and-gas name
Newfield Exploration
(NFX)
to buy from hold, and
Knight Transportation
(KNX) - Get Report
was lifted to outperform at Wachovia.
Among commodities, crude oil was down $2.16 to $130.93 a barrel, and gold futures were losing $15.90 to $909.90 an ounce. The U.S. dollar firmed by 0.1% against the euro at $1.5756 and tacked on 0.4% against the yen to 103.80.
Treasury prices were falling. The 10-year note was off 5/32 in price to yield 3.86%, and the 30-year bond sank 15/32 in price, yielding 4.60%.
Foreign markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo bounced 1.5% overnight, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed by 0.6%. In Europe, however, the FTSE 100 and Germany's Xetra Dax each surrendered 0.4%. The Paris Cac slid 0.8%.