Friday, April 22, 1999
Markets
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Such is the sense on Wall Street heading into the weekend. Another technology and Internet rally gave the week an improbably positive tenor, making Monday's bloodletting seem a mere flesh wound in hindsight. Meanwhile, a tug of war between big-gaining
IBM
(T) - Get Report
(see below) and big-losing
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
kept the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
in shallow negative territory for most of the day.
The Dow lost 37.51 to 10,689.67; the Nasdaq gained 28.77 to 2590.38; the
S&P 500
shed 2.02 to 1356.80; the
Russell 2000
jumped another 2.88 to 431.73; and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index added 20.41 to close at 679.72.
Major European indices finished mixed, while Asian markets were split overnight. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
lost 28.24 to 12,905.30, and Japan's
Nikkei
shot up 257.37 to 16,923.25.
The
National Association of Securities Dealers
yesterday called off the proposed combination of its
American Stock Exchange
with the
Philadelphia Stock Exchange
;
TSC
had a hard time finding anyone
who cares.
For more markets action and news, click
here.
Companies
AT&T made an unsolicited $62 billion takeover offer for cable company
MediaOne Group
(UMG)
; the offer is a 17% premium over the current value of the existing merger agreement between MediaOne and
Comcast
(CMCSK)
.
TSC
took a hard look at
AT&T's strategy this morning.
Conoco
(COC)
filed an application to open an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where foreign oil companies have been barred since 1973. The company said it hopes to open the office by the middle of this year.
Broadband communications company
Cox Communications
(COX)
yesterday set plans to acquire
Media General's
(MEGA)
cable systems in Fairfax County and Fredericksburg, Va., for about $1.4 billion.
General Motors
Vice Chairman
Harry Pearce
said today that rumors that
Jack Smith
will retire as chairman are unfounded.
A
Food and Drug Administration
advisory panel yesterday unanimously voted to recommend approval of
SmithKline Beecham's
(SBH) - Get Report
diabetes drug
Avandia
.
TSC
last night
weighed the recommendation's impact on
Warner-Lambert's
(WLA)
Rezulin
.
For more news on companies and stocks, click
here.
Tech
E*Trade
(EGRP)
set plans this morning for a 2-for-1 stock split for shareholders of record May 7.
Two Internet firms are flying today in their first day of trading. Offered at $14 a share, shares of marketing software maker
Net Perceptions
(NETP)
traded as high as 35 and closed at 29 13/16; music Web site
Launch Media
(LAUN)
, priced at $22 a share, finished at 28 3/8 after hitting an intraday high of 36 11/16.
IBM isn't done yet. Shares of Big Blue surged on the heels of yesterday's 13% gain, closing up 5 1/4 to 199 3/4.
For more tech news and commentary, click
here.
General News
In Washington to commemorate
NATO's
50th anniversary,
President Clinton
and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
rejected Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's
offer to accept a
U.N.
-controlled "international presence" in Kosovo if NATO stops its air campaign and removes its troops from Yugoslavia's borders. Meanwhile, NATO struck the headquarters of Serbia's state television station today, taking it off the air.
President Clinton authorized the drawing of $1.5 million from the federal
Crime Victims' Fund
to help victims of the Littleton, Colo., shooting pay for such expenses as funerals and medical bills.
International
Hyundai Group
, South Korea's largest
chaebol
, today set plans to halve its debt and eliminate two-thirds of its units, cutting them to 26 from 62. Specifically, the group said it is trying to spin off
Hyundai Oil Refinery
and sell
Inchon Iron & Steel
. In the meantime, however, Hyundai is buying
LG Group's LG Semicon
chip unit for about $2.13 billion in stock and cash.
For more international news and commentary, click
here.
Elsewhere
Last night millions of Americans kicked off
National TV Turnoff Week
in the usual fashion, stupefied before a mind-bogglingly rich menu of comic and melodramatic stylings. Those observing the holiday will have their mettle tested during
Fox's
Tuesday "Da Boom" programming block, a veritable "Amen Corner" of network broadcasting.
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really
dumb question? Even better. Send it to
MonEmailbag@thestreet.com, and I'll do my best to answer every Saturday. Include your full name, and please, no questions seeking personal financial advice or regarding personal brokerage disputes. And this reminder: Because of the volume of mail, personal replies can't be guaranteed.
Click
here to read last Saturday's MonEmailbag.
