Monday, May 24, 1999
Markets
Investors unsheathed their ugly sticks today, beating up on stocks like kids at a pinata party. When the blindfolds came off, things didn't look pretty.
The damage was diffused among all the major proxies. The
Nasdaq Composite Index
plummeted 66.50 to 2453.64; the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
sank 174.61 to 10,654.67; the
gave up 23.64 to close at 1306.65; the smallish-cap
Russell 2000
lost 8.75 to 440.39; and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index backed up 46.70 to 576.68.
Transports got hammered, as did the banks amid serious downgrades of sector giants (see below).
The
may adopt a second, late trading session as early as July to compete with upstart electronic communications networks, according to exchange Chairman
Richard Grasso
. The NYSE had said it wouldn't extend trading hours before June 2000.
With most European markets closed for a holiday, the lonely London
FTSE
gave back early gains to finish down 0.5%. Asian markets were strong overnight, as Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
picked up 164.72, or 1.3%, to 12,436.86, and Tokyo's
Nikkei
added 97.51 to 16,390.49.
For more markets action and news, click
here.
Companies
Privately held rail and auto parts maker
Amsted Industries
started a $35-a-share tender offer for rival
Varlen
undefined
.
Avis Rent A Car
(AVI)
is tripling its fleet by buying
Cendant's
(CD) - Get Free Report
PHH
vehicle-leasing unit in a deal valued at $1.8 billion.
Coca-Cola
(KO) - Get Free Report
struck a new agreement with Britain's
Cadbury Schweppes
(CSG)
to buy the U.K. beverage company's soft drink brands in more than 100 countries, excluding
European Union
nations other than the U.K., Ireland and Greece. The deal is worth $1.1 billion, while the original deal, which the companies scrapped because of concerns that the EU would veto the deal on antitrust grounds, included Cadbury's brands worldwide and carried a price tag of $1.8 billion.
Not mincing any ratings,
Credit Suisse First Boston
downgraded
Chase Manhattan
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,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Free Report
,
Bank One
undefined
and
J.P. Morgan
(JPM) - Get Free Report
to sell from hold.
The
New York Times
(NYT) - Get Free Report
is consolidating its Internet operations -- consisting of nearly 50 web sites -- in a new unit called
Times Company Digital
.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
(RMCF) - Get Free Report
urged its shareholders to reject
Whitman's Candies'
unsolicited tender offer of $5.75 a share, calling it "inadequate."
For more news on companies and stocks, click
here.
Tech
barnesandnoble.com
(BNBN:Nasdaq) has raised its IPO price range to $16 to $18 from $11 to $13.
Goldman Sachs
is the offering's lead underwriter.
Custom Tracks
undefined
was surged 15, or 26.3%, to 76 after
Joseph Charles & Associates
set an interim one-year price target of 230 for the Internet payment system developer.
Online florists
ftd.com
and
1-800-Flowers
filed Friday with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
to raise $90 million and $150 million, respectively, in initial public offerings.
Business management software company
PeopleSoft
(PSFT)
named Craig Conway president and COO. He'll take over day-to-day operations from Chairman and CEO
Dave Duffield
, who will retain those posts.
Online service provider
Prodigy Communications
undefined
is teaming up with
Bell Atlantic
(BEL)
to provide high-speed Internet access in the Baby Bell's Northeastern service region. Prodigy will use Bell Atlantic's digital subscriber line technology, which transmits data 125 times faster than 56K modems.
Radisys
(RSYS) - Get Free Report
set plans to acquire fellow embedded computer systems firm
Texas Micro
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for about $115 million in stock.
For more tech news and commentary, click
here.
General News
NATO
war planes struck transformer stations in Novi Sad and Nis, a Belgrade power plant and 15 water pumps, creating what Serb authorities called a "humanitarian disaster." Separately, Russian envoy
Viktor Chernomyrdin
said that he has convinced Western officials to let some Yugoslavian troops remain in Kosovo to guard historic sites as part of a peace deal.
International
The U.K.'s
Bank of Ireland
(IRE)
and
Alliance & Leicester
said they're in talks that could lead to an $18.4 billion merger.
Olivetti
gave the final results of its 11th-hour bid for
Telecom Italia
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, saying that it had won about 51.9% of the company, a tad higher than the 51.02% announced Friday.
Britain's
Seton Scholl Healthcare
is buying
London International
undefined
, the world's largest maker of condoms, for $984 million in stock.
For more international news and commentary, click
here.
Elsewhere
What's stranger than last night's plunging death of 33-year-old Canadian wrestler
Owen "Blue Blazer" Hart
? This is: A woman on board a Chinese express train yesterday gave sudden birth to her first child while sitting on the toilet. Screaming, she tore off the umbilical cord -- and watched the infant slip through the pipes and out bouncing onto the rails. It astonishingly suffered only minor cuts and bruises, and was retrieved by three security guards who happened upon the spectacle. Naturally, the guards had to defer the rescue until a close-following train had finished speeding over the child.
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