Monday, Sept. 13, 1999
After-Hours Markets
Last Trades on Island ECN
BMCS: 67 7/16 at 4:03 p.m. EDT.
CSCO: 70 11/16 at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
INTC: 84 1/2 at 4:32 p.m. EDT.
MarketXT, formerly Eclipse Trading, offers after-hours trading to retail clients of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's (MWD) Discover Brokerage and Mellon Bank's (MEL) Dreyfus Brokerage Services. Clients can trade 200 of the most actively traded New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market issues, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT Monday through Thursday. Island ECN offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT.
TheStreet.com
updates the most active issues on both MarketXT and Island ECN in Got a Minute? and in the Evening Update.
TSC
also reports how MarketXT's three most active Nasdaq-listed issues finished the Island ECN session
.
--
Eric Gillin
Day-Session Report
Stocks closed modestly lower after a day of choppy trading had major proxies going in narrow, negative circles. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
eeked out a positive 1.3-point gain to 11,029 in the final minutes of trading, while the
Nasdaq Composite Index
was looking a little rough around the edges after recent upturns, ending the day down 42.3 to 2844.
The big European indices closed lower, with France's
CAC
down 28.7, or 0.6%, to 4716.78. Germany's
Xetra Dax
lost 37.04, or 0.7%, to 5446.91, and London's
FTSE
slipped 22 to 6169.0
Asian markets closed higher as Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
rose 4.92 to 13,860.85, and Tokyo's
Nikkei
jumped 198.27, or 1.1%, to 17,909.29.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures
Bell Atlantic
(BEL)
confirmed it is in talks with
Vodafone AirTouch
(VOD) - Get Report
to consolidate the companies' U.S. cellular phone operations,
The New York Times
reported Sunday. An agreement would create a U.S. network capable of rivaling
Sprint
(PCS)
and
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
.
Grupo Sanborns
, the Mexican retail unit of empire magnate Carlos Slim, paid $86.4 million for a 14.1% stake in
CompUSA
(CPU)
.
Harbinger
(HRBC)
signed an e-commerce pact with
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
which will market its software for translation and mapping.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
(LVMHY)
agreed to buy
TAG Heuer International
(THW) - Get Report
for $745.6 million.
Mark IV Industries
(IV)
sold its
Percolator Industrial Filters
unit to
Clarcor
(CLC)
for $144.8 million. Mark IV said it will use the proceeds to retire high-cost debt and repurchase common stock.
Motorola
(MOT)
is in talks to acquire
General Instrument
(GIC)
in an all-stock deal worth about $10 billion,
The Wall Street Journal
reported. Under the deal, each General Instrument common share would be exchanged for little more than half of a Motorola share. The proposed merger is aimed at giving the companies a presence in the broadband market, which provides high-speed access for interactive voice, data and video service over cable-TV lines. Separately, Motorola reiterated its earnings outlook, saying it is comfortable in stating that it will earn $2 a share in 1999.
Total Fina
(TOT) - Get Report
agreed to acquire
Elf Aquitaine
(ELF) - Get Report
for $54.24 billion in stock, a move that puts an end to the noisy French fracas and will create the world's fourth-largest oil company. Elf agreed to the terms after Total Fina raised the offer from an initial $45 billion hostile bid made in early July.
Earnings/Revenue Reports and Previews
Computer Task Group
(TSK)
said it expects earnings and revenue for the rest of the year to fall below analyst expectations. The company said the shortfall is due to an industrywide reduction in information-technology spending. Computer Task said it expects to report annual earnings of $1.13 to $1.17 a share for the year, compared with an expected $1.50 a share.
Hain Food
(HAIN) - Get Report
reported fourth-quarter earnings of 23 cents a share, in line with the seven-analyst estimate and up from 13 cents a year ago.
Hershey Foods
(HSY) - Get Report
warned it sees third-quarter and 1999 earnings below expectations. The 14-analyst estimate calls for earnings of 78 cents a share in the third quarter, while the 15-analyst estimate for 1999 is for $2.36. Hershey said the start-up of a new business system in July hurt its bottom line.
Offerings and Stock Actions
3Com
(COMS)
announced plans to sell shares in its
Palm Computing
subsidiary to stockholders in early 2000 in an effort to bolster its strength and allow it to create more Internet products and services.
Packaging Corp. of America
filed to sell more than $976 million worth of its common stock in an IPO of about half of its common equity. The offering will include
Tenneco's
(TEN) - Get Report
sale of the 43.5% stake it owns of Packaging Corp.
Analyst Actions
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
started coverage of
Alliance Resource Partners
(ARLP) - Get Report
with an outperform rating and a price target of 19.
Merrill Lynch
initiated coverage of
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
with a near-term accumulate, long-term buy rating.
Merrill upped
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
to near-term buy from accumulate and increased its 2000 earnings-per-share estimate to $1 from 97 cents, and its price target to 85.
Banc of America
upgraded data storage maker
EMC
(EMC)
to buy from market performer.
Merrill Lynch upgraded
IDEC Pharmaceuticals
(IDPH)
to near-term buy from accumulate.
ING Barings cut its rating on
Incyte Pharmaceuticals
(INCY) - Get Report
to sell from hold, following an adverse patent ruling.
ING Barings
raised
Lyondell Chemical
(LYO)
to buy from hold.
Following negative earnings warnings, analysts cut
Maytag's
(MYG)
ratings. Banc of America cut the stock to market perform from buy, while
Salomon Smith Barney
dropped its rating to outperform from buy.
BancBoston Robertson Stephens started coverage on two real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which own hotel properties.
MeriStar Hospitality
(MHX)
received a buy rating while
FelCor Lodging
received a long-term attractive rating.
Lehman Brothers
cut its 2000 earnings outlook on
SBC
(SBC)
to $2.36 from $2.46 a share.
Miscellany
America Online
(AOL)
could experience rough seas ahead, including a drop as big as 50% in its share price, Doug Kass of hedge fund
Seabreeze Partners
told
Barron's
. Kass said AOL could be forced to lower its subscription fees if competitors such as
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
and AT&T offer cheaper service.
Compaq
(CPQ)
said it was cutting prices on all of its business desktop computers by up to 17%, as part of its ongoing effort to regain momentum over some of its fast-growing rivals.
The
Foundation on Economic Trends
is spearheading an antitrust lawsuit against a number of international agribusiness firms alleging that they unfairly control genetically modified seeds. The plaintiffs intend to seek billions of dollars in damages from companies including
Monsanto
(MTC) - Get Report
,
Du Pont
(DD) - Get Report
,
Astra Zeneca
and
Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM) - Get Report
.
IBM unveiled a new line of powerful Unix servers to run Web sites and new programs and services. The company said the RS/6000 S80 servers are more powerful than those of
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Report
but are as little as one-third the cost.
School-bus operator
Laidlaw
(LDW)
said it plans to sell off its U.S. health care operations and seek a buyer for its 44% stake in
Safety-Kleen
(SK)
. The company said it expects to realize proceeds of about $2 billion from the divestitures and would pay off about $1 billion in debt after selling off the units.
Microsoft plans to announce a new strategy acknowledging the company will increase its focus on the Web, as compared with stand-alone computers, the
Journal
reported in its online edition.
Corporate plaintiffs in a vitamin price-fixing suit, including
Tyson Foods
(TSN) - Get Report
and
Quaker Oats
(OAT)
said they will opt out of a proposed $1.1 billion settlement, saying it let the vitamin makers off too cheaply, the
Journal
reported. The companies indicated they would rather pursue individual cases against the vitamin makers.
Online publisher
Ziff-Davis
(ZD)
said it was not negotiating a sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp.
(NWS) - Get Report
, in response to a Sunday story in Britain's
Observer
that said News Corp. was considering a deal worth up to $1.5 billion.
Oddenda
James Sherard, a 56-year-old drug dealer from Green Bay, Wis., was cursed with a 31-year jail sentence after trying to put a hex on someone else. In a letter to a probation officer, Sherard outlined his quest for help from his great-grandmother, a voodoo priestess who died in 1952 at the age of 113. "I pray that if any foul beings owe her any favors, let all debt be settled through you 666," Sherard wrote. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mario Gonzales, who referenced the letter in seeking a sentence, told the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
the officer had "done nothing to deserve this supposed curse."
As originally published, this story contained errors. Please see
Corrections and Clarifications.
