Monday, Sept. 20, 1999
Markets
Island ECN offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT. Prior to Sept. 15, Island offered trading from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT
.
Last Trades on Island ECN
BBBY: 29 9/16 at 6:40 p.m. EDT.
MUEI: 13 3/8 at 3:59 p.m. EDT.
ALTR: 52 31/32 at 5:06 p.m. EDT.
MarketXT, formerly Eclipse Trading, offers after-hours trading to retail clients of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter'sundefinedDiscover Brokerage and Mellon Bank'sundefinedDreyfus 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.
TheStreet.com
updates Island's and MarketXT's 10 most active issues in Got a Minute? and in the Evening Update.
TSC
also reports how MarketXT's three most active Nasdaq-listed issues finished the Island session
.
--
John J. Edwards III
Day Session Report
The major U.S. stock indices rallied in late-day trading to close in positive territory. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
TheStreet Recommends
rose 20.27 to 10,823.90, while the
Nasdaq Composite Index
climbed 16.5 to 2886.10.
The big European indices finished the day's trading higher, with France's
CAC
up 36.17 at 4680.49, Germany's
Dax
up 48.04 at 5351.98 and London's
FTSE
closing up 16.70 at 6056.50.
In Asia, Japan's
Nikkei
showed sizable gains, finishing the trading session up 232.99 at 17,575.26, while Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
closed down 12.47 at 13,472.37.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
Carlisle
(CSL)
said its $600 million purchase of
Titan
(TWI)
was halted after the deal's letter of intent expired Sept. 18. The companies said that they would continue negotiations to try to reach a definitive agreement.
CMGI
(CMGI)
said it plans to pay $500 million in stock to acquire online advertising network
AdForce
undefined
. The transaction calls for CMGI to issue .262 of a share for every share of AdForce held on upon completion of the deal.
Computer Sciences
(CSC)
announced its plans to acquire
Nichols Research
undefined
in a deal valued at $391 million in stock.
Hewlett-Packard
undefined
announced its plans to sell
Oracle's
(ORCL)
customer relationship management software. H-P CEO Carly Fiorina and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison will formally announce the deal during a press conference in Palo Alto, Calif., tomorrow morning.
Jefferson-Pilot
undefined
said it has forged a deal worth about $296 million to purchase life and health insurance provider
Guarantee Life
undefined
. The transaction, which is expected to close in mid-December, calls for Jefferson-Pilot to pay $32 a share for Guarantee Life, half in stock and half in cash. Jefferson-Pilot would also take on about $115 million of Guarantee's debt.
Lucent
(LU)
said the U.S. antitrust waiting period for its planned $4.05 billion acquisition of
International Network Services
undefined
had expired. On Aug. 10, Lucent unveiled plans to buy the company to boost blend voice and data network capability. The companies said the deal was still pending regulatory approval in Germany.
Microsoft
(MSFT)
and
Ford
(F)
are expected to forge a joint business that would allow Ford to make cars in answer to online orders, while giving Microsoft another industry partner in its Internet endeavors,
The Wall Street Journal
reported.
Separately, Microsoft,
Excite@Home
(ATHM)
and
Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch
undefined
announced their newly formed online-auction network,
FairMarket
, which will compete with the No. 1 online-auction site
eBay
(EBAY)
. FairMarket said the network could connect with more than 46 million visitors, or 73.3% of all Internet users.
Lycos
undefined
,
Xoom.com
undefined
,
ZDNet
undefined
and
Dell
(DELL)
are all part of the new venture.
Nokia
(NOK)
said it would forge a deal with
Hewlett-Packard
undefined
to create mobile Internet solutions using the
Wireless Application Protocol
. According to a statement, the union would give customers access to e-services over the Internet via Nokia media phones.
Ogden
(OG)
announced plans to sell its entertainment and aviation divisions as an alternative to a spinoff, the
Journal
reported.
PSINet
(PSIX)
announced its acquisition of four Internet service providers, including Brazil's
ServNet Servicos de Informatica e Communicacao
, Hong Kong-based
Vision Network
and Spain's
Infase Comubicaciones
and
Ciberia Internet
.
Sonera
said it has authorized
VoiceStream's
(VSTR)
proposed merger with
Aerial
(AERL)
, in which Sonera has a major interest. The deal, which is valued at about $1.8 billion, calls for Voicestream to swap 0.455 share of its common stock for each share of Aerial common and Series A common.
Suez-Lyonnaise
energy division
ELYO
said it has made a $22 a share, or about $129 million bid for the remaining interest of its majority-owned unit
Trigen Energy
undefined
. Trigen said it is considering the offer.
Earnings/revenue reports and previews
A.G. Edwards
(AGE)
posted second-quarter earnings of 86 cents a share, beating both the two-analyst estimate of 81 cents and the year-ago 75 cents.
Consol Energy
(CNX)
warned investors that it would post third-quarter earnings between 12 cents to 18 cents, greatly missing the single-analyst estimate of 51 cents. The company blamed low coal prices for the lower-than-expected earnings.
Dole Food
(DOL)
warned investors that it would post third-quarter break-even results or a possible loss, missing the four-analyst estimate of 13 cents a share. Dole cited low banana prices and ongoing recovery costs from last year's Hurricane Mitch in Central America as the culprit for the weak results.
Offerings and stock actions
Best Buy
(BBY)
has set a stock buyback plan worth $200 million. The retailer said it finished a $100 million repurchasing plan last October and now has roughly 205 million outstanding shares.
iGo
announced plans for a 5 million-share initial public offering set to price in an estimated range of $9 to $11.
BancBoston Robertson Stephens
,
Hambrecht & Quist
and
Thomas Weisel
are serving as underwriters for the deal.
USFreightways
undefined
said it can not explain why its share price was falling during today's trading session. Spokesperson Kenneth Ball said that there is not any news that contributed to the decline. USFreightways finished the session off 2 1/2, or 5.4%, to 43 5/16.
Analyst actions
Salomon Smith Barney
raised its rating on
American Home Products
(AHP)
to outperform from neutral.
Credit Suisse First Boston
upgraded
Duke Energy
(DUK)
to buy from hold.
Dain Rauscher Wessels
started coverage of
Harley-Davidson
undefined
with a buy-aggressive rating and a price target of 63.
CSFB upped its rating on
MedQuist
(MEDQ)
to a strong buy from a buy.
Salomon Smith Barney
upped its fiscal 1999 and year 2000 estimates on oil to average $18.50 a barrel from $17.75 a barrel and $19 from $18 a barrel respectively. The revision comes one week before
OPEC
ministers assemble in Vienna.
Friedman Billings Ramsey
upped its rating on
Providian Financial
undefined
to a buy from accumulate.
Lehman Brothers
upgraded
Razorfish
undefined
to buy from outperform.
CIBC World Markets
(RNWK)
initiated coverage of
RealNetworks
(RNWK)
with a buy rating and set a price target of 120.
J.P. Morgan
cut its rating on
Regions Financial
undefined
to market performer from buy.
Lehman Brothers rolled out coverage of
Robert Mondavi
(MOND)
with a buy rating.
Lehman Brothers raised it rating on
Sapient
(SAPE)
to outperform from neutral.
Lehman Brothers upped
Silicon Valley Group's
(SVGI)
fourth-quarter estimates to a 1-cent loss from a 7-cent loss.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
analyst Robby Ohmes sliced his first-quarter estimates on
Starbucks
(SBUX)
to 16 cents from 18 cents a share and raised third-quarter EPS numbers by 1 cent to 17 cents a share.
Lehman Brothers raised it price target on
Teradyne
(TER)
to 50 from 42.50.
CSFB upped its fiscal 2000 EPS estimate for
UnitedHealth Group
(UNH)
to $3.55 from $3.00.
Morgan Stanley rolled out coverage of
U.S. West
(USW)
with an outperform rating and set a price target of 69.
Miscellany
Aero
(AERS)
said that it has tapped Charles Loux as its new president and CEO. Loux will replace Leon Ring who plans on retiring on Oct. 1.
Asarco
(AR)
said it has initiated legal proceedings against
Phelps Dodge
(PD)
, alleging that Phelps' $2.5 billion unsolicited offer for Asarco and
Cyprus Amax
(CYM)
infringes on U.S. antitrust laws. Asarco claims that Phelps' bid hindered its planned merger with Cyprus, which now carries an estimated value of $1.5 billion in stock. Phelps Dodge said it would "vigorously contest" Asarco's legal actions and it is confident that it will receive regulatory approval for the three-way merger.
The
New York Stock Exchange
said
BFGoodrich
(GR)
would not explain its shares' 15% price decline on heavy volume. Today, the stock closed down 5 7/8, or 15%, to 31.
United Auto Workers
union said that a new, four-year contract would mean more than $29,300 in economic gains for a U.S.
DaimlerChrysler
(DCX)
AG assembler. The union said that DaimlerChrysler inked a new plant-closing memorandum letter, vowing not to shut down or spin off any of its facilities. In addition, the agreement calls for a 3% base wage increase for all hourly workers in each of the contract's four years and $1,350 up-front payment.
IBM
(IBM)
said as of Oct. 1, computer services executive Sam Palmisano would replace retiring
IBM Server Group
head Robert Stephenson.
Quaker Oats
undefined
said it would likely slash its workforce by 10% and shut down facilities in an effort to boost North American operations. The cereal maker said it would assume a series of pretax charges from $225 million to $250 million for the restructuring changes.
Wal-Mart
(WMT)
unveiled plans to launch 10 trial
Computer Doctor
centers in its stores to service computers and install software, the
Journal
reported.
Uniholding
(UHLD)
said that Nasdaq has delisted its shares after it failed to issue its annual financial report on time. The company said that its stock would trade on the pink sheets until it issues the report later this week.
