Wednesday, August 11, 1999
Markets
For the first time in a long time, stocks rallied broadly and held their gains.
All the proxies finished in the black. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
added 132.65 to 10,787.80; the Nasdaq Composite Index surged 74.83 to 2564.94; the
advanced 20.50 to 1301.93; the small-cap
Russell 2000
snapped back 5.37 to 428.19; and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index gained 13.96 to 502.36. Breadth was decidedly positive.
The 30-year Treasury bond picked up 14/32 to an even 87, its yield falling to 6.218%.
The big European indices finished solidly higher.
Asian markets went both ways overnight, as Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
shed 158.91, or 1.3%, to 12,437.80, while and Tokyo's
Nikkei
inched forward 9.07 to 17,211.16 in trading thinned by the
obon
holidays.
More markets news and commentary are available in
TSC's
Markets section.
Companies
Hot on the heels of the news that Canadian aluminum giant
Alcan
(AL) - Get Free Report
is buying France's
Pechiney
(PY) - Get Free Report
and Switzerland's
algroup
,
Dow
component
Alcoa
(AA) - Get Free Report
made an unsolicited $4.2 billion offer to buy
Reynolds Metals
(RLM) - Get Free Report
. Alcoa is offering $65 a share for half of Reynolds' outstanding shares and 0.9784 Alcoa share for each of the remaining half.
Bank One
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is expanding its
Technology One Alliance
with
AT&T
(T) - Get Free Report
and
IBM
(IBM) - Get Free Report
-- under which those companies provide Bank One with networking and computing support services -- to include locations of the former
First Chicago NBD
, which Bank One bought last year. Bank One said the new contracts with AT&T and IBM are worth $465 million and $168 million, respectively.
Blockbuster
(BBI) - Get Free Report
wasn't moving or shaking in its rather strange trading debut today. The stock closed right where
Salomon Smith Barney
priced it yesterday -- at 15, the bottom end of the 1/16 point-wide trading range it spent the entire day in.
Boeing
(BA) - Get Free Report
is selling Taiwanese carrier
China Airlines
13 cargo planes and five passenger jets for about $3.8 billion. China Airlines is also buying seven passenger jets from
Airbus
.
Nortel Networks
(NT)
said that
U S West
(USW)
-- which
Qwest Communications
(QWST)
is buying -- has chosen Nortel to help the regional Bell improve its network capacity by providing it high-speed data and telephony services.
General American Life Insurance
unit
Reinsurance Group of America
(RGA) - Get Free Report
said it was temporarily unable to come up with the cash to meet some investors' withdrawals from the company's "short-term funding agreements."
Goldman Sachs
cut the stock to market perform from the recommended list.
Procter & Gamble
(PG) - Get Free Report
set plans to buy privately held pet-food maker
Iams
for $2.05 billion in cash.
More news on companies and stocks is available in
TSC's
Stock News section.
Tech
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Free Report
yesterday posted fourth-quarter earnings of 21 cents a share, excluding extraordinary items. That's a penny above the 30-analyst estimate and up from the year-ago 16 cents.
Telecommunications components maker
Oak Industries
(OAK) - Get Free Report
warned that its third-quarter earnings won't meet analysts' estimates; the company said it expects to earn 40 to 42 cents a share, far below the four-analyst consensus of 51 cents a share. Trading in the stock was a bit rocky today; it was halted this morning, resumed, was halted again while the company disseminated its warning, and resumed again, finally closing down 13 1/4, or 32.3%, to 27 3/4.
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Free Report
signed a long-term deal with data storage maker
Storage Technology
(STK) - Get Free Report
allowing the companies to resell each other's storage systems. The deal's terms weren't disclosed.
Red Hat
undefined
gained 38 1/16, or 271.8%, to 52 1/16 in its first day of trading.
Goldman Sachs
, the lead underwriter for the 6 million-share IPO, priced the stock top-range last night at $14, having raised the pricing range to $12 to $14 a share from $10 to $12 a share.
More tech news and commentary are available in
TSC's
Tech Stocks section.
General News
Pakistan opened fire on three Indian helicopters that were transporting journalists to the crash site of a Pakistani surveillance plane shot down by Indian war planes yesterday. The helicopters returned to their base undamaged.
Buford Oneal Furrow, the 37-year-old man suspected of firing more than 70 shots in a Jewish community center yesterday in Los Angeles, has turned himself in to authorities. Furrow's attack wounded three children, a counselor and a receptionist. One of the children is in critical condition.
International
As noted above, Alcan set plans to buy Pechiney and algroup for about $9.2 billion in stock. Alcan will exchange 1.78 of its shares for each Pechiney share and 20.6 shares for each algroup share. The resulting company,
APA
, will be the world's largest aluminum manufacturer, and will have headquarters in Montreal and regional headquarters in Europe.
Daewoo's
domestic creditors said they'll force the South Korean
chaebol
to sell all but six of its 25 main units in an effort to recover $57 billion of debt.
More international news and commentary are available in
TSC's
International section.
Elsewhere
Derrick Coleman's
agent, Harold McDonald, is claiming the charges that the
NBA
player publicly urinated in a Detroit restaurant are "totally untrue." Coleman's reputation as one of the league's laziest superstars notwithstanding, McDonald defended his client by saying: "It doesn't make any sense. I've been to the Intermezzo and the bathroom is 10 steps away from where he was sitting. He wouldn't do that."
