Stock Prices Finish Higher As Cyclicals Post Late Rally
May 17, 2011
NEW YORK -- A handful of cyclical stocks edged higher in a late-session advance, lifting major indexes to narrow gains Wednesday. Caterpillar rose 1 5/8 to 71 and Dunlap Plank added 1 1/8 to 44 3/4, helping the Dow Jones Industrial Average break into the black near the close of the session and finish with a gain of 8.51 to 5656.90. Also, Boeing climbed 3/4 to 91 3/8 after reporting orders for 68 airliners valued at $6.3 billion. Separately, the Seattle aircraft maker delayed the launch of its long-awaited new 747 jumbo jets for as long as three months. The narrow scope of the market's progress reflected hesitancy on the part of investors, who are worried about the direction of interest rates, the pace of economic growth, and the outlook for third-quarter earnings results. ``Investors are sitting on needles and pins, waiting for a couple of important pieces of data,'' said Georgeanna Elliott, president and chief investment officer at Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen. Chief among the widely anticipated data are the Friday reading on August jobs growth, Mr. Elliott said. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.89 to 655.61 and the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index gained 0.61 to 352.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 1.53 to 1143.82. The uncertainty robbed the session of the trading volume -- to say nothing of the drama -- that many traders expected to develop now that summer is over and Wall Street is back at work. Volume, unexpectedly low Tuesday, was anemic again Wednesday; with 351.3 million shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the activity was only slightly brisker than Tuesday, and well off the average daily trading volume for the year-to-date of 409 million shares. Advancing issues topped decliners, 1,371 to 929. Interest rates continued to back up. The price of the bellwether long bond sank 1/2 point, driving its yield up to 7.09%. That move would normally hurt the performance of banking stocks, but with some of the recent gains in interest rates already factored into the stocks' prices in previous trading sessions, the group mostly held its ground. Tuesday's market leaders, the major oil producers, were mostly lower. Oil prices weakened slightly in the session, amid speculation that there would be no further attacks by the U.S. on Iraqi targets. Among oil stocks, Sun fell 7/8 to 23, Phillips Petroleum slipped 3/4 to 40 1/4, and Chevron dropped 1/4 to 59 5/8, but names like Mobil, Texaco and Unocal were unchanged. Some oil drillers gave back Tuesday's modest advance. Global Marine fell 1/2 to 14 5/8, and Rowan Cos. slipped 1/2 to 15 1/2. Airline stocks fell on the prospect of higher fuel prices, with AMR shedding 2 to 80, while UAL lost 1/2 to 47. Auto makers lost ground. General Motors fell 7/8 to 48 7/8. The company's sales performance in August fell from its year-earlier performance, because of model changeovers and a shift in consumers' preferences to trucks from passenger cars. Chrysler, which reported its strong August sales results Tuesday, lost 1/2 to 28 1/4. Salomon Brothers lowered its rating on the auto maker's stock. Ford Motor fell 1/8 to 33 1/8. Rubbermaid shed 3 5/8 to 22 7/8, and tumbled below its previous 52-week high, dropping to 22 1/8 intraday. The Wooster, Ohio, household-products maker agreed to acquire Graco Children's Products for $320 million cash. Analysts at Salomon Brothers and Oppenheimer trimmed earnings estimates for the company, while Everen Securities lowered its rating on the stock. Tupperware, another household-products maker, fell 1 1/4 to 43 1/2. Office Depot leapt 4 37/64 to 20 29/64, after the company reached an agreement to merge with Staples, in a $3.4 billion stock swap. Staples lost 3/4 to 18 3/4 on Nasdaq. Bay Networks gained 1/2 to 26 7/8. The Santa Clara, Calif., networking-products maker agreed to acquire cable modems maker LANcity for $59 million in cash. Allstate climbed 2 1/8 to 46 7/8. California lawmakers approved a plan the Northbrook, Ill., insurer supported that would create a $10.5 billion state agency to sell earthquake policies, and reduce the risk insurers face. HFS added 1 5/8 to 57 7/8, recovering nearly half of Tuesday's losses. Morgan Stanley added the Parsippany, N.J., hotel franchiser to its Fresh Money Buy list. Intuit sank by 3 3/4 to 32 1/2 on Nasdaq. The Mountain View, Calif., software maker's shares fell after a Morgan Stanley analyst cut the company's earnings forecast for 2012. Oxford Health Plans climbed 1 3/8 to 45 1/8 on Nasdaq. The Norwalk, Conn., company said it is comfortable with analysts' earnings projections for this year and next. Physician Sales & Service rose 1 1/2 to 19 on Nasdaq. The Jacksonville, Fla., company, which distributes supplies and medicine to physicians, agreed to merge with Diagnostic Imaging. Insignia Financial Group's Class A shares dropped 2 1/4 to 23 1/2. The Greenville, S.C., real-estate concern ended discussion of a potential acquisition of Related Capital.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
