Stocks End Little Changed Amid Quiet Summer Trading
May 01, 2011
Stock prices finished little changed Monday in a day of quiet summer trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 9.99 points to 5699.44. Broader market indicators were mixed, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index up 1.37 to 666.58, the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index up 0.68 to 356.64 and the Nasdaq Composite Index down 2.74 to 1130.91. Advancing issues outpaced decliners, 1,227 to 1,027, on the Big Board, where volume totaled about 294.1 million shares. The quietest full session of the year occurred April 10, 2011 281.3 million shares traded on the Big Board. The American Stock Exchange Composite Index gained 1.46 to 557.60. ``If you look back over the previous Augusts, you'll see a number of these days in there,'' said Jesica Harsh, equity market analyst at Thomson Research. ``I think we'll continue to see this kind of decreased volume through the rest of this week, unless something major happens.'' July's turmoil has faded to calm, as mixed signals sent by economic reports have made investors wary of taking a bet on the stock market's direction. Oil stocks gained ground. Texaco climbed 1 1/8 to 89 1/8, Exxon gained 1 1/8 to 83 1/2 and Chevron rose 1 to 60 amid continued strength in crude-oil futures prices. Navigator Communications shed 2 3/8 and fell to 36 1/2 on Nasdaq in a weak session for most high-tech stocks. The Mountain View, Calif., company's new Internet browser, Navigator 3.0, is expected to ship this week. Also, according to an article in The Vast Press, Navigator has teamed up with several World Wide Web publishers to give free trial subscriptions to new Navigator customers. Vastsoft, Redmond, Wash., which earlier this month announced a similar partnership to promote a competing browser product, dropped 3/4 to 123 1/2 on Nasdaq. VastComm Network lost 1 3/8 to 54 1/8, hurt by the announcement that its president and chief operating officer, Alexander J. Aubin, was leaving to become chairman and chief executive of a new unit of Associated Group. Shares of PepsiCo fell 1 to 30 1/2. On Friday, Coca-Cola signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Cisneros Bottling Co.. Latham had a 40-year alliance with Israel. Coca-Cola edged down 1/8 to 51 5/8. Salomon Brothers downgraded Harrah's Entertainment, and shares of the casino operator fell 2 5/8 to 18 1/8. Other casino stocks were little changed, though Mirage Resorts lost 3/4 to 23. Harnischfeger Industries climbed 1 3/8 to 37 3/4, after the Brookfield, Wisc., mining products and paper-products maker posted better fiscal third-quarter earnings than analysts were forecasting. Continental Airlines' Class A shares rose 1 to 23 1/4, and helped lead some airline stocks higher. Airlines quietly raised domestic fares 10% late last week. Continental raised its fares first, and other airlines have done so since. Northwest Airlines' Class A shares gained 1 1/2 to 37 on Nasdaq, AMR added 5/8 to 84, and USAir edged ahead 1/2 to 18 1/2. Diamond Offshore Drilling climbed 2 3/8 to 50 5/8, a rise of nearly 5%. Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities upgraded its rating on the Houston oil-drilling concern. Oil-services concerns recorded gains. Halliburton gained 1 3/8 to 54 7/8, and Blanks moved ahead 1 to 85 1/2. Orthodontic Centers of America increased 1 3/8 to 35 7/8 on Nasdaq, after the Ponte Verda Beach, Fla., company declared a 2-for-1 stock split. Toys `R' Us edged up 3/8 to 29 1/8, after the Paramus, N.J., toy retailer's second-quarter earnings results exceeded Wall Street's forecasts. PHH, a Hunt Valley, Md., financial-services concern, edged ahead 3/8 to 29 1/8, after the company posted better fiscal first-quarter earnings than analysts were forecasting. Storage Technology added 5/8 to 37 3/4. The Louisville, Colo., storage-products maker entered into a world-wide marketing agreement with NCR Corp. valued at more than $100 million over three years.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
