stocks

2011年6月27日星期一

NYSE, D.Boerse to pay dividends, end investor suits (Reuters)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

NEW YORK (Reuters) – NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) and Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1Gn.DE) agreed to pay roughly $900 million of dividends to settle U.S. shareholder lawsuits challenging their roughly $10 billion merger to create the world's largest exchange operator.

According to an agreement filed on June 17 with the Delaware Chancery Court, the companies would pay shareholders 2 euros (US$2.85) per share outstanding of the combined holding company after the planned merger is completed.

The agreement requires court approval, and would end shareholder lawsuits in New York and Delaware state courts. It essentially reflects the special dividend that the companies announced on June 7, and which would be paid once a merger closes.

Shareholders had sued NYSE Euronext shortly after that company announced its planned sale to its German counterpart in February. They complained that the takeover price was too low, and that the company should have courted other bidders.

According to the agreement, the exchange operators denied wrongdoing, and the shareholders settled to avoid delays and uncertainties from continued litigation.

The combined company would operate in the United States and across Europe. Shareholders of Deutsche Boerse would own roughly 60 percent.

NYSE Euronext shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger on July 7. Deutsche Boerse shareholders would have until July 13 to tender their shares. A closing is expected by year end.

The cases are In re: NYSE Euronext Shareholders Litigation, Delaware Chancery Court, No. CA6220; and In re: NYSE Euronext Shareholder Litigation, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 773000/2011.

(1 euro = $1.427)

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Stempel, editing by Bernard Orr)

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How the major stock indexes fared Friday (AP)

Stocks fell Friday, giving the market another losing week, after poor earnings reports from two major technology companies suggested that businesses invested less in new technology as the economic recovery slowed.

Fears of a spreading European debt crisis also weighed on markets. Italian bank stocks plunged and trading in some of them was halted after Moody's warned that it might downgrade their credit ratings.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 115.42 points, or 1 percent, to 11,934.58.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 15.05, or 1.2 percent, to 1,268.45.

The Nasdaq composite fell 33.86, or 1.3 percent, to 2,652.89.

For the week:

The Dow is down 69.78, or 0.6 percent.

The S&P is down 3.05, or 0.2 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 36.41, or 1.4 percent.

For the year to date:

The Dow is up 357.07, or 3.1 percent.

The S&P is up 10.81, or 0.9 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 0.02 points, or less than 0.1 percent.

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FTSE closes lower on poor US jobs data (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Share prices in London closed sharply lower on Thursday on poor US jobs data and continued eurozone debt worries.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 1.71 percent to close ar 5,674.38 points.

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) was the most widely traded stock, with 158 million shares changing hands, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which saw 125 million units switch ownership.

International Consolidated Airlines was the best blue-chip performer, rising 0.78 percent -- or 1.9 pence -- to finish at 244.4, followed by cruise liner firm Carnival, which rose 0.69 percent -- or 16 pence -- at 2,334.

London-listed mining stocks bore the brunt of the negative sentiment with Vedanta Resources was the biggest faller of the day, shedding 6.86 percent -- or 135 pence -- to close at 1,832.

It was followed by Eurasian Natural Resources, which slipped 5.05 percent -- or 37 pence -- to finish at 695.5

On the currency markets, a pound was worth 1.5986 dollars at 17:03 BST, down from 1.6125 at the same time Wednesday, while it stood at 1.1281 euros, up from 1.1207 over the same period.

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Bulls ready to charge into a wall of worry (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A bounce could be in the cards for stocks next week as bulls defend a key technical level and managers buy the quarter's winners to prop up their books.

But gains coming from healthcare, staples or other defensive sectors that have outperformed the market in the last several months would only support the notion that the U.S. stock market needs to complete its correction phase and panic selling must occur before a more sustained comeback develops.

"We want to see more fear," said Ari Wald, equity strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

But be careful what you wish for.

The sources of the recent decline, including Greece's slow march toward a default on its debt, weak U.S. economic data and the creeping deadline to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, are far from being resolved.

HOLDING THE 200-DAY SHOWS THE WAY

Despite a drop that dragged the S&P 500 as much as 8.2 percent below its three-year high hit in early May, the index held above its 200-day moving average -- a major line in the sand as the bulls and bears battle for control of the market.

The slide had been telegraphed for weeks and the market's by-the-book performance -- pulling back to a widely followed level -- seems too well choreographed for some analysts.

"The fact that we went to the 200-day ... seems just a little too perfect," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

He said the timing of the move was supportive, as the market creates a technical base before resuming its upward move on the back of strong earnings.

"You might get an attempt at a shakeout move," Pado said. "But sometimes the majority is right."

Even if they are right, they don't seem too convinced. So far this quarter -- on track to be the first in the red for the S&P 500 in the last year -- daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq has averaged 7.22 billion shares.

That is down from the 7.94 billion shares traded daily during the first quarter, when the S&P 500 gained 5.4 percent. Commitment to the market has waned. The frantic selling, the flushing down of day traders seems absent so far in this corrective phase.

Despite holding above that level, the market has not cleared the danger zone of dipping under its 200-day average. The curve has a steep slope, as the S&P 500 took roughly two years to notch a 100 percent advance from its March 2009 lows.

The 200-day moving average now stands at 1,263.47, less than 0.4 percent below the S&P 500's close on Friday.

"Every time you test a resistance or support level, you make it weaker," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist of the ConvergEx Group in New York. "It's almost like a piece of metal. Every time you hit it, it grows more fragile and that's why people are really worried the third or fourth time."

After three straight days of declines, the S&P 500 fell 0.24 percent for the week and finished at 1,268.45 -- its seventh decline in the last eight weeks.

The Dow industrials (.DJI) lost 0.58 percent for the week, closing on Friday at 11,934.58, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) rose 1.39 percent for the week to end at 2,652.89.

The next two weeks, before quarterly earnings season starts in earnest, could be marked by wild swings like the ones seen recently. On Thursday, after a market-friendly headline out of Greece, the S&P 500 posted its strongest comeback in almost a year, on days when the benchmark has fallen more than 1 percent.

From its session low on Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed more than 20 points into the close. The Dow's swing covered 233.79 points from its intraday low to session high on Thursday.

But buying interest waned on Friday. Aside from doubts about the passage in Athens' Parliament of higher taxes and service cuts, weak Italian banks also are scaring investors.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday gave a bleak outlook on the economy, lowering its forecasts for GDP growth for both 2011 and 2012. And Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke found it hard to explain the sources of a so-called economic "soft patch" that seems to have become pervasive.

SUMMER STORM OF DATA

Besides the weekly jobless claims numbers, housing and manufacturing data will attract the most attention next week.

The S&P Case-Shiller April home prices index on Tuesday and the National Association of Realtors pending home sales for May on Wednesday could confirm the housing market's double dip.

Factory activity grew in May at its slowest pace since September 2009, according to the Institute for Supply Management, and Friday's ISM number for June is expected to drop to 51.9, indicating an even slower rate of growth.

New applications for unemployment insurance on Thursday are expected to land above 400,000 for a 12th straight week, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Personal income and consumption, out Monday, are expected to tick higher in May. Consumer confidence, out Tuesday from the Conference Board, is forecast at a June reading of 60.5, just a touch lower than May's 60.8, a Reuters poll showed. Despite a recent string of weak data in May, a sharp drop in crude oil prices is expected to buoy consumer confidence.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Stocks surge on Greek bailout hopes (AP)

LONDON – Hopes that Greece will get a second bailout boosted market sentiment around the world on Friday, a day after stocks and the euro plunged on fears over the pace of the global economic recovery.

Stocks, particularly in Europe, have recovered a large chunk of the losses posted on Thursday after EU leaders backed another bailout for Greece should the Parliament there approve euro28 billion in austerity measures in a vote next week.

"We agreed that there will be a new program for Greece," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Brussels.

The austerity measures have to be passed by the Greek Parliament for the next batch of money due from last year's bailout and for a second bailout to be agreed. If lawmakers fail to back the package, then Greece will face a default on its debts.

The markets are hopeful that Greece will get another financial lifeline from its partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to see it through the next couple of years. That has eased concerns over what impact a Greek debt default would have on Europe's financial system. Many analysts think a default could trigger mass panic in the markets, akin to what happened in the aftermath of the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers back in 2008.

"The EU and IMF backed Greece's austerity measures, reassuring markets that Greece will receive a bailout if George Papandreou manages to pass through his austerity bill next week," said Simon Furlong, a trader at Spreadex.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.9 percent at 5,726 while Germany's DAX rose 0.8 percent to 7,198. The CAC-40 in France was 0.8 percent higher at 3,821.

One market bucking the trend was Italy's FTSE MIB, which was trading 0.5 percent lower on the back of a retreat in banking shares. Intesa Sanpaolo Spa and Unicredit Spa were both down over 3 percent.

Wall Street was poised for a solid opening — Dow futures were up 0.3 percent at 12,008 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose a similar rate to 1,281.

The euro was down 0.3 percent at $1.4226 but that's still up just over a cent higher than the low it recorded Thursday, when investors' appetite for risk was battered. When investors' risk appetite is low, the euro usually suffers, especially against the dollar.

The crisis of confidence in the eurozone is likely to remain even if Greece gets a second bailout, with many economists predicting that the country will have to restructure its debts in some way in the coming years, especially if the economy shrinks further.

"Greece would be fully funded for some time to come of course; but then if the economy continues to deteriorate in the months ahead, investors are likely to begin to fear the worst fairly quickly in the knowledge that the political will to offer further assistance would be probably spent," said Neil Mellor, an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon.

Earlier, Asian markets rallied on the Greek bailout hopes.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was 0.9 percent higher to close at 9,678.71, while South Korea's Kospi rose 1.7 percent to 2,090.81.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.9 percent at 22,171.95, with banking shares getting a boost after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrote a newspaper commentary indicating China is getting its inflation problem under control.

Mainland Chinese shares also gained on Wen's comments. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.2 percent, the biggest gain in four months, to 2,746.21, while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 2.3 percent to 1,136.39.

Meanwhile, oil prices clawed back some ground lost on Thursday after the International Energy Agency said it will make 60 million barrels available over a 30-day period, half of which will come from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The shock decision sent oil prices tumbling by around 5 percent.

By late morning London time, benchmark oil for August delivery was up 76 cents to $91.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Stocks end another week lower on Europe worries (AP)

If weak financial results from big tech companies are a sign of what's to come, stock indexes are in for a tough summer.

Stocks fell Friday, giving the market another losing week, after poor earnings reports from two major technology companies suggested that companies invested less in new technology as the economic recovery slowed.

"I think it spooked a lot of people," said Frederick Rizzo, who analyzes European banks for T. Rowe Price. "The markets are really emotional right now."

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 115.42 points, or 1 percent, to 11,934.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 15.05, or 1.2 percent, to 1,268.45. The Nasdaq composite fell 33.86, or 1.3 percent, to 2,652.89.

The decline erased all of this week's gains for the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P index. The broad stock market has now fallen for seven of the last eight weeks, largely because of concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing and that Europe's debt problems may lead to another financial crisis. The S&P 500 is down 7 percent since it hit a high for the year on April 29.

Technology stocks were broadly lower. Micron Technology Inc. fell 14.5 percent after the company said lower sales of computer chips hurt its earnings, which were far less than analysts had expected. Oracle Corp. fell 4 percent after its sales of computer hardware fell sharply. Cisco Systems Inc. fell 3.5 percent, and Microsoft Corp. lost 1.3 percent.

Government bond prices rose to their highest level of the year as investors favored lower-risk assets. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 2.86 percent.

The U.S. economy has cooled since late April. Recent reports on housing, employment, manufacturing and retail sales all have been weak. The debt crisis in Greece and fears that China's growth is slowing have also pushed markets lower.

"No one is expecting good news, but if it's worse than expectations, this is really a very shaky market," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, a hedge fund.

Landesman expects that the Standard & Poor's 500 index will fall to 1,200 this summer as more companies report second-quarter earnings next month. The last time the S&P 500 crossed that threshold was in December 2010.

Stocks fell despite the fact that the government said the economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, slightly higher than an earlier estimate of 1.8 percent. The figure still indicated very slow growth for a post-recession recovery. Economists expect little improvement in the second quarter, which ends next week.

Still, another government report showed that businesses ordered more machinery, equipment and airplanes in May than in April. Orders of such durable goods increased by 1.9 percent in May after a sharp decline in April.

Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was slightly above average at 4.4 billion shares.

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Wall Street sinks on Europe's debt misery (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street dropped for a third day on Friday on worries about the Italian banking sector and Greece's debt crisis, but the S&P 500 managed to hold its 200-day moving average in a sign buyers still see value.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 fell for their seventh week in the last eight. The benchmark S&P 500 is down 7 percent from its 2011 closing high at the end of April.

Investors are fearful that Greece's government may fail to pass an austerity plan next week, which could force a default on its debt repayments. The government faces an electorate vehemently opposed to the austerity measures.

"They (politicians) may not believe that financial markets are as sensitive to their decisions as they actually are, and there is a worry that somewhere along the line, some political vote goes against the market," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist of the ConvergEx Group in New York.

The S&P 500 remained within striking distance of its 200-day moving average -- a line that has been tested twice in recent trading and has so far acted as a springboard for stocks. The level was at 1,263.47.

"Every time you test a resistance or support level, you make it weaker," Colas said. "It's almost like a piece of metal. Every time you hit it, it grows more fragile and that's why people are really worried the third or fourth time."

Problems in the euro zone appeared to intensify as shares of Italian banks UniCredit SpA (CRDI.MI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) fell sharply on concerns about their capital positions. Trading in their shares was briefly suspended.

The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) or VIX, Wall Street's barometer of investor anxiety, rose 9.4 percent to 21.10. Some analysts say fear needs to rise further before the market reaches a bottom.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 115.42 points, or 0.96 percent, to 11,934.58 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) fell 15.05 points, or 1.17 percent, to 1,268.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) lost 33.86 points, or 1.26 percent, to 2,652.89.

For the week, the Dow fell 0.58 percent and the S&P 500 shed 0.24 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 1.39 percent.

Bank stocks fell on concerns about the economic outlook. The KBW Banks Index (.BKX) lost 1 percent and the S&P Financial Sector Index (.GSPF) shed 0.7 percent. The sector has been the worst-performing this year, falling around 8 percent.

On Thursday, the market welcomed Greece's agreement to a five-year austerity plan.

The euro declined against the dollar for a third straight session on worries Greece's parliament might not pass austerity measures needed for the country to secure more bailout funds.

In the latest economic data, new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured products, known as durable goods, increased 1.9 percent in May after dropping 2.7 percent in April as bookings for transportation equipment rebounded strongly.

Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) fell 4.1 percent percent to $31.14 (.NDX) a day after the world's No. 3 software maker posted disappointing results, especially in hardware sales. Oracle's results sparked concerns about a bigger slowdown in technology spending.

Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) tumbled 14.5 percent to $7.21 after the memory chipmaker recorded results below expectations late Thursday.

About 9.26 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq -- well above the daily average so far this year of around 7.57 billion. Analysts said Friday's volume was much higher than average due in part to the rebalancing of the Russell 2000 Index (.TOY).

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of 19 to 11. On the Nasdaq, about three stocks fell for every two that rose.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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