Monday's Closing Update

Jun 8, 2009 --


-NYSE down 14 (0.2%) to 6,068.56.

-DJIA up 0.2 (0.00%) to 8,763.

-S&P 500 down 1 (0.1%) to 939.14.

-Nasdaq down 7 (0.4%) to 1,842.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Hang Seng down 2.28%

Nikkei up 1.0%

FTSE down 0.75%

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) McDonald's (MCD) says May same-store sales up 5.1%, comments on currency impact to earnings.

(-) Qwest (Q) reaffirms FY 2009 earnings view.

(-) Ford (F) reports cover increased competition.

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) EndoCare (ENDO) sold to HealthTronics (HTRN) for $1.35 per share cash.

(+) StemCells (STEM) reports positive Phase 1 Batten trial results.

(+) Mindspeed Technologies (MSPD) raises Q3 sales outlook.

(+) Allstate (ALL) gets positive Barron's coverage that says stock undervalued.

(+) General Mills (GIS) expects to exceed 2009 earnings guidance.

(+) Home Depot HD gets favorable Barron's coverage.

MARKET DIRECTION

Stocks clawed back in afternoon trading to finish narrowly mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 1 point or 0.01%, while the S&P 500 is down 1 point or 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite ends in the middle of the day's range, down 7 points or 0.4%. Stocks spent much of the session in the red as a firmer dollar prompted a pause in the commodities rally.

Crude oil for July delivery fell 35 cents to end at $68.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract fell to an intraday low of $66.78 a barrel. Crude hit its best level since October late last week.

Stocks tumbled out of the gate as investors took profits while awaiting more evidence the economy is improving and financial sector health has returned.

The Obama administration is expected to announce this week that a higher-than-expected number of major financial institutions will be allowed to repay government bailout loans, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The report said the size of the repayments may be twice the initial estimate of $25 billion.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has maintained that the economy won't begin to recover until banks can demonstrate conclusively that they are healthy again and able to attract private equity investment.

In other banking news, Barclays (BCS) is in talks to sell Barclays Global Investors (BGI), the British bank said this morning, with U.S. fund manager BlackRock the frontrunner to land the asset manager, according to Reuters. BlackRock (BLK) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) are both in talks to buy BGI in a deal that could be worth about $12 billion and might come early this week, the sources said.

In the tech space, Palm (PALM) fell despite a solid first weekend for Pre sales. Rival Apple (AAPL) is holding its worldwide developers conference, announcing a speedier new iPhone model. Investors are also watching to see of CEO Steve Jobs returns after a lengthy break because of his health.

Mindspeed (MSPD) raised its Q3 sales outlook to between $32 million and $33 million, excluding any potential patent sales. The company's previous guidance was $30 million to $32 million.

Drug and merger news pushed up issues in the pharma sector.

Among them, StemCells (STEM) announced positive results from the first Phase I clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC product candidate (purified human neural stem cells), including demonstration of a favorable safety profile along with evidence of engraftment and long-term survival of the HuCNS-SC cells.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX) announced results of the Phase 2 study of Zerenex (ferric citrate) for the treatment of elevated serum phosphorous levels, or hyperphosphatemia, in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on thrice weekly hemodialysis.

Bucking the positive news trend, Progenics Pharmaceuticals (PGNX) says it will stop developing its PRO 206, a pre-clinical compound to treat hepatitis C. It says it will instead focus on its second-generation HCV-entry inhibitor portfolio and anticipates selection of a new development candidate in 2010.

Meanwhile, HealthTronics (HTRN) says it will buy Endocare (ENDO) for $1.35 per share in cash, provided that the cash consideration does not exceed 50% of the total consideration, or 0.7764 shares of HTRN's stock, provided that the stock consideration does not exceed 75% of the total consideration. The deal is seen closing in Q3.

Extended-Hours Earnings: Bakers (BKRS), FuelCell Energy (FCEL), IDT, Pall (PLL), Quicksilver (ZQK).

Comments

[mmdonner:]

no mention of the massive manipulation at the end of trading day in all markets?? guessing 20-30 billion..which bank/brokerage this time i wonder...do you know, can u tell us please. the banks seem to take turns jacking this market higher in spite of all.

Jun 08 04:52 PM

[tunaman4u2:]

Cramer is now calling this a super bull market so it must be. Wow how can people take him seriously. P\Es are clearly elevating into a long term consumer pull back from dec wages, jobs, disposable income, real estate values, personal equity, credit score as inc taxes, rates, oil, inflation come back...
Thats the basis for a new bull market? Really? Never ending government stimulus & 0% interest rates will last for a huge bull market past this point?
I just can't buy into it... especially with the end of trading day moves of 100 points in 15 minutes.
Something just doesn't feel right

Jun 08 06:23 PM

[TWS Investm...:]

Check out market manipulation at www.twsinvestments.com...

Jun 08 08:29 PM

[Guanzhi Ma:]

So what exactly made the market shot up? Nothing? Again?

Jun 08 08:35 PM

[tunaman4u2:]

Thumbs down with no retort to truth, typical of bulls lately, man up & come up with a real argument... or go ahead & buy into the market blindly like ya did at 14K again... China & government stimulus will solve all

Jun 08 09:39 PM

[TraderRob:]

-yup..this bull cant be stopped. keep buying the dips. I,m a bear but DONT short this market yet.

What are you waiting for if you claim that you're waiting to get short this market? There are no real catalysts on the horizon that are going to break the back of this one. It's going to be the tenuous move of those on the margin into long positions that signals the top. Watch the 10yr and 30 yr as well as the 2yr Treasuries as they will manipulate mortgage rates and Fed Funds respectively. Things are working in reverse since the Fed is in grid lock... the bond market has the wheel and Bernanke's in the back seat. Watch for a Fed Funds rate hike some time during the rest of the year if this Yield curve continues to steepen.

Jun 08 11:50 PM

[Maxe Paul:]

There are still far too many bearish people to stop the market falling ATM, for example there is a guy on this site who is shorting 3 x levered long ETF's! Whilst this idiotic behaviour continues it's up up and UP.


On Jun 08 11:50 PM TraderRob wrote:

> -yup..this bull cant be stopped. keep buying the dips. I,m a bear
> but DONT short this market yet.
>
> What are you waiting for if you claim that you're waiting to get
> short this market? There are no real catalysts on the horizon that
> are going to break the back of this one. It's going to be the tenuous
> move of those on the margin into long positions that signals the
> top. Watch the 10yr and 30 yr as well as the 2yr Treasuries as they
> will manipulate mortgage rates and Fed Funds respectively. Things
> are working in reverse since the Fed is in grid lock... the bond
> market has the wheel and Bernanke's in the back seat. Watch for a
> Fed Funds rate hike some time during the rest of the year if this
> Yield curve continues to steepen.

Jun 09 02:12 AM

[Maxe Paul:]

There are still far too many bearish people to stop the market RISE ATM i should have said, damn im going blind!

Jun 09 09:21 AM