U.S. Stocks Struggle, Silver Rebounds; Hertz Revises Dollar Offer

Bikram Pandey
09 May, 2011
New York City

U.S. stocks struggled to hold early gains as commodities rose and sovereign default worries resurfaced in the euro-zone. Gold gained 1% and silver rebounded more than 4% as precious metals rallied after a sell-off last week. Hertz revised its offer for Dollar Thrifty.

[R]10:30 AM New York – U.S. stocks struggled to hold early gains as commodities rose and sovereign default worries resurfaced in the euro-zone. Gold gained 1% and silver rebounded more than 4% as precious metals rallied after a sell-off last week. Hertz revised its offer for Dollar Thrifty.[/R]

U.S. stocks opened higher but struggled to hold gains. The euro declined against the dollar as the speculation mounted on the Greek debt default.

Asian markets generally closed lower and Japan ordered to shut down second nuclear power plant.

European market indexes declined more than 1.5% after Greek 2-year bond yields surged above 25% and investors feared a restructuring or default as early as this month. The yields on Portuguese and Irish bonds also rose reaching the highs not seen in the last two months.

Commodities nudged higher on the worries that the U.S. will struggle to increase its debt limit and euro-zone sovereign default worries.

Gold jumped 1% to $1,466 and silver gained 4.3% to $35.97 as precious metals jumped.

Stock Movers

Alkermes soared nearly 5% to $15.18 after it agreed to merge with drug technology unit of Irish drug maker Elan in a deal that values the company at $960 million.

Hertz revised its offer to buy Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc to surpass the offer from Avis Budget Group. Hertz offered $72 a share, or 24% higher than the Avis offer.

Dollar Thrifty increased 12.1% to $78.01, Hertz gained 1.2% to $17.09 and Avis Budget Group declined 0.2% to $18.36.

Oncothyreon Inc soared after the cancer treatment developer reported a first quarter loss excluding some items of 19 cents a share.

Rosetta Resources Inc increased 12.3% to $46.34 after it reported first quarter profit of 21 cents a share excluding certain items.

Stillwater Mining Co. increased 3.1% to $20.24 on a speculation of higher demand for palladium.

Tyson Foods Inc declined 5% to $17.94 increased after it estimated full year revenues to $32 billion.