ConocoPhillips and Burlington Sign for $35 B

123jump.com Staff
12 Dec, 2005
New York City

Market awaits the final rate hike at Fed meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Market rally lost its early steam in the late afternoon as traders turned cautious. Chinese Internet stocks and Indian banking stocks rose in the session. Energy, tech, and big retailers led a modest rally. Home builders, defense and casino stocks ralliled. Specialty retailers were under pressure.

U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

Merger Monday.

$30 billion deal reported between ConocoPhillips and Burlington Resources led strong market opening. Energy stocks rallied during the day. Market has witnessed a solid record of deals in the energy patch for the last five years on the back of rising international demand for oil and gas.

Market strength in the early hours was also supported by rise in semiconductor stocks. Intel, Advanced Micro, Texas Instruments, National Semi and others rallied in the first three hours of trading. Google stock was upgraded by CSFB and raised its price target from $400 to $475. Google is to be added to Nasdaq 100 index on December 100.

Big box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sears and J C Penney rose during the day. Energy stocks rallied more than 2% on the back of merger talks between ConocoPhillips and Burlington Resources.

Chinese Internet companies rose during the session. Shares of The9 Ltd ((NCTY)), Shanda Interactive ((SNDA)) and Ctrip.com Internation rose by more than 4%.

Market in the final hours of trading turned cautious. Traders are expecting 25 basis interest rate hike at the last Fed meeting on tomorrow. On other economic news traders are awaiting November retail sales and weekly petroleum report and initial claims of unemployment this week.


MOVERS AND SHAKERS

ConocoPhillips ((COP)) is in talks to acquire oil and gas producer Burlington ((BR)) for more than $30 billion. The total annual revenue of thee companies would be more than $211 billion. ConocoPhillips fell 3.4%.

8x8 Inc. ((EGHT)) signed a private label agreement with BellSouth Corp ((BLS)) for 8x8 to provide technology, integration and operational services for BellSouth''s digital phone service. Shares of 8x8 Inc soared to 58.4%.

Myogen ((MYOG)) reported positive top-line results for its Ambrisentan Phase 3 trial for pulmonary arterial hypertension, meeting the primary efficacy endpoint of improved exercise capacity, the key secondary endpoint of time to clinical worsening and several other secondary efficacy endpoints. The stock surged 39%.

Lannett Co ((LC)) received approval of its abbreviated new drug application for a generic version of Adoxa, Bradley Pharmaceuticals'' anti-biotic treatment for bacterial infections, from the Food and Drug Administration. Shares of Lannett rose 11.3%.

INTERNATIONAL MARKET NEWS

Asian-Pacific benchmarks finished Monday session in the positive. The Nikkei soared to a new five-year-high, rising to 15,738.70 on increased confidence in financial stocks with Tokyo Stock Exchange admitting that the turbulent trading last week was due to a technical error in the trading system. Across the region, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.5%, and Australia’s All Ordinaries rose 0.6%.

European stocks closed higher, supported by French media companies, including Vivendi Universal and gains in U.S. and Japanese markets. The German DAX 30 rose 0.4%, the French CAC 40 gained 0.2%, and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%.

OIL, METALS, CURRENCIES

Crude oil prices rose above $60 a barrel on oil depot explosion in London over the weekend and OPEC’s decision to maintain production at the highest levels. Light sweet crude for January delivery gained $1.86 cents to $61.25 a barrel on the Nymex. Natural gas climbed 50 cents $14.81 per 1,000 cubic feet. London Brent surged $1.09 to $58.40.

Gold prices further advanced on high investment fund demand in Asia and the Middle East. Gold in London closed at $536 per troy ounce, up from $529.30. In Zurich the precious metal rose to $538.03 from $529.45. In Hong Kong gold climbed $12.40 to close at $535.15. Silver opened at $9.07, up from $9. In New York gold at close was up $1.30 to $531.50 but rose as high as $544.50 per ounce and silver fell 21.30 cents to $8.882 after rising as high as $9.34.

The U.S. dollar declined against the major currencies. In European trading the euro was quoted at $1.1948, up from $1.1815. The dollar bought 120.03 yen, down from 120.64. The British pound stood at $1.7705, up from $1.7543.

EARNINGS NEWS

Ingles Markets Inc ((MKTA)), retailer, posted Q4 earnings of 39 cents a share, down from 45 cents a share in the same period last year on the absence of real estate sales in the latest quarter. Sales advanced to $590.2 million from $544.9 million.

Tutogen Medical Inc ((TTG)), maker of sterile biological implants, reported net loss for fiscal 2005 is 42 cents a share, down from net income of 9 cents in fiscal 2004 despite 9% revenue growth If not for one-time costs, the net loss would have been 21 cents a share.

Bakers Footwear Group ((BKRS)), shoe retailer''s stock, posted a Q3 loss of 17 cents a share, up from a loss of 51 cents a share in the year-ago period, missing analyst estimate of 2 cents a share. Sales for Q3 advanced 34%, while same-store sales rose 21%.