Cadiz, Guess Rise; Boston Properties, UBS Fall

Mayank Mehta
05 Jun, 2009
New York City

U.S. stocks traded up and down after the release of unemployment report. Boston Properties sold 15 million shares. Wal-Mart plans to buy back $15 billion of its stocks. Rio Tinto increased after it scrapped its merger with Chinalco and planned to raise $15 billion.

[R]12:20 PM New York – U.S. stocks traded up and down after the release of unemployment report. Boston Properties sold 15 million shares. Wal-Mart plans to buy back $15 billion of its stocks. Rio Tinto increased after it scrapped its merger with Chinalco and planned to raise $15 billion and look for investment from BHP Billiton.[/R]

U.S. stocks were volatile in the morning trading after the release of monthly job report by the Department of Labor. Unemployment in May increased to 9.4% and businesses and government cut 345,000 jobs cut in the month. The rate of job losses in the month was half the average of prior six months.

S&P Movers

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 272 increased, 221 declined and 6 were unchanged.

Du Pont led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 6% followed by losses in Teradyne Inc of 5.4%, in Harley Davidson of 5.3%, in Newmont Mining of 5.1%, in Applied Materials of 4.6% and in Boston Properties of 4.4%.

AK Steel Holdings led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 8.3% followed by gains in Monster Worldwide of 7.8%, in Goodyear Tire of 6.5%, in Gannett Company of 5.7% and in Interpublic Group of 5.6%.

Other Gainers & Losers

BHP Billiton ((BHP)) increased 5.9% to $60.45 and Rio Tinto ((RTP)) increased 6.2% or $11.31 to $193.99 billion. Rio canceled its proposed capitalization plan with partnership of Chinalco and is now looking for investment from BHP Billiton and may raise $15.2 billion in rights offering.

Boston Properties ((BXP)) declined 4.4% to $50.65 after it priced 15 million shares in offering at $50 a share. The company has granted 2.25 million shares to underwriter to cover overallotment. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase acted as joint book-running managers. The company plans to use $732 million offering to reduce debt and acquire additional properties.

Cadiz Inc ((CDZI)) surged 54% to $13.27 after it signed a letter of intent with various water utilities companies of Southern California that serve more than 3 million customers in the region. The company controls 70 square miles of land with water resources in eastern San Bernardino County, California and plans to build 44 mile underground conveyance pipeline at a cost of $200 million.

Du Pont and Harley Davidson declined after brokerage firms lowered their ratings.

Exide Technologies ((XIDE)) plunged 17.5% to $5.57 after it reported fourth quarter revenues declined 37% to $654.3 million and a loss of $64.4 million or 85 cents a share.

Guess? Inc ((GES)) increased 6.5% to $28.79 after it estimated fiscal 2010 revenues between $465 million and $485 million and earnings per share between 42 cents and 45 cents.

UBS AG declined 6% to $13.84 on 2.5 million share volume on a weakness in banking stocks.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc ((WMT)) increased 0.4% to $51.05 after it plans to buy back $15 billion of its stock.