MARKET TALK: USG Employees Get Lawsuit Reprieve
01 Mar 12:43
Edited by Thomas Granahan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
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12:43 (Dow Jones) A bankruptcy court Thursday granted USG Corp. (USG) a
preliminary injunction to temporarily stop 13 personal injury lawsuits from
proceeding against a number of its employees in state courts across the
country. The order keeps USG from having to participate in the litigation at
substantial costs to itself and its estate and at a distraction to its employee
defendants' time and effort, the company said in its motion. All the 13
lawsuits arose from traffic accidents or delivery accidents involving USG
employees. USG off 1.1% at $6.92. (TB)
12:30 (Dow Jones) While junk-bond flows remained positive this week, at
$46.6M, the number of high-yield mutual funds reporting outflows actually edged
out those getting new investments, 185 to 184, according to AMG Data Services.
Last week's inflows were $129.9M, with 217 funds taking in money and 148 losing
it. (RTB)
12:17 (Dow Jones) Bet you'd like to know what's going to be the next hot
sector in the stock market or where the Nasdaq Composite Index is headed over
the next several months. Datek Online Financial Services recently polled 10,000
of its customers and got some opinions. Of the 414 clients who responded, about
47% see health care as the market's top-performing sector over the next six
months. About 43% of respondents predict that the Nasdaq Composite will rise to
2100 by August - an increase of 21% from where the index closed Thursday. (GFC)
12:04 (Dow Jones) No shortage of speculation on Oracle (ORCL) the day after
its 3Q closed. Stock off 3% in heavy trading. Bob Austrian of Banc of America
says, "I presume some believe the quarter didn't finish up in gangbuster
fashion and it was more of a ho-hum quarter, but that's what we were
expecting." Among the scuttlebutt: Worldcom (WCOM) owes Oracle a bunch of money
and isn't paying. While it's not clear if Worldcom is up-to-date on its debts,
Rick Sherlund of Goldman Sachs says chatter about Worldcom's debt being $100M
is "preposterous." (MLP)
12:00 (Dow Jones) CHC Helicopter (FLYA), a helicopter operator servicing the
oil and gas industry, is flying high after its operating earnings soared in its
fiscal 3Q. CHC reported a year-over-year decline in its 3Q net, but excluding a
one-time future tax gain in its 3Q of last year, CHC saw its latest earnings
rise to 56 Canadian cents a diluted share from 26 cents a year ago, says
National Bank Financial analyst Dana Benner. "The company is well on its way to
meeting (or perhaps) beating our full-year forecast," of C$2.50 share, Benner
says. On Nasdaq, CHC was recently trading up 10% at $15. (BED)
11:50 (Dow Jones) March will be an active month of politics and government
involvement in the steel industry, notes analyst Michelle Applebaum of Salomon.
The most anticipated: President Bush is to announce his ruling on tariffs on
March 6. Some steel companies are looking for stiff tariffs but they may be
disappointed. Applebaum thinks Bush will impose some type of "remedy" in favor
of the steel industry but "it may not be consistent with the industry's
expectations." Applebaum's best guess: so-called tariff-rate quotas. (CCW)
11:45 (Dow Jones) Stocks have got a nice rally going, but will we see an
afternoon fizzle for the third day in a row? Options investors seem optimistic
but sentiment indicators are calling for some caution, what with the volatility
indexes falling closer to levels that have preceded previous short-term
corrections. The CBOE's market volatility index, or VIX, is down 1.29 to 21.84,
near its lowest close in the last six months of 21.77. Active call trading also
sending CBOE equity put/call ratio down below 0.55 Friday morning, a level not
seen all last month and something contrarians can't be too happy about. (KT)
11:40 (Dow Jones) The Economic Cycle Research Institute's weekly leading
index rose by 0.3% in the week ended Feb. 22 after being unchanged in the prior
week. The index was 2.1% above its 52-week moving average and has been up on
this basis every week since the week ended Dec. 14. Compared to a peak increase
of 4.1% in the week ended Jan. 25, the recent data suggests that the economy is
in recession, but that the recession will be moderate. (JM)
11:25 (Dow Jones) If major averages are going to revert to their recent
behavior - selling off late - it's going to be a particularly big blow, because
things look great for the bulls right now. Just one DJIA component - Alcoa - is
lower, eight are higher by better than a buck, and Intel is up 6.4%, followed
by IBM and Microsoft. In fact, techs are dominating the list of Friday's best
performing groups, though wireless remains an issue. The DJIA is just a breath
away from the 10300 mark - it hasn't closed there since Aug. 27, 2001. DJIA up
180 at 10286, Nasdaq Comp rallies 46 to 1777, and S&P 500 improving by 18 to
1124. (TG)
11:15 (Dow Jones) Greenspan will bring his semi-annual testimony to the
Senate on March 7. Typically, it would be a repeat of his House testimony last
Wednesday, but some suggest that a slew of strong data may cause him to revise
his words a bit. "Greenspan (could) rewrite his repeat testimony to suggest a
neutral bias for March FOMC," said Ian Morris, economist at HSBC Securities.
(SV)
11:05 (Dow Jones) Defensive puts trading very actively in Oracle (ORCL) early
in Friday's session, as traders noted investors buying up protective puts.
There is no news from the company, and with other software stocks ahead, Oracle
is down 2.5% or 42 cents to $16.20 as 21 million shares traded in the first
hour-and-a-half, compared with daily average volume of 43 million. Oracle's
April 15 puts rose 15 cents to 70 cents as 4,925 contracts traded at the CBOE
and 4,000 contracts traded at the Pacific Exchange,compared with existing
position of just 1,025 contracts. (KT)
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-01-02
12:43 PM |
