U.S. Equities
Stocks Go Limp As Commodities Rage
MarketNewsVideo.com , 04.08.11, 05:21 PM EDT
Inflation fears roil stocks. Pick just about any commodity and it's likely to be near a record high.
The NASDAQ, S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were all lower on the week, while crude oil futures gained along with crude oil, which traded around $112 per barrel late Friday. Gold futures were little changed for the week at around $1473.66 an ounce late Friday.
In notable economic news this week, the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims fell 10,000 last week, to 382,000, from an upwardly revised 392,000.
Retail sales for March came in stronger than expected, despite Easter falling 3 weeks later than last year.
In corporate news this week, Engineering and manufacturing services provider Ducommun ( DCO - news - people ) said today it has agreed to acquire electronics manufacturing services company LaBarge for $19.25 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at $340 million, including assumed debt, net of cash acquired.
McDonald's ( MCD - news - people ) said it and its franchisees are looking to hire as many as 50,000 new crew and restaurant management workers across the country during a hiring event on April 19. The hiring will be for full and part-time positions in nearly 14,000 US restaurants. McDonald's said it and its franchisees will spend more than $518 million in wages and salaries in the coming year, and that the 50,000 more hires will translate to $54 million more in payroll taxes for the economy.
AMR ( AMR - news - people ) Corp.'s American Airlines and Expedia ( EXPE - news - people ) said that they have agreed upon a memorandum of understanding that will allow the companies to resume doing business with each other, effective immediately.
Texas Instruments ( TXN - news - people ) announced it has agreed to acquire National Semiconductor ( NSM - news - people ) (NSM) for about $6.5 billion. Texas Instruments is paying $25 per share in cash, and the boards of both companies have approved the transaction. The companies said deal is about strength and growth. Texas Instruments has 30,000 analog products and broad customer reach, while National Semi has 12,000 analog products with a strong position in the industrial power market.
Smartphone maker HTC Corp. reported first quarter earnings today that almost tripled compared to last year. The Taiwan-based company said profits totaled 14.83 billion Taiwan dollars, about $513 million, compared to a 5 billion Taiwan dollars profit in last years first quarter. Sales totaled 104.2 billion Taiwan dollars, more than double the level of the same quarter last year. HTC's offerings include smartphones that run on Google's Android platform as well as Microsoft's Windows operating system.
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