Monday, November 06, 2006

Monday Morning Musings

The market is ramping in early trading, with the Nazz already up more than 1%. I am normally skeptical of strong rallies that come early, so hopefully this strength won't fade into the close.

The Nasdaq reached moderate oversold levels on Friday, while the NYSE is still not oversold.

One of the things likely boosting stocks is the flurry of mergers and acquisitions announced this morning, and most of them are at significant premiums. This indicates that buyers still see value in the market, and these buyouts also put more cash in the hands of investors.

In other news and notes:
  • ASEI misses EPS and revs; stock -8%
  • BofA cuts estimates on HD and LOW
  • LEND misses EPS; stock up
  • Semi Industry cut to Mkt. Weight at Bernstein
  • SWFT receives buyout proposal; stock +25%
  • KOSP to be acquired by ABT; stock +53%!
  • CHK making lots of trading bets on nat gas; 59% hedged
  • PSTI beats EPS; stock +12%
  • HWCC beats EPS and revs; stock +12%
  • TRFC to be acquired by NVT; stock +29%
  • OSTK misses EPS, may need cash; stock -16%
  • FS receives buyout proposal to go private for $82; stock +31%

3 Comments:

At 8:55 AM, Blogger Untiedshu said...

With such a large premium on KOSP, you have to wonder if we should be impressed by KOS's pipeline or worried about Abbott's.

 
At 9:44 AM, Blogger J. Kahn said...

My guess is it's probably more of the latter. Paying a 50% premium smacks of a bit of desperation.

 
At 1:32 PM, Blogger Untiedshu said...

I agree with you. In fact, I have written a brief sketch outlining how I believe the negotiations went.

Abbott: We want to buy your company.
Kos: We're not for sale
Abbott: We will pay you $3.7 billion.
Kos: ... (picks jaw up from floor)
Abbott: What do you say?
Kos: Drinks are on us.

and scene....

OK, so it won't be making it into one of my shows any time soon, but they can't all be winners.

 

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