Stock Market Wrapup Sept. 4th
Equity prices continued their rally from Friday's strong showing as investors more or less banked that the Fed will cut interest rates when they meet on September 18th. Helping fuel the gains were technology and financial related names. At the close, all three major market averages rose on the session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way with a gain of 1.30%. The Dow ended with a gain of 92 points, while the S&P 500 added 15.5 points. In the energy sector, oil rose $1.04 to $75.08 as investors worried over increased hurricane activity in the tropics.
On the economic front, manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in more than five years in August as companies reduced orders after borrowing costs rose. The Institute for Supply Managers (ISM) index fell to 52.9 from 53.8 in July. In other economic news, the Commerce Department said that construction spending unexpectedly fell -0.4% in July.
U.S. auto makers reported sales figures for the just completed month of August. Ford Motor (NYSE: F - News) said sales plunged -14% in the month, which marked the 10th straight monthly decline as demand for its cars plummeted -34%. For the month, Ford sold 218,332 vehicles. Analysts were looking for a -12% slide in overall U.S. sales. On the flip side, General Motors (NYSE: GM - News) reported a 5% sales increase in the month as it sold 388,168 vehicles, up from 368,776 in the same period a year ago.
In deal news, Metro PCS Communications (NYSE: PCS - News) proposed to buy rival Leap Wireless International (Nasdaq: LEAP - News) in an all-cash merger valued at $5.5 billion. Under the terms of the proposed deal, PCS wants to exchange 2.75 of its shares for every one share of Leap's, which would represent a premium of just 3% to where the shares traded on Friday. The combined company would create a new national wireless carrier. Leap shares surged 15% on a belief that investors would get a higher offer price. Metro PCS shares rose 5% on the session.
In other news, Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT - News) hired Frits van Paasschen to become CEO of the hotel operator. Today's hiring ends the five month long search for a new CEO. Paasschen will replace interim CEO Bruce Duncan. Elsewhere in the "E" suite, Sony Ericsson's Miles Flint will step down as President of the company and will be replaced by Hideki Komiyama, who is currently the Chairman of Sony Electronics in the U.S. Komiyama will join Sony Ericsson on November 1st.
Investment research firms were busy upgrading technology related names today, among them was Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO - News) whose shares surged 5.5% after Bear Stearns named the company a "top pick." Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck said the company could be a takeover candidate at significantly higher levels, and sees the stock trading at $30 by the end of the year without a takeover. Subscribers can read our analysis of Yahoo in today's issue.
Also making waves today was Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) after technology research firm ISuppli said Apple's iPhone was the best selling phone in the U.S. in the month of July. ISuppli also expects the company to sell 4.5 million iPhones in 2007, and more than 30 million by 2011. A Piper Jaffray analyst also offered bullish comments, helping the company's shares jump 4.1%.
By The BullMarket.com Staff
On the economic front, manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in more than five years in August as companies reduced orders after borrowing costs rose. The Institute for Supply Managers (ISM) index fell to 52.9 from 53.8 in July. In other economic news, the Commerce Department said that construction spending unexpectedly fell -0.4% in July.
U.S. auto makers reported sales figures for the just completed month of August. Ford Motor (NYSE: F - News) said sales plunged -14% in the month, which marked the 10th straight monthly decline as demand for its cars plummeted -34%. For the month, Ford sold 218,332 vehicles. Analysts were looking for a -12% slide in overall U.S. sales. On the flip side, General Motors (NYSE: GM - News) reported a 5% sales increase in the month as it sold 388,168 vehicles, up from 368,776 in the same period a year ago.
In deal news, Metro PCS Communications (NYSE: PCS - News) proposed to buy rival Leap Wireless International (Nasdaq: LEAP - News) in an all-cash merger valued at $5.5 billion. Under the terms of the proposed deal, PCS wants to exchange 2.75 of its shares for every one share of Leap's, which would represent a premium of just 3% to where the shares traded on Friday. The combined company would create a new national wireless carrier. Leap shares surged 15% on a belief that investors would get a higher offer price. Metro PCS shares rose 5% on the session.
In other news, Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT - News) hired Frits van Paasschen to become CEO of the hotel operator. Today's hiring ends the five month long search for a new CEO. Paasschen will replace interim CEO Bruce Duncan. Elsewhere in the "E" suite, Sony Ericsson's Miles Flint will step down as President of the company and will be replaced by Hideki Komiyama, who is currently the Chairman of Sony Electronics in the U.S. Komiyama will join Sony Ericsson on November 1st.
Investment research firms were busy upgrading technology related names today, among them was Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO - News) whose shares surged 5.5% after Bear Stearns named the company a "top pick." Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck said the company could be a takeover candidate at significantly higher levels, and sees the stock trading at $30 by the end of the year without a takeover. Subscribers can read our analysis of Yahoo in today's issue.
Also making waves today was Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) after technology research firm ISuppli said Apple's iPhone was the best selling phone in the U.S. in the month of July. ISuppli also expects the company to sell 4.5 million iPhones in 2007, and more than 30 million by 2011. A Piper Jaffray analyst also offered bullish comments, helping the company's shares jump 4.1%.
By The BullMarket.com Staff
posted by Stock Administrator @ 8:08 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:29 PM ,
Robert Jentris said...
Three Words...Supply Chain Management.
Before the first unit was sold, Apple’s iPhone was judged a triumph of design and functionality, not to mention the cool factor.
As with other hot consumer electronic products—think the Xbox, PlayStation 3 and the Wii—analysts expected big shortages when the phones finally went on sale a few weeks ago. But according to The New York Times, that hasn’t happened.
That’s why the iPhone is also a triumph of supply chain management, according to Michael Levi, director of solutions strategy, for i2 Technologies. In fact, the importance of getting the supply chain right might be the real lesson for Apple’s competitors, or any company trying to get a hot product to market.
“A killer product is only successful if it gets to the right customer at the right price at the right time,” says Levi. “Apple’s supply chain technology is the really the silent contributor to the company's success in executing the product innovation.” ~ Supply chain lessons from the iPhone, By Bob Trebilcock
www.applestockanalysis.com
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