Wall Street: Monday open

13 April 2012

US stock action was lacklustre on the open as the latest news on corporate profits and a $4bn deal by

Juniper Networks

Although the oversold situation along with the jobs report that sparked Friday's move are the type of circumstances that can produce gains over a day or two, he believes the lack of volume indicates there is not a lot of new money coming into the market.

'There's still a chance to rally but it won't be robust or dynamic,' he said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10,578. But the Nasdaq Composite Index was in the plus column, adding 6 points or 0.3%, to 2069.

Home Depot, American Express, Alcoa and Coca-Cola were the biggest blue-chip gainers. McDonald's, SBC Communications, Boeing and Procter & Gamble were the Dow's biggest losers.

Oil services, Internet, hardware, biotechnology and brokers were the best performing sectors. Networkers, health care and pharmaceuticals were the biggest decliners. A number of blue chips were making news.

Eastman Kodak agreed to sell its remote sensing systems business to ITT Industries for $725m. The unit has 1,800 employees, and it generated revenue of roughly $425m in 2003. Kodak shares slipped 0.4% to $29.23. Microsoft announced a multi-year deal with Walt Disney to improve the quality and security of digital content that can be delivered to homes through the internet and on portable entertainment devices.

Shares of US poultry producers slumped after several Asian countries, including Japan, announced bans on US produce following outbreaks of bird flu in Delaware state. Tyson Foods' shares were last down 3.6% at $16.41, Sanderson Farms lost 6.5% to $50.63 and Pilgrims Pride was off 6.7% at $19.18.

Technology was also in focus as Juniper Networks agreed to acquire NetScreen Technologies for about $4bn in stock. Juniper is offering or 1.404 of its own shares for each NetScreen share owned. Juniper shares slumped 13% to $25.75 while NetScreen surged 34% to $35.24.

PeopleSoft said its board unanimously voted to reject Oracle's revised $26-per-share bid for the company, arguing that it is still too low and does not reflect PeopleSoft's real value. PeopleSoft lifted 2% to $22.30 while Oracle dipped 0.2% to $13.39.

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