Wall Street: Tuesday opening
STOCKS traded a touch lower at midmorning as investors took a breather after driving the market to new highs for the year in the previous session.
On Monday, the Dow Jones index hit its highest level for 17 months, while the Nasdaq reached a 21-month peak.
Today, the stock market opened lower but pared some of its losses later in the morning. The Dow shed 14 points, or 0.14% to 9,844 and the Nasdaq Composite Index nosed down 3 points, or 0.20% to 1,963.
The third-quarter earnings season is winding down, but corporate results are still rolling in.
Novell rose $2.41, or 39.8% to trade at $8.46. The business software maker said it agreed to acquire Linux software developer SuSE Linux AG of Germany for $210m in cash. Novell also said IBM plans to make a $50m investment in its convertible preferred stock.
Cima Labs jumped $1.84, or 5.9% to $33.15. Cephalon, which gained 16 cents to $46.58, said it agreed to acquire Cima for about $515m in cash, gaining technology to make drugs dissolve quickly on the tongue.
The world's largest razor and blade maker, Gillette, climbed $1.48, or 4.5% to $33.98. It said quarterly profit rose 17.5% as the weaker dollar and strong sales helped offset spending to defend against rival products.
Tyco International scrambled up $1.06, or 5% to $22.08. The tarnished company announced an aggressive restructuring plan to streamline the far-flung empire built by notorious former chairman Dennis Kozlowski, including the sale of an undersea fibre-optic cable network that lost billions of dollars.
