- China to take $3 billion stake in Blackstone
- Equity Firms to Buy Alltel in $27.5 Billion Deal
- Merrill taking stake in hedge fund GSO -WSJ
- Hologic to buy Cytyc for $6.2 billion
- Sun Pharma to buy Taro for $454 mln, shares up
- Yahoo eyes MySpace rival?
- Chief of EGL Raises Buyout Bid Yet Again
- DTE Energy to Sell Antrim Shale Gas properties
- Maguire Properties Announces Disposition of Three Orange County ...
Deal-mania has helped to push stock futures off the lows of the night. The upward channel in the Dow is striking, though the bulls, perhaps, would be happier if the Nasdaq could get out of its sideways funk. In other words, while these deals are all well and very good - there's a need for a stronger tech rally lest the Nasdaq become a leading indicator for a near term end to the big blue chip rally.
I'm also keeping an eye on bond market yields. The 10 yr sure has been making upward progress. The higher above 4.8% on the ten year, the stronger the head winds for the stock market?
But in the meantime, it's been almost a 'sky is the limit stock market' with a mantra of buy on the dips.
Google, Salesforce.com (CRM) may team up. This is being seen as bad news for Monster (MNTR) buyout speculators.
The dollar has been drifting a bit higher as it sets its sights on resistance up above dollar index-82 level. Here's a festering situation: Kuwait ends currency peg to US dollar.
A few quick analyst comments to note:
- Merrill downgraded Medtronic (MDT) Underweight
- UBS downgrades Intuit (INTU) to Neutral
- ING upgraded BP to Buy from Hold
- Countrywide (CFC) downgraded to Market Perform at Friedman, Billings
Lowes (LOW) with a mixed bag. Q1 earnings a penny light at 48c and revenue light at 12.2 bln vs estimates of $12.4 bln. LOW upped Q2 EPS outlook to 62 to 64c vs consensus of 60c and full year to $1.99 to $2.03 vs estimates of $2.01.
Blackstone is also in the news this morning since it's IPO time: Blackstone sets IPO, could raise $3.87-$4.13 bln.
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