Takeover news draws Dow closer,but not over magic 10,000 mark
Stocks rose Monday after an optimistic earnings forecast from UAL Corp. propelled the Dow Jones industrial average within 42 points of 10,000. “The mergers are getting bigger,” said Gil Knight, a money manager who helps oversee $11 billion in assets at Allied Investment Advisors in Baltimore. “It’s a sign of a buoyant market.” The Dow industrials rose 82.42, or 0.8 percent, to 9958.77, their first close above 9900. The ave r age touched 9970.15 in late trading, the closest yet to the 10,000 mark. J.P. Morgan & Co. and General Electric Co. contributed most to the Dow’s gains. “People were buying on enthusiasm for the Dow to hit 10,000, and a lot of day traders probably saw at 3 o’clock that we weren’t going to hit it,” said Ken Ducey, chief trader at BT Brokerage, a unit of Bankers Trust Corp. “Tomorrow’s another day.”The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 12.67, or 1 percent, to 1307.26, its fourth record in five sessions.penny stocks
The Na s d aq Composite Index climbed 49.91, or 2.1 percent, to 2431.44. Decliners and advancers were almost evenly matched on the New York Stock Exchange. Pione er Hi-Bred, the world’s largest seed-corn company, rose 4 1/16 to 38 3/8 and was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500. DuPont Co. agreed to buy the 80 percent of Pioneer Hi-Bred that it doesn’t already own for about $40 a share in cash and stock. Mergers are “good for the shareholde r s, because they show the premier companies are able to get bigger and gain ma rket share,” said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at Joseph Gunnar & Co. DuPont fell 11/2 to 56 1/4, shaving 6 points off the Dow average. The company said it expects the Pioneer acquisition to cut fully diluted earnings per share by 7 percent in 2000, the first full year the companies will be merged. Fleet Financial Group Inc., the Mo. 9 U.S. bank, agreed to buy BankBoston, the nation’s oldest bank, for $16 billion in stock, creating the eighth-biggest U.S. bank. BankBoston rose 1/8 to 47 1/16 after climbing as high as 48 7/16. The stock rose 14 percent from Monday through Friday last week. The offer values BankBoston at $53 a share. Fleet fell 2 9/16 to 42 3/16. J.P. Morgan, which some investors see as a possible takeover target, rose 3 3/8 to 125 3/8, adding 15 points to the Dow average. Airlines were the best-performing group in the S&P 500 a f t er UAL, the world’s largest airline company, said it expects first-quarter earnings per share to exceed expe c t a t ions by 24 pe r c ent because of strong domestic business.penny stocks
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