Closing Bell: Despite positive close, oil, fed, mergers disappoint

Posted Jun 12th 2008 4:19PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

While today's index levels closed up in positive territory, that is only part of the story. The major equity index levels were far higher after the open today. Retail sales rose more than expected but the sell-off we saw earlier in oil did not hold and oil prices took the gas away from us. Fed governor Plosser's comments about "rates need to rise" didn't help matters. Below are today's unofficial closing levels:

DJIA 12141.58 (+57.81)
S&P500 1339.87 (+4.38)
NASDAQ 2404.35 (+10.34)
10YR T-NOTE 4.205% (+0.132%)
Major list of 52-Week Lows
Top 10 Analyst Calls
2008 IPO's up 50% or more

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD) shares were up almost 5% by the final minutes of trading at $61.29 after InBev confirmed a $65.00 initial buyout offer for the beer giant last night. Interestingly enough, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) will have pocketed several hundred million dollars on this if you see his current holdings.

Ethanol stocks were battered and tattered today after a key downgrade from Citi in the sector killed the stocks. The floods are part of the culprit, and Verasun Energy, Corp. (NYSE: VSE) was down over 10% to $4.75, a new 52-week low, in the final minutes today.

Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) stock was down almost 3% in the final minutes today at $1.38 after it extended out the date for its dutch auction tender for its debt.

Invitrogen Corp. (NASDAQ: IVGN) saw shares get hit by over 10% to $38.81 after the company announced a highly leveraged acquisition of Applera's Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI). Interestingly enough, Applera's Celera Group (NYSE: CRA) was largely overlooked on this news.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) was a loser yet again with shares down 8% at $21.80 in today's final minutes. The brokerage firm fired its COO and its CFO in a move to try to install confidence, but it ain't working.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) might as well change its name to Uh-Oh! Inc. and Jerry Yang is looking so bad that we might want to bring Terry Semel back. The company's buyout chances from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) are formally toast and history, and it is likely entering an ad-search deal with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Yahoo! shares are down 11.6% at $23.11 in the final minutes today.

Tags: applied biosystems, AppliedBiosystems, charter communications, CharterCommunications, invitrogen, jerry yang, JerryYang, terry semel, TerrySemel