Today started out strong and stayed positive all day, even if some commented that the highs were not held. The weak dollar helped commodities and helped stocks. A 10.1% October sales rise by the National Association of Realtors by those trying to get the home buyer tax credit didn't hurt either. Ditto for a reiteration that the recession is over. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,450.04 +131.88 (1.28%)
S&P 500 1,106.13 +14.75 (1.35%)
Nasdaq 2,175.96 +29.92 (1.39%)
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Diedrich Coffee (DDRX) rose sharply as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) confirmed that it has submitted a proposal to acquire Diedrich Coffee for $30.00 per share in a transaction with a total enterprise value of approximately $247 million. This was above a prior offer from Peet's Coffee & Tea (PEET), but Peet's raised its offer to $32.00. Diedrich shares were up 29% at $33.50 at the end of the day.
Elsewhere in the in world of coffee, Starbucks, Inc. (SBUX) was raised to BUY at Jefferies and shares were up 1% at $21.63 on the news ahead of this afternoon's closing bell.
eBay, Inc. (EBAY) was probably lucky today. The online auction giant had a search outage on Saturday that lasted for hours. Shares were still up 2.6% at $23.39 in the final minutes of the trading day.
CIGNA (CI) was an almost shocker. Despite the debate vote being opened by the Senate for its healthcare package, shares were up over 7% at $32.21 late in the day, with an analyst upgrade helping to push shares. Many of these are very close to 52-week highs.
Tech Data (TECD) rose after the technology and communications products distribution giant posted $0.84 EPS on a 9.5% drop in revenues to $5.64 billion. Thomson Reuters had Estimates at $0.71 EPS and $5.33 billion in revenues; it also sees Q4 sales higher in the low to mid single digits rather than an expected slight drop. Shares were up 1.6% at $43.51 right before the close.
Jon Ogg is a partner and editor at 24/7 Wall Street.
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