Closing Bell: The Bears Stay Alive (ORCL, HPQ, NE, GE, DRYS, IDIX)

Posted Sep 7th 2010 4:20PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Oracle Corp (ORCL)

Today was a down day that started in Europe with new fears that the stress tests for banks really offered nothing of consequence and the fears that the real exposure is not known. There was no economic data in the US after a long three-day weekend.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,340.69 -107.24 (-1.03%)
S&P 500 1,091.84 -12.67 (-1.15%)
Nasdaq 2,208.89 -24.86 (-1.11%)

Top Analyst Calls

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) rallied after hiring away Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ)'s former CEO, Mark Hurd. HP sued Hurd on the news. Oracle shares were up 6.3% at $24.38 versus HP shares being down 1% at $39.94 shortly before the closing bell.

Noble Corporation (NE) rose after Barron's called it a cheap way to play the oil drilling game. Shares were up 3.35% at $33.80 shortly before the close.

General Electric Company (GE) did not get the 'down market memo' today as shares were up 0.5% at $15.47 late right before the close. This was one of the lower discounts to fair value according to a Morningstar note.

DryShips Inc. (DRYS) fell after it again said it was raising more cash via stock sales. Shares were down 5.6% at $4.17 right before the closing bell.

Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX) lost nearly half of its value after halting a Hepatitis C drug study due to safety issues. Shares were down over 46% at $3.20 right before the close.

Tags: down market, dryships, europe, idenix