|
CNNfn market movers
|
 |
September 3, 1998: 2:21 p.m. ET
Retailers, airlines and tech stocks are atop the movers in gloomy Wall St. day
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - An overall negative mood weighed on Wall Street, taking with it the stocks of several airlines, retailers and technology companies.
Eli Lilly (LLY) rose 3-1/2 to 72-3/4 after Lehman Brothers said a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel's recommendation for approval of Zeneca Group's (ZEN) breast cancer drug Tamoxifen should be good news for Lilly's Evista as well.
Cross Continental Auto (XC) climbed 2-13/16 to 9-1/4 after Republic Industries (RII) announced its latest buyout deal and unveiled a $145 million buyout of the franchise auto retailer.
Swiss Air accident hits airline stocks
Already weakened airline stocks took yet another blow following Wednesday's crash of Swissair Flight 111 near the Canadian coast in which all 229 people aboard were presumed killed.
Fifty-three passengers and a flight attendant from Delta Air Lines (DAL) were also aboard Swissair Flight 111 as part of a code-sharing deal between the two carriers. Delta shares were off 3-15/16 to 93-7/8.
Also dragging on the Dow Transports index were Alaska Air Group (ALK), off 3-3/16 to 34-1/8, AMR (AMR), parent of American Airlines, slipping 1 to 51-3/16, UAL (UAL), the parent of United Airlines, down 2-1/8 to 59-3/4.
America West Airlines (AWA), which isn't included in the Dow Transports index, slipped 5-5/16 to 14-7/16 after reporting its August passenger load factor fell to 72.8 percent, from 74.7 percent in the same month last year.
Tech stocks among the losers
CMP Media (CMPX) fell 4-7/8 to 10-5/8 after the technology magazine publisher said it expects third quarter net income of a penny to 2 cents a share, well below last year's figures, due to slow sales growth in the industry.
MVSI (MVSI) plunged 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 percent, after the computer support provider said it canceled its open-market buyback of 1 million shares, blaming market conditions for the move.
But also the tech world, USCS International (USCS) soared 4-1/4 to 30-1/4, or roughly 16 percent, after the provider of financial software DST Systems (DST) said it would pay $874 million to buy the provider of customer management software.
DST shares plunged 9 to 51-1/2, or more than 10 percent, after a late open to trading.
VLSI Technology (VLSI) dropped 1-1/4 to 7-9/16 after the computer chip maker warned its earnings for its third quarter will fall short of the consensus analyst estimates of 13 cents a share, as compiled by First Call. VLSI also said it will take a charge for a workforce reduction.
Retailers hang out mixed results
BestBuy (BBY) shot up 4-5/8 to 48-15/16, nearly 10 percent, after the electronics vendor said it expects to report earnings of 40 cents a diluted share in its second quarter following record sales of $2.18 billion during that span.
The First Call consensus analyst estimate for the Best Buy's quarterly earnings was 16 cents a diluted share.
Other retailers put their monthly same-store sales numbers - in stores open at least a year - for August on display Thursday.
One bright spot was Costco (COST). The membership warehouse wholesaler soared 5-5/16 to 50-3/8 after posting a six percent gain in same-store sales.
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette named the stock its top pick of the day. And separately, Costco denied speculation the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contacted it about its accounting practices.
Among bellwether retailers, Kmart (KM) stayed unchanged at 13 after saying its same-store sales rose 2.9 percent, and J.C. Penney (JCP) fell 5/8 to 52-5/8 after reporting same-store sales fell 2.4 percent.
Dow issue Wal-Mart (WMT) drifted 1/8 to 59-13/16 after reporting a gain of 7.6 percent in August same-store sales, while Sears (S) lost 3/16 to 47-13/16 after posting a 0.3 percent drop in domestic same-store sales.
Talbot's (TLB) lost 7/8 to 22-15/16 after the women's clothing vendor said its same-store sales declined 3.7 percent. Rival AnnTaylor fell 3/4 to 25-9/16 despite reporting a 15.5 percent gain in same-store sales.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
