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Associated Press | Oil prices on Thursday dropped to levels not seen since February, as the stock market plummeted. Benchmark crude lost $2.86 to settle at $77.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil hit $73.71 on Feb. 16 and has lost almost $10 a barrel since Monday.
Get the full story: Oil prices slide along with stock market.
By Nathaniel Popper | Wall Street fell off a cliff Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial
average dropping nearly 1,000 points, before recovering to close down
347 points on the day.
With less than 90 minutes left in the trading day, the Dow was down more
than 250 points points on continued concerns about Greece’s debt crisis
and the possibility it could set off another global financial meltdown.
Then, in about 15 minutes, the blue-chip average plummeted about 700
more points, then promptly regained that amount.
Associated Press | Stocks plunged around the world Tuesday as fears spread that Europe’s
attempt to contain Greece’s
debt crisis would fail. The euro fell to its lowest point against the
dollar in a year.
The Dow Jones industrial average
lost 225 points, its biggest drop in three months. The slide erased a
143-point gain from Monday. The Dow and broader indexes each fell more
than 2 percent. Meanwhile, Treasury prices rose on increased demand for
safe investments.
Get the full story: Stocks plunge around the world.
Dow Jones Newswires | Shares of Nalco Holding Co. leapt Monday on the news that oil giant BP is planning
to use the company’s chemicals to help clean up the massive oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nalco, which is based in Naperville, makes a dispersant chemical that will help break down the
oil. Its shares jumped 18 percent to $29.25, hitting its highest point since October 2007. Other companies with possible roles in the cleanup also climbed Monday,
including Clean Harbors Inc. BP said it will pay the costs to clean
up the spill.
From the Wall Street Journal | Chicago-based metal processor and distributor Ryerson Holding Corp. plans an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange this week that could raise as much as $423 million based on the proposed price range.
Get the full story: wsj.com
| GAINERS | % | LOSERS | % | MOST ACTIVE | Vol (000) |
| Brunswick | +27.33 | Career Education | -12.36 | Motorola | 57,775 |
| OfficeMax | +12.35 | DeVry Inc. | -4.78 | Smurfit-Stone | 15,604 |
| Smurfit-Stone | +11.11 | Allstate Corp. | -1.48 | Allstate | 11,904 |
| Tenneco | +9.44 | Morningstar Inc. | -1.35 | Tellabs | 11,801 |
| Strategic Hotels | +9.09 | Alberto-Culver | -1.32 | Kraft | 11,464 |
See results from Chicago’s
Top 100 companies.
Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | OptionsXpress Holdings Inc.’s first-quarter profit fell by 12%
from a year ago as lower volatility and a drop in trading volume
weighed on results at the options brokerage.
However, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, the Chicago
company’s chief executive, David Fisher, said, “We kind of feel like we
reached a bottom and are starting to see a rebound,” referring to
improvements in several metrics as well as clients’ trading behavior.
Get the full story: wsj.com.
By Greg Burns | As federal legislation reforming the financial system inches closer to a vote on Capitol Hill, Chicago’s CME Group is gaining ground in the stock market, as investors see gold in the back-office clearing of over-the-counter derivatives.
A Democrat-backed measure in the Senate would push leading U.S. banks to spin off their lucrative derivatives trading desks and introduce new clearing requirements in the vast market for swaps. CME, which runs one of the world’s top derivatives clearinghouses, saw its stock rise Monday to $346.88 per share as of midday, up $12. CME shares briefly dipped below $270 apiece in mid-February.
The Chicago-based operator of futures exchanges is slated to report its earnings Thursday morning. A CME spokesman declined to comment on the legislation, saying, “We continue to review the proposals.”
Dow Jones Newswires | Shares of Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax
Inc. traded sharply higher Monday after analysts said they saw
improvement in the office-supply industry in the first quarter.
Office-supply companies have been hurt by the recession as consumers and
businesses curbed spending and delayed big purchases. But Credit Suisse
said in a note Monday that channel checks point to a modest but slow
improvement last quarter. “This sector has not yet seen the pickup other
retail sectors have shown,” the firm said, hinting at room for growth,
as it raised its stock-investment rating on Office Depot to neutral from
underperform.
From Bloomberg | Oakbrook Terrace-based DeVry Inc. fell on the New York Stock Exchange after an analyst at Credit Suisse Group cut her rating on the company. The stock fell $4.50, or 6.5 percent, to $64.96 at 10:24 a.m.
Get the full story: businessweek.com.
Dow Jones Newswires | BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it
entered into a deal which carries an option for “a major pharmaceutical
company” to get a non-exclusive license to use BioSante’s antibody
technology. Shares gained 11.68 percent to $2.39 in recent premarket
trading. The stock through Friday was up 48 percent in 2010.
Tribune staff | Shares of Sauer-Danfoss Inc. were up nearly 14
percent, to $17.74, in late afternoon trading Friday after its board
rejected a sweetened offer of $14 a share from Danfoss Acquistion Inc.
It also rescinded a recommendation that shareholders accept an earlier
offer of $13.25 a share from the subsidiary of the company’s majority
stockholder, Danfoss A/S.
The board of the Ames, Iowa-based hydraulic equipment maker cited
improved projections for the rest of this year, 2011 and 2012 in making
its latest recommendation.
By Becky Yerak | Chicago-based lender PrivateBancorp saw its stock
close up 10.8 percent Wednesday, at $16.34 a share, as it moved in tandem
with other lenders posting good results. PrivateBancorp has grown rapidly
since 2007, but has recently experienced problems with loan quality.
PrivateBancorp hired dozens of LaSalle Bank lenders after the latter institution was bought by Bank of America Corp. in October 2007. PrivateBancorp doesn’t
report its first-quarter earnings until Monday. But analysts said investors were
encouraged by results they saw Wednesday at other Midwest lenders,
including Itasca-based First Midwest Bancorp Inc., and Columbus,
Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares Inc.
Associated Press | Blockbuster iPhone sales helped Apple Inc.
blow past Wall Street’s expectations with a 90 percent leap in net
income for the most recent quarter. Shares skyrocketed in extended
trading Tuesday. Apple said it sold nearly 9 million of its popular
iPhone smart phones in the three months that ended March 27, more than
double sales from a year ago.
After a brief trading halt, investors sent Apple’s stock bounding up
$17.31, or 7.1 percent, to $261.90 in after-hours trading. Earlier, the
stock had shed $2.48 to close at $244.59.
Dow Jones Newswires | Packaging Corp. of America’s fourth-quarter profit declined 25% due to lower product prices and higher recycled fiber and pulpwood costs, which offset higher revenue.
The paper-products company projected second-quarter earnings of about 30 cents a share, below Wall Street’s target of 33 cents, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Lake Forest-based Packaging Corp. attributed the view to higher pricing, although it said most of the increases wouldn’t be realized until the third quarter. Meanwhile, three mills are expected to be down for maintenance outages during the quarter, which will reduce production and increase costs.
