Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.invest From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: invest Fri, Apr 24 1992 Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 05:26:46 EDT Message-ID: 04-24 0000 DECISIONLINE: Personal Investing USA TODAY Update April 24-26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network LATE RALLY LIFTS DOW: A rally in the last hour of trading pushed the Dow into positive territory Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.84 points to 3348.61. Other indexes were narrowly mixed. Advancing issues lagged losers 830 to 857 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 238 million shares. DROP IN RATES SPURS STOCK: A pullback in bond rates spurred a late stock rally Thursday on Wall Street. After Treasury bond yields surged early in the day, they fell, but were still up. The 30-year T-bond yield finished up at 8.04% from 8.03% Wednesday. The drop in rates from about 8.10% earlier in the day sparked a stock rally, says Al Goldman, chief market technician at A.G. Edwards. DRUG, MEDICAL STOCKS DOWN: Drug and other medical stocks fell thursday. Merck closed down 2 7:8 at $139 3:4. At one point, sell orders for Merck were so overwhelming that trading in the stock halted briefly. Schering-Plough lost 1 5:8 to $51 7:8. Agouron lost 2 to $12 1:2 after it reported problems with a study for its anti-psoriasis drug. Amgen lost 2 to $53. Immune Response fell 3 3:8 to $17 5:8. CYCLICAL STOCKS GAIN: Stocks sensitive to economic cycles did well Thursday. AMR gained 2 to $67 3:4. Delta, despite lower earnings, rose 2 5:8 to $60 1:2. UAL, parent of United, surged 4 1:4 to $127. Ford rose 1 3:8 to $44 1:8. GM tacked on 3:8 to $42 3:8. Du Pont rose 2 1:4 to $52. Illinois Tool Works gained 2 1:8 to $64 1:2. Farm-machine maker Deere gained 2 1:8 to $51 1:8. INVESTORS PUNISH J&J: Johnson & Johnson is the latest victim of growing investor disdain for stocks that did well during the recession. Shares of J&J fell 2 1:8 to $90 7:8 Thursday even though it reported an 11% gain in first-quarter earnings. J&J reported first-quarter earnings of $1.39 a share, up from $1.25 last year. Net income for the quarter was $464 million, up from $418 million last year. TENNECO SALE CHEERED: Diversified energy company Tenneco got rave reviews from analysts and its stock rose 4 to $43 Thursday after the company said it will sell Tenneco Minerals for $500 million. "Fabulous," says David Bartlett of First Hanover Securities. "The market has been waiting for them to sell something, anything." The sale, to a unit of Solvay of Belgium, is expected to be completed in June. RESTAURANTS CALLED OVERPRICED: USA TODAY columnist Dan Dorfman reports that Chicago money manager Bruce Ovitz is high on restaurant chains, short-selling restaurant chain stocks that is. "It's the most overpriced group in the stock market," says Ovitz, head of Grant Partners. "Their valuations are insanity and then some." He says restaurant chains are the next high-flying group to fall. HEINZ CEO HIGHEST PAID: H.J. Heinz's Anthony O'Reilly was the USA's highest-paid CEO last year at $75 million, Business Week reports in its May 4 issue. Business Week surveyed 363 of the USA's largest companies and found that the average CEO salary and bonus dropped 7% last year. But when long-term compensation such as profits from stock options are factored in, total pay jumped 20% to a record average $2.5 million. DR PEPPER-7 UP TO OFFER STOCK: Dr Pepper-Seven Up, the fourth largest U.S. soft drink company, says it will sell 29.8 million shares to the public. The offering, first announced earlier this month, is expected to raise about $600 million for the company. The money will be used to pay debt. Dr Pepper, 7-Up and other brands produced by the company accounted for 6% of the U.S. soft-drink market last year. EXXON, TEXACO EARNINGS WEAK: Exxon and Texaco, joining other major U.S. oil companies, reported weak first-quarter earnings compared with a year earlier. Net income for Exxon, the USA's largest oil company, dropped 40% to $1.4 billion or $1.07 a share from $2.2 billion or $1.78 a share a year earlier. No. 3 Texaco's net income fell 52% to $200 million or 68 cents a share from $415 million or $1.51 a share a year earlier. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Friday at 3348.61, after closing up 9.84 Thursday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 226.16, up 0.74. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 386.26, down 0.09. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 576.05, down 2.18. DOLLAR OPENS UP: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Friday. It opens at 0.5666 British pounds, down from 0.5675; 5.6180 French francs, up from 5.6150; 134.80 Japanese yen, up from 134.15; and 1.6698 German marks, up from 1.6630. (As of 3 p.m. Thursday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) 24-HOUR TELEPHONE INFORMATION: USA TODAY Money Hot Line. 95 cents a minute. 1-900-555-5555. Personal Investing Editor: Jason Smith. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM