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| Currency | US Dollar |
|---|---|
| British Pound to US Dollar | 1.633720 |
| Euro to US Dollar | 1.398406 |
| Japanese Yen to US Dollar | 0.010414 |
| Canadian Dollar to US Dollar | 0.861846 |
On a day when stocks basically went nowhere, shares of Internet search giant Google (GOOG, news, msgs) topped $600 a share for the first time today.
That pushed its market value above $190 billion and ahead of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs), whose business is about 20 times bigger.
Google gained 2.6% to $609.62 today and is up 6.5% this month and 31% this year.
Wal-Mart, meanwhile, was down slightly today to about $45, a victim of worries about consumer spending. The stock has been stagnant in the past few years, falling 11% in 2005 and 1.3% in 2006. This year, the stock is down 2.3%.
If that's not enough, Google now has a market value greater than Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor (TM, news, msgs). Toyota shares fell slightly in New York to $117.29; its market cap sat the close of trading today was about $187 billion.
Market capitalization is the value of outstanding common shares.
Google and tech stocks generally were higher today. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped to a 7-point gain to 2,787. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, was down 22 points to about 14,044, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 5 points to just under 1,553.
If Google were in the Dow, the company would rank eighth in terms of market capitalization among the 30 stocks in the blue-chip index.
After just three years as a public company, Google shares have jumped more than 600%, and the company is now worth more than 22 of the 30 companies listed in the Dow.
Its market cap is nearly as large as the five Dow stocks with the smallest market caps combined: Caterpillar (CAT, news, msgs), DuPont (DD, news, msgs), Honeywell (HON, news, msgs), Alcoa (AA, news, msgs) and General Motors (GM, news, msgs).
At the same time, it would be the 23rd most valuable company in the world. While plenty of analysts say Google stock is headed to $700, it is still pricey: It trades at 45 times its projected 2007 earnings of $13.18 a share and 21% above its 200-day moving average, although it has traded as high as 62% above its 200-day average.
Seventeen of 23 analysts rate the stock a strong buy. Its 2006 earnings per share were nearly double earnings in 2005. But it looks now like the 2007 earnings will be only 30% higher than 2006 earnings.
- Video: Google's spectacular rise
Tech stocks were about the only strength in the market today. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, news, msgs) led the Dow with a 2% gain to $51.98, and IBM Corp. (IBM, news, msgs) and Intel (INTC, news, msgs) were among the top five Dow stocks today.
Apple (AAPL, news, msgs) jumped 4% to $167.91. Amazon.com (AMZN, news, msgs) rose 2.6% to $95.85, and Internet software company Akamai Technologies (AKAM, news, msgs) soared 8.4% to $33.92, tops among stocks in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which includes nearly all the biggest Nasdaq stocks. The latter index was up 0.6% to 2,163.
Meanwhile, the Amex Interactive Week Internet Index ($IIX.X), which includes Google, was up 0.8%.
What pulled the market lower? Economic worries, set off by an earnings warning from Ryder System (R, news, msgs), which said the economic slowdown has moved beyond the housing sectors.
At the same time, there was weakness in oil stocks, materials stocks and financials.
ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs) was down 0.7% to $90.68 as crude oil fell more than 2.7% to $79.02 a barrel in New York.
Stock Charts (Year)
Wal-Mart Stores
Ryder System
And Wal-Mart? It was down 0.2% to $45.27 as investors used the Ryder warnings to worry about consumer confidence and spending.
Ryder's nasty warning
Ryder shares fell after the trucking company warned that weak demand for commercial rentals would negatively affect its third-quarter earnings.The company, which leases trucks and trailers, expects to earn between $1.12 and $1.14 per share in the third quarter, below a previous forecast of between $1.20 and $1.23 per share.
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"Economic conditions have softened considerably in more industries beyond those related to housing and construction," the company said in a press release.
"Consequently, freight and shipment levels have weakened to a greater extent than previously anticipated. The impact to earnings is primarily driven by softer-than-anticipated demand in the commercial rental product line, as well as from lower pricing and higher carrying costs associated with used vehicles."
Shares fell nearly 6.8% to $45.92 today and was the biggest loser among S&P 500 stocks and among the 20 stocks in the Dow Jones Transportation Index ($TRAN). The index was down 1.2% today to 4,935.
Sprint's Forsee resigns
After the market close, cell phone company Sprint Nextel (S, news, msgs) said Gary Forsee had stepped down as CEO and chairman amid pressure from investors unhappy with the company's stock performance.The stock, which had dropped 2.7% to $18.50 in regular trading, jumped 0.5% to $18.59 in after-hours trading.
Sprint also confirmed the fears of some investors who worried that the company's already poor financial performance in recent months is deteriorating.
Sprint said today that it expects to report a third quarter net loss of approximately 337,000 subscribers in the key "post-paid" market segment -- customers who sign annual contracts and pay monthly bills.
Forsee's departure comes just two years after he engineered the $35 billion purchase of cellular operator Nextel Communications to keep pace with rapid consolidation in telecommunications.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company was actively seeking a replacement for Forsee.
| Mon. | Fri. | Chg. | Month chg. | YTD chg. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel) | $79.02 | $81.22 | -$2.20 | -3.23% | 29.43% |
| Heating oil (per gallon) | $2.1596 | $2.2235 | -$0.0639 | -3.50% | 35.15% |
| Natural gas (per million BTU) | $6.8460 | $7.0730 | -$0.2270 | -0.35% | 8.68% |
| Unleaded gasoline (per gallon) | $2.0002 | $2.0493 | -$0.0491 | -3.29% | 24.85% |
SAP does a big deal
Business software maker SAP (SAP, news, msgs) is buying French software maker Business Objects (BOBJ, news, msgs) in a deal worth $6.8 billion."The combination of SAP and Business Objects in their respective domains will benefit customers, prospects, partners, employees and shareholders," SAP Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said in a press release. "At SAP, we are excited about the prospect of having Business Objects join the SAP Group."
The purchase, SAP's biggest since it was founded in 1972, is a change for the company, one analyst said. It's "a dramatic shift in strategy," Thomas Hofmann, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, told Bloomberg News. "They're really moving toward the direction of Oracle (ORCL, news, msgs), and maybe that's because they're feeling Oracle is coming closer."
SAP's past strategy had been to foster organic growth, while rival Oracle has spent billions in acquisitions over the past few years.
Shares of Business Objects jumped 15%, to $57.83 today; SAP shares were down 4.9% to $56.36. Oracle was up 1.5% to $22.51.
Business Objects, which is based in Paris, will continue to operate as a stand-alone company. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, if Business Objects shareholders approve it and regulators clear it.
UAW talks with Chrysler speed up
The United Auto Workers union is preparing for another strike.The UAW, which began talks with Chrysler over the weekend, gave the newly private automaker until Tuesday to hash out a contract agreement. The UAW and General Motors agreed to a deal at the end of September after a two-day strike.
The GM deal was supposed to set a template for UAW agreements with the other big automakers -- but Chrysler, which is 80%-owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, reportedly wants a different deal than the one the UAW hammered out with GM.
The GM-UAW deal was historic because of the change in responsibility for retired workers' health-care costs, with GM shifting the $51 billion burden to a voluntary employees beneficiary association (VEBA). GM will contribute up to $35 billion to the VEBA, as the agreement with the UAW does not require GM to commit the full amount.
Video on MSN Money
Will stocks keep rising?The market's been rallying hard but has recently shown signs of profit-taking. Is there any money still on the sidelines? For now, probably not, says MSN Money's Jim Jubak. That may change after investors know more about third-quarter earnings and the Fed's next move.
Chrysler said it pays its workers the equivalent of $75.86 an hour, including pension and health-care costs. That's higher than the $73.26 GM pays its workers and the $70.51 at Ford Motor (F, news, msgs).
Vonage settles with Sprint Nextel
Internet-telephone-service company Vonage Holdings (VG, news, msgs) ended its patent dispute with Sprint Nextel in an $80 million settlement today.Vonage will pay $35 million for having licensed Sprint Nextel's Internet-calling technology in the past, and another $40 million to license it in the future. The last $5 million is a prepayment for other services.
Stock Charts (Year)
Vonage Holdings
Shares of Vonage rose $1.42, or 123%, to $2.57 on the day. The stock has plunged 74% since the beginning of the year.
Gas prices fall
The price of gas fell over the past two weeks to a national average of $2.75 per gallon of regular self-serve gasoline.Although the news might give some drivers relief, the average price of gas is still 47 cents higher than it was at this time last year.
The Lundberg Survey, which tallies prices at gas stations across the country, said that the lowest price for gasoline was in Newark, N.J., where prices averaged $2.52 a gallon. The most expensive gas was in Honolulu, where it was $3.08 a gallon.
What's on tap this week
The big news last week was Friday's September jobs report from the Labor Department. The number of jobs added in September rose by 110,000, above the consensus estimate, helping spark a strong rally.This week, investors will watch retail sales for September to see how consumers spent the last month of summer. Economists are expecting retail sales to rise 0.3%, after a 0.3% rise in August. The report will be released on Friday morning, before the market opens.
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The unofficial start to third-quarter earnings season also kicks off this week when Dow component Alcoa reports on Tuesday; analysts are looking for earnings of 65 cents per share.
| Mon. | Fri. | Chg. | Month chg. | YTD chg. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treasurys | |||||
| 13-week Treasury bill | 3.865% | 3.870% | -0.005 | 4.46% | -20.88% |
| 5-year Treasury note yield | 4.338% | 4.336% | 0.002 | 2.58% | -7.72% |
| 10-year Treasury note yield | 4.638% | 4.640% | -0.002 | 1.29% | -1.53% |
| 30-year Treasury bond yield | 4.861% | 4.871% | -0.010 | 0.58% | 0.89% |
| Currencies | |||||
| U.S. Dollar Index | 78.55 | 78.24 | 0.31 | 1.19% | -6.23% |
| British pound in dollars | $2.0387 | $2.0416 | -0.0029 | -0.43% | 4.04% |
| Dollar in British pounds | £0.4905 | £0.4898 | 0.0007 | 0.43% | -3.88% |
| Euro in dollars | 1.4069 | 1.4154 | -0.0086 | -1.39% | 6.58% |
| Dollar in euros | € 0.7108 | € 0.7065 | 0.0043 | 1.41% | -6.18% |
| Dollar in yen | ¥117.42 | ¥117.15 | 0.27 | 2.33% | -1.34% |
| Commodities | |||||
| Gold | $738.70 | $747.20 | -$8.50 | -1.51% | 15.78% |
| Copper | $3.6130 | $3.7255 | -$0.113 | -0.74% | 25.84% |
| Silver | $13.3600 | $13.4900 | -$0.13 | -4.02% | 4.29% |
| Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel) | $79.02 | $81.22 | -$2.20 | -3.23% | 29.43% |
By Charley Blaine and Elizabeth Strott
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