Filed under: Google (GOOG), Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Washington Mutual (WM)

Today would be described as being choppy disappointment at best. The markets started out strong on a government bailout proposal for GSE’s but traders went right back to shorting financials on big gap ups. After today, we’ll get major earnings reports coming on a non-stop basis and tomorrow we’ll also start to see some key data around producer prices tomorrow morning. Here are today’s unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11,052.10 (-48.44)
S&P500 1,228.02 (-11.46)
NASDAQ 2,212.87 (-26.21)
10YR T-Note 3.88% (-0.06%)
52-WEEK LOWS
TOP ANALYST UPGRADES
TOP ANALYST DOWNGRADES

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BUD) saw a gain as the company finally capitulated and agreed to be acquired now that InBev boosted its buyout offer price to $70.00 from $65.00.

Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CRME) has released positive Phase IIb 90-day results for its oral Vernakalant for atrial fibrillation before the open today. Shares are responding with a significant rise on the report with a gain of 26% to $10.53 in today’s final minutes.

Despite Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) being initiated with a BUY rating at Deutsche Bank, shares of the internet search leader were down 2.6% at $519.93 in today’s final minutes of trading.

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) saw a very wild day. Shares gapped up massively on the first inklings of a government bailout plan that doesn’t send shareholders to zero. But after traders got to analyze everything further, they sold shares off. In today’s final minutes of trading, shares of Fannie Mae were up almost 2% at $10.45 and Freddie Mac were actually down in negative territory by -0.65% at $7.70.

Rumors and selling continued to pressure many banking stocks. Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) saw yet another large drop with shares down 29% at $3.48 in today’s final minutes.

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI) is switching around the merger game. The company has announced today that it has made a proposal to Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) to acquire Republic for $34.00 per common share in cash. Republic’s shares were up nearly 14% at $31.75 in late-afternoon trading.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 2:15 am and is filed under Goog news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.