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Market Wrap: Buffett Can't Close; Facebook: Let the Show Begin; Discounting AIG; France. Greece. Politics.

May 7, 2012 5:50 PM EDT
Market wrap-up for May 7th

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 29.7 to 13,008.53; Nasdaq up 1.4 to 2,957.76; S&P 500 up 0.5 to 1,369.58

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • Elections, austerity concerns drive Europe lower: France elected Fancois Hollande, a socialist who opposes austerity, as President. In Greece, the stock market sank 7 percent after voters punished the political parties responsible for tough austerity measures. The political stalemate between the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK raises concerns about the fate of the multibillion dollar international bailout.

  • Well, if its there, then anyone can use it...right?: Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) received a mixed ruling in a patent infringement case with Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL). According to reports out Monday, Google was found to infringe on Oracle's Java interface patent when developing the Android operating system. No verdict was reached on whether or not the software is protected under the "fair-use" doctrine.

    In addition, the judge in the case said Oracle would only be awarded statutory damages, not a portion of Google's profits.

  • Treasury puts discount on large money: American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) reported earlier the U.S. Department of the Treasury has priced an offering of 163,934,426 shares of its AIG common stock at the public offering price of $30.50 per share.

    The price was a 1.1 percent discount from Friday's close at $30.83. AIG ended the session about 3 percent lower.

  • The social media three-ring roadshow begins: Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) commenced its roadshow Monday and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed up for the event. Facebook has been getting much analyst love even ahead of going public. Some of the recent calls include:
    • Wedbush starting coverage with an Outperform rating and a $44 price target.
    • Sterne Agee at Buy and $46 price target.
  • Evidently, mega-huge multi-billion dollar M&A deals are tougher to get through than previously thought: Warren Buffett disclosed at the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) annual meeting that he recently considered a $22 billion acquisition, although he couldn't get the deal closed. The name of his targeted company wasn't mentioned.

    Hmm...wonder if any insider is buying/selling ahead of the deal.
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