Oil Surge Limits Stock Gains

0

Stocks ended higher on Monday, as investors weighed the departure of Morgan Stanley CEO Phil Purcell against surging oil prices.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9.93, or 0.1 percent, to settle at 10,522.56. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 2.71, or 0.2 percent, to 1,200.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.96, or 0.3 percent, to 2,068.96.


After a nasty internal battle, Purcell surrendered to calls for his ouster from unhappy investors after dozens of departures and years of listless stock performance. Morgan Stanley shares have fallen 32 percent over the past five years.


Meanwhile, oil prices spiked to a seven-week high ahead of this week’s OPEC meeting. Members are expected to raise their daily output quota by 500,000 barrels, but analysts said the move would do little to ease prices. Light crude for July delivery surged $2.08 to end the day at $55.62 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


Among local companies, shares of National Technical Systems, Inc. rose 1.3 percent to $4.66 after the Calabasas-based technical services supplier reported net income of $734,000 (8 cents per diluted share) for the first quarter ended April 30, compared with $533,000 (6 cents) for the like period a year earlier.


And ValueClick Inc. gained 1.2 percent to $10.40 after the Westlake Village-based online advertising firm agreed to buy privately held companies Web Marketing Holdings Inc. and E-Babylon Inc. in cash and stock deals worth nearly $156 million. Both transactions are expected to close in July. ValueClick said it plans to update its 2005 guidance once the acquisitions have closed.


On the down side, shares of MannKind Corp. fell14 percent, to $9.83 after the Valencia-based biopharmaceutical company’s stock was downgraded to “market perform” from “outperform” by Piper Jaffray & Co. In his brief, analyst Thomas Wei said the rating cut was based on the company’s former chief medical officer Wendell Cheatham filing suit against MannKind, alleging it made false statements to the Food and Drug Administration about the manufacture of Technosphere Insulin.

No posts to display