Stocks Up as Oil Prices Drop

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Stocks rallied back on Tuesday as crude oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel and consumer confidence jumped to a three-year high.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.85, or 1.1 percent, to 10,405.63. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 10.88, or 0.9 percent, to 1,201.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 24.69, or 1.2 percent, to 2,069.89.


U.S. crude oil futures, which had closed above $60 per barrel Monday for the first time, fell more than $2 on Tuesday amid profit-taking. Crude for August delivery fell $2.34 to settle at $58.20 a barrel.


And the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to its highest level since 2002. That boosted the markets to rebound from last week’s oil-driven selling that shed more than 325 points from the Dow.


Among local movers, shares of SeeBeyond Technology Corp. surged 30.8 percent to $4.29 after the Monrovia-based provider of business-integration software agreed to be acquired by Sun Microsystems Inc. for $387 million in cash. Under the agreement, Santa Clara-based Sun said it will pay $4.25 a share, a 30 percent premium to SeeBeyond’s Monday closing price of $3.28 a share. The deal includes the assumption of employee stock options.


Rotonics Manufacturing Inc. gained 6.9 percent to $3.26 after the Gardena-based plastics products manufacturer declared an annual dividend of 5 cents per common share. The dividend will be payable July 29 to shareholders of record as of July 18. This marks the company’s ninth dividend payment since 1996. Rotonics, in a statement, said “the overall economic outlook still looks positive.” The company also said its financial condition remains strong and that its debt borrowings are at their lowest levels.


And Ryland Group Inc. rose 3.5 percent to $76.30 after the Calabasas-based homebuilder’s stock was raised to “buy” from “neutral” by analyst Daniel Oppenheim at Banc of America. The 12-month price target was set at $84 per share.


On the down side, shares of Summa Industries slipped 2 percent to $8.06 after the Torrance-based plastic products developer reported net income of $508,000 (13 cents per diluted share) for the third quarter ended May 31, compared with $1.4 million (30 cents) for the like period a year earlier. Revenue fell to $31.5 million from $33.2 million in the year-ago period.

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