| Goodyear Announces Conversion Period for Convertible Notes
AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: GT) today announced that its 4.00 % Convertible Senior Notes due June 15, 2034 are now convertible at the option of the holders and will remain convertible through March 31, 2008, the last business day of the current fiscal quarter. The notes became convertible because the last reported sale price of the company's common stock for at least 20 trading days during the 30 consecutive trading-day period ending on January 16, 2008 (the 11th trading day of the current fiscal quarter), was greater than 120 percent of the conversion price in effect on such day. The notes have been convertible in previous fiscal quarters. The company will deliver shares of its common stock or pay cash upon conversion of any notes surrendered on or prior to March 31, 2008.
QQQQ to Nasdaq Composite: See Ya
EVERYONE KNOWS IT'S A MARKET of stocks, not a stock market. But that old saw even holds for traders of index funds, notably those based on the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq-100. So far in 2007, the Nasdaq Composite's total return is up 19.09%, while the Nasdaq-100 -- the basis for the popular QQQQ exchange-traded fund, is up 27.74%. The outperformance of the QQQQ is so significant that it has persuaded most options traders and investors to consider less-diversified investment strategies, Credit Suisse derivatives strategists Ed Tom and Glenn DeSouza said in a recent trading advisory. The ETF (now officially called PowerShares QQQ Trust due to a licensing marketing agreement) consists of only the top 100 Nasdaq nonfinancial stocks. The Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) consists of all the listed Nasdaq stocks, which now totals about 3,000 companies.
NetSuite IPO closes, generates $185 million
The $185.4 million is a gross amount from which underwriting discounts and expenses will be deducted, the company said. Moreover, 365,000 of the shares bought by the underwriters were owned by stockholders like NetSuite's CEO and chief technology officer, so the proceeds from those shares -- about $9.5 million -- won't go to the company. In the final IPO prospectus, NetSuite had estimated that, if the underwriters exercised their option in full -- as they did -- NetSuite's IPO net proceeds would be approximately $161.9 million. NetSuite initially set a range of $13 to $16 per share for its IPO but subsequently raised it and eventually set the price at $26 per share on Thursday of last week, the day when the stock started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the "N" symbol.
Cadbury misses party amid rival's woes
Cadbury Schweppes was among just four blue chip stocks to end in the red yesterday as sentiment switched from panic selling to buying. The FTSE 100 closed up 266.5 at 5,875.8, nearly 5 per cent higher, but Cadbury Schweppes fell 2 per cent, hit by a warning from its struggling US rival Hershey. Hershey – sometimes seen as a potential Cadbury merger candidate, although its controlling trust is thought to be more interested in turning the business around - gave warning that input costs had increased dramatically in 2007 and that it expected commodity and energy costs to increase at similar levels this year. Cadbury, which is to report full-year figures next month, fell 11½p to 552½p. Last month it said it was aiming to raise prices in 2008 to offset input costs that would be up to 6 per cent higher.
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