Wall St: Wednesday mid-session

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

LAST night's decision by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady and a report today suggesting inflation remains a non-issue, had investors searching for bargains, sending stocks higher at the half-way stage.

The Consumer Price Index, a key indicator of inflation, rose by only 0.3% in February, a drop from the 0.5% rise posted in January. Without a major hike in the CPI, it is likely the Fed, which kept rates unchanged on Tuesday, will stay the course - possibly through the rest of the year, analysts said.

At midday, the Dow was up 107.18, or 1% at 10,291.85 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 28.61, or 1.5% at 1,971.70.

The merger wave moved to the technology sector as Fisher Scientific International announced it would buy Apogent Technologies for $3.7 billion in stock. Both companies make scientific and laboratory equipment. Fisher was up $1.63 at $53.95, while Apogent rose $2.27 to $30.05.

Bear Stearns added to the good news in the financial sector, beating Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter by 52 cents per share. Bear Stearns fell 62 cents to $87.38.

FedEx surged $2.75 to $71.18 after it narrowly beat analysts' estimates for its most recent quarter. Profits rose 41 percent year-over-year at the shipping giant.

Scholastic, publisher of the Harry Potter series and other children's books, fell $2.95, or 9.5% to $28.22 after posting a quarterly loss that missed Wall Street estimates by 16 cents per share and issuing a worse-than-expected outlook for the year.

The European Union said it would be ready to finish its antitrust case against Microsoft by next week, even as regulators continued to meet with company officials in an attempt to reach a settlement and avoid sanctions. Microsoft was up 10 cents at $25.28.

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