It doesn't take much to lift the stock market these days as investors latch on to any sign of an economic turnaround amid rising fuel costs, food price inflation and escalating home foreclosures. Wednesday was no exception, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 66.20 points, to close at 12,898.38, following a Labor Department report that consumer prices for April advanced 0.2% after a 0.3% March rise, alleviating fears of a significant up-tick in prices on energy costs. Fuel cost concerns were also tempered, at least for the day, as light sweet crude oil fell from record levels by $1.58 to $124.22 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Continue reading below
Pending merger partners Delta Air Lines Inc.'s and Northwest Airlines Corp.'s shares got a double-whammy of good news -- the aforementioned oil price data and news that Delta pilots have
voted in favor of contract changes designed to facilitate the merger. Delta union chairman Lee Moak in a letter to membership Wednesday said 78% of the 4,590 voting pilots agreed to the modifications, which give pilots a 3.5% stake in the merged company in exchange for work rule changes that will allow Delta to place its code and brand name on Northwest flights. The deal does not include Northwest pilots, who so far have not been able to reach an agreement with their counterparts at Delta on how to integrate seniority lists. Delta shares soared 7.58% to close at $7.95, and Northwest jumped 7.72% to $9.21.
Yahoo! Inc. continued to climb, gaining 2.18%, to $27.14, as investors wait on word from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who late last week, according to a Tuesday
CNBC report, bought about 50 million shares in the company and is expected to launch a proxy fight to nominate a slate to replace some existing board members. Maybe if Icahn keeps investors guessing long enough, the stock will completely recover the 15% it lost on May 5 to close at $24.37 after Yahoo! rejected Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion acquisition offer. -
Michael Rudnick
