Shares News

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) - Shares in Assurant Inc. rose 7% Friday after analysts upgraded their views of the company's business outlook and praised its management team. Fox-Pitt Kelton raised its 2006 earnings estimate on the insurance company ( AIZ) to $4.02 a share from $4. The 2007 estimate was increased to $4.75 a share from $4.50 on a positive forecast for individual medical sales and the addi ...

Retailers boosted the benchmark index on Friday after reports that some major players in the sector could be looking to release value from their property portfolios. The FTSE 100 added 0.3%, or 20.30 points, to 6,010.40, also supported by oil companies such as BP (BP) and mining stocks. European markets were lifted by further consolidation news. Supermarket Tescoclimbed 3.4% to 346 pence aft ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) - It hasn't fully recovered from the dot-com meltdown, but the Jacob Internet Fund is on the mend. Last year, Jacob Internet (JAMFX) returned 10.8% while the Nasdaq Composite was flat. The year before, the fund rose 32.3%, roughly quadruple the Nasdaq's advance. A 101.3% gain in 2003 was more than twice the Nasdaq's rise. Those gains contribute to the fund's three-year 4 ...

BOSTON (Dow Jones) -- As chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, the panel that decides which companies get into the S&P 500, David Blitzer is arguably one of the stock market's most influential figures but also one of its most commonly second-guessed. S&P ended longtime speculation over Google Inc.'s (GOOG) entry to the venerable index when it gave the search-engine g ...

Merger-and-acquisition moves supported European stock markets once more Friday, with the action this time centered on German drugmakers and France's Alcatel. The German DAX 30 indexeased 0.1% at 5,941, the French CAC 40 indexincreased 0.01%, to 5,194 and the U.K. FTSE 100 indexrose 0.2% at 6,003.. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 indexadvanced 0.1% at 336.70, also helped by energy compan ...

Spread betting has seen explosive growth over the last few years as investors have been lured into the market by favourable tax breaks, the potential for large wins and the ability to make money in falling markets. // TradIndex, a spread betting firm, is representative of the industry. It saw sales treble last year and said it is seeing thousands of new people come to its website every week. Spread betting has become popular with a wide range of investors as the betting process is simple – bet ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Google Inc. just formally joined the blue-chip stock society. Shares of Google (GOOG) leapt nearly 10% in pre-open trading Friday after Standard & Poor's said it would add the company to its benchmark S&P 500 Index. Google, already the Internet's most closely followed stock, will be added to the index as of the close of trading on March 31, Standard & P ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Just a few days ago, many on Wall Street had left General Motors Corp. for dead. Now, after two much-needed parts of its recovery strategy fell into place this week, the beleaguered company is beginning to regain its pulse, analysts say. The landmark early-retirement agreement that GM (GM) reached with its bankrupt parts maker Delphi Corp. (DPHIQ) and its unioniz ...

By Trevor Datson LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco shares leapt to a new high on a newspaper report that it was looking to extract more value from its property assets, but Britain's biggest retailer said on Friday it had no immediate plans. "We are always looking at the different possibilities and of course we won't rule anything out, but there is nothing major on the cards right now," Tesco spokesman Jonathan Church said. Tesco (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) shares jumped almost 5 percent to a n ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest insurer Aviva dropped its planned 17 billion pound all-share bid for Prudential on Friday after failing to win over the board of Prudential, its closest rival. Prudential (PRU.L: Quote, Profile, Research) shares fell as much as 7 percent on the news, while Aviva's (AV.L: Quote, Profile, Research) stock climbed on relief among investors that it would not increase its proposed offer. "In coming to its decision, the board of Aviva determined that it was not  ...