US HOT STOCKS: Lincoln National, Marsh & McLennan, Helix

14th Jun 2010 18:19

U.S. stocks traded higher Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 70 points to 10281, the Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 9 points to 1100 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 25 points to 2269. Among the companies whose shares are actively trading in the session are Lincoln National Corp. (LNC), Marsh & McLennan Cos. (MMC) and Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (HLX). Lincoln National (LNC, $27.82, +$1.46, +5.54%), one of three insurers to get a U.S. bailout, said it will repay the government with a planned sale of $335 million in stock and $750 million in debt. That is ahead of the schedule Chief Executive Dennis Glass had first announced when he predicted Lincoln could repay by end of 2010. Lincoln lags Hartford Financial (HIG, $24.98, +$0.97, +4.04%), which paid back the U.S. in March, but will be out of the program ahead of American International Group Inc. (AIG, $37.05, +$1.97, +5.62%). A unit of insurance conglomerate Marsh & McLennan (MMC, $22.90, +$0.82, +3.71%) settled a $2.8 billion lawsuit with the state of Alaska for a $500 million payment, alleviating a concern for investors and further clearing up the picture for Marsh. Helix Energy Solutions (HLX, $11.96, +$1.42, +13.47%) said late Sunday that one of its three offshore oil and gas production facilities was contracted by BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) to process and offload crude oil and associated gas. The move to lease the Helix Producer I comes after the U.S. demanded that BP act more quickly and aggressively to contain the oil flows. Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU, $6.90, +$0.40, +6.15%) climbed Monday on hopes the airline could benefit from a pilot strike at fellow discount carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. Analysts said JetBlue and AMR Corp. (AMR, $8.51, +$0.25, +3.03%), parent of American Airlines, are the two carriers most likely to benefit from Spirit's woes as they have flights that overlap with Spirit's service areas. Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC, $24.88, +$1.48, +6.32%) confirmed its acquisition of Bresnan Communications for $1.37 billion, and the company said it authorized $500 million for share repurchases in an effort to assuage shareholders' concerns about the deal. Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised its stock-investment rating on J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT, $35.25, +$1.51, +4.48%), a truckload and intermodal carrier, to buy from neutral. The firm said the stock has pulled back, while container demand is jumping this month and truck spot pricing is up significantly. Investors in for-profit educations stocks appeared to be selling ahead of the release of proposed industry regulation later this week. Meanwhile, a Congressional hearing will be held Thursday about the industry's accreditation issues. Among the biggest decliners were industry leader Apollo Group Inc. (APOL, $48.10, -$3.00, -5.86%), which earlier hit a 52-week low; DeVry Inc. (DV, $55.53, -$1.57, -2.75%) and ITT Educational Services Inc. (ESI, $95.59, -$2.13, -2.17%). Other Stocks In Focus: Actel Corp. (ACTL, $13.45, -$0.65, -4.61%) said it expects its second-quarter revenue to come in at the low end of the system and power-management solution company's prior view. CL King upgraded its stock-investment rating on Arris Group Inc. (ARRS, $11.08, +$0.49, +4.63%) to strong buy from accumulate, saying the shares are highly attractive and there are multiple positive catalysts for the supplier of cable equipment. The firm added it expects Arris to benefit from decisions by cable operators to move to faster Docsis 3.0 access speeds. BP PLC (BP, $30.83, -$3.14, -9.24%) fell again Monday on more concerns about the extent of its liabilities as it struggles to contain the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.K. major oil company said Monday that the cost of its response to the spill so far amounts to $1.6 billion, and more than 51,000 damages claims have been submitted, but added it was too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident. Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (BWLD, $39.08, +$1.44, +3.83%) got a boost from World Cup fever. The restaurant operator said lunch and midday sales were up 44% on Saturday during the USA match with England when compared with the same day last year. That compares with the 10% boost the chain recorded four years earlier when the U.S. team played Italy on a Saturday. Caris & Co. raised its stock-investment rating on CBS Corp. (CBS, $14.92, +$0.51, +3.54%) to above average from average, saying the media company will begin to see notable retransmission fees hit the income statement beginning in 2011 partly as a result of reverse compensation from non-CBS owned affiliates. Shares of alcohol producer China New Borun Corp. (BORN, $6.63, -$0.37, -5.29%) fell in its second day of trading. As the first initial public offering in June, China New Borun encountered the same wave of U.S. investor jitters that weighed on new stocks in May. The company had to cut its initial public offering asking price in half and the stock ended flat on its first day of trading. Ceragon Networks Ltd. (CRNT, $8.17, +$0.92, +12.69%) announced Philippine mobile telecommunications provider Digitel Mobile Philippines will buy an additional $9 million of its mobile network backhaul equipment as Digitel continues its expansion. Keefe Bruyette & Woods raised its stock-investment rating on bank-holding company East West Bancorp Inc. (EWBC, $17.01, +$1.40, +8.97%) to outperform from market perform, saying the company's recent acquisition of Washington First International Bank demonstrates East West's ability to grow "despite a lackluster organic loan growth environment by targeting important Asian-American markets outside of L.A." Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised its stock-investment rating on Harmonic Inc. (HLIT, $5.85, +$0.25, +4.46%) to buy from neutral, citing the recent pullback in the stock of the vendor of video processing equipment for cable, telco and satellite customers. The firm said Harmonic's recently announced intention to buy Omneon, a vendor of servers and storage systems, adds risks but makes Harmonic more diversified. (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires June 14, 2010 13:19 ET (17:19 GMT)