thoughts for tonight?, page-10

ASX to surge past 4080 at any moment......

Upbeat news across the board underpinned broad-based buying on heavy volume that closed virtually every sector to the upside and the major averages with gains of at least 1.2%... The market, which was poised to open slightly higher amid strong earnings, M&A activity and falling oil prices, got an added boost after Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. announced plans to more than double its existing 3.3% stake in General Motors (GM 32.77 +5.00) with a tender offer for up to 28 mln GM shares at $31 a share - a 13.4% premium...
The news prompted Merrill Lynch to upgrade the stock to Neutral, further fueling a buying frenzy that left the auto maker as the most actively traded issue on the NYSE and accounting for roughly 25% of the Dow's strong performance... But the news was anything but company-specific, as huge gains in Autos and Auto Parts were accompanied by strength in many other consumer cyclical stocks, as well as capital goods (i.e. aerospace) and transportation (i.e. trucking)...

Also contributing to a bullish bias that left barely a stone unturned in search of value and closed all ten economic sectors in positive territory, were better than expected earnings and a couple of multi-billion dollar mergers... This morning, Time Warner (TWX 17.20 +0.52) beat estimates by a penny while Cigna (CI 96.59 +2.14) handily beat forecasts and issued upside FY05 guidance... Last night, MetLife (MET 43.45 +4.61) handily beat estimates, raised its FY05 earnings outlook and issued upside FY06 guidance while Aon Corp (AOC 24.47 +3.20) beat expectations by $0.14...