USA: Wall Street opens higher as earnings pour in. Dell postpones buyout vote.

Record ID: 187268

  • Title: USA: Wall Street opens higher as earnings pour in. Dell postpones buyout vote.
  • Date: 18th July 2013
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) DELL FOUNDER AND CEO MICHAEL DELL TALKING
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Economy
  • Reuters ID: LVABERGYFVET6FLV1693RELGMW05
  • Story Text: The Dow and S&P 500 scaled fresh heights on Thursday (July 18), boosted by better than expected results from Morgan Stanley and United Health, while investors looked to a second day of congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
    Shares of Morgan Stanley surged 4.1 percent to $27.64 (USD) after the bank reported stronger-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit as revenue grew in all its major businesses.
    A jump in shares of UnitedHealth helped boost the Dow and other health insurers. UnitedHealth was up 5.7 percent at $70.03 after the company's results beat expectations, while the S&P health sector gained 0.4 percent.
    IBM raised its full-year outlook and reported earnings that beat estimates, though the company missed on revenue. Shares of International Business Machines rose 2.1 percent to $198.52.
    Analysts expect S&P 500 companies' second-quarter earnings to have grown 3.3 percent from a year earlier, with revenue up 1.2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.
    The Dow Jones industrial average rose 77.78 points or 0.5 percent, to 15,548.3, the S&P 500 gained 8.07 points or 0.48 percent, to 1,688.98 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.27 points or 0.17 percent, to 3,616.27.
    Dell Inc postponed a crucial vote on CEO Michael Dell's $24.4 billion buyout offer to July 24, buying time to solicit more proxy votes and drum up more support despite winning over several large swing shareholders at the eleventh hour.
    The company co-founder and partner Silver Lake fell short of the votes needed to push through the largest buyout since the financial crisis, even though Vanguard and BlackRock Inc are now on board with the proposal, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
    Dell shares climbed 2 percent to $13.15, still lagging the $13.65 that Michael Dell and his private equity partner are offering shareholders.
    Board member Alex Mandl, chairman of a special committee overseeing the buyout, set the new meeting date for Wednesday.
    Complicating matters, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has amassed an 8.7 percent stake in Dell, is leading a charge against the buyout with an offer of his own.
    In the week leading up to the meeting, Icahn's team and Dell's special board committee, which supports the CEO's proffered deal, have flooded shareholders with opposing letters and documents to argue their respective positions.
    Michael Dell and Silver Lake have resisted calls, including from Dell's special committee, to raise their offer.
    Under so-called majority-of-the-minority voting provisions, a majority of Dell shareholders excluding Michael Dell's roughly 16 percent stake would have to vote for the buyout for it go through.
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