The happy summer mood on Wall Street seemed to vanish in the dust of August, as the gains realized since Memorial Day evaporated. Traders blamed another spike in the price of oil as well as worries over interest rates.
Locally, however, there were ears of harvest-ready corn interlaced with the chaff.
A big winner was Archer Daniels Midland Co., as a Wall Street analyst predicted the world’s No. 1 grain processor could see compound annual per-share earnings growth of 9 percent over the next three years.
The analyst from Citigroup Inc. said profits will be driven by ethanol, corn syrup and oilseeds processing. He lifted his rating to “buy” from “hold.” Decatur-based ADM is the nation’s biggest producer of ethanol, at 1.1 billion gallons a year.
Critics say the gasoline-booster is little more than a glorified version of moonshine. They also note that it takes inordinately large amounts of fuel to make the stuff. Ethanol got a huge boost in the recently passed federal transportation bill.
ADM’s shares saw their biggest surge in five months. They finished the week at $22.47, up 44 percent from a 52-week low of $15.61.
Motorola Inc. made a splash in the market for mobile phones when it said it plans to make units that would let parents monitor their children’s wherebouts.
The second-biggest maker of mobile handsets also said it will record a $780 million third-quarter gain related to the combination of Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc.
Shares of Schaumburg-based Motorola ended the week at $21.12, up 46 percent from a 52-week low of $14.48.
And shares of Allstate Corp. got a boost, despite the latest hurricane afflicting the South. The company’s chief operating officer, Thomas Wilson, told a group in Houston that states should create catastrophe funds to help cover losses from disasters, including terrorism.
A federal fund should be created for losses too large for individual states, he said.
Shares of Northbrook-based Allstate finished the week at $58.27, up 28 percent from a 52-week low of $45.50.
Aon, Smurfit slip
On the downside, shares of Aon Corp. ticked lower ahead of word that founder and chairman Patrick Ryan will sell a portion of his stake in the Chicago-based insurance brokerage giant.
Ryan said he plans to unload 5 million of his 26 million shares.
Aon’s stock has been on a roll since it completed a $190 million settlement in March of fraud charges brought by regulators in Illinois, New York and Connecticut. They alleged the company steered business to certain insurers.
Ryan subsequently stepped down as chief executive, succeeded by Gregory Case, a consultant from McKinsey & Co.
Aon stock finished the week at $29.18, not far off a recent high of $30.27. The shares are up about two-thirds from a 52-week low of $18.15.
And the stock of Chicago-based Smurfit-Stone Container declined after Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded its earnings estimates for 2005, along with those of several other paper and packaging products manufacturers. Shares of Smurfit-Stone finished the week at $11.21, down 44 percent from a 52-week high of $19.87.
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