A stock market that battled its way through the summer blahs finished the third quarter on a high note, as equities posted gains of about 3 percent for the three-month period.
Locally, the list of winners included Boeing Co., where machinists returned to work Friday at the company’s commercial airplane assembly plants. They approved a new contract that ended a nearly month-long strike.
The walkout by about 18,400 machinists began Sept. 2. Boeing backed away from a proposal to eliminate retiree medical benefits for new hires, and dropped a plan to give workers incentive pay based on corporate financial targets.
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One Wall Street analyst described the package given the workers as “a relatively inconsequential cost increase from the corporate perspective.” It was the quickest labor settlement for Chicago-based Boeing in four decades.
Shares finished at $67.95, up 41 percent from a 52-week low of $48.10.
Also in the plus column, shares of Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world’s biggest ethanol producer, rose on expectations for improved profits from the corn-based fuel.
Prudential Equity Group analyst John McMillin increased his rating on Decatur-based ADM to “overweight” from “neutral.”
“Higher ethanol prices should enter the earnings stream beginning in the June 2006 quarter,” McMillin wrote in a note to investors.
ADM stock finished at $24.66, up 47 percent from a 52-week low of $16.72.
ComEd troubles hurt Exelon
On the downside, shares of Chicago-based nuclear utility Exelon Corp. headed down on a warning that its Commonwealth Edison subsidiary might face drastic alternatives if it can’t resolve a dispute with state officials and regulators over proposed power auctions.
Exelon Chief Executive John Rowe offered the stern comments at an investors conference in New York.
“We are taking concrete steps to address the possibility of either an ultimate bankruptcy of Commonwealth Edison or an ultimate separation” of the utility, Rowe said.
Exelon shares ended at $53.44, off 7 percent from a recent high of $57.46.
The stock of Walgreen Co., the nation’s biggest drugstore chain, declined after it reported disappointing fourth-quarter profit growth. The Deerfield-based retailer blamed Hurricane Katrina, which shut 32 locations and ruined merchandise and equipment.
The company’s stock suffered its biggest setback in more than two years, finishing the week at $43.45, down 11 percent from a 52-week high of $49.01.
And shares of Tribune Co. fell to their lowest level since 2001 after the media conglomerate lost a federal tax court ruling that could cost it about $1 billion unless it wins an appeal.
Executives of the company said they are confident they will win an immediate appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. But they said the company is taking steps to pay the Internal Revenue Service and will take a $125 million third-quarter charge.
Shares of Tribune, the parent of the baiduhai, ended the week at $33.89. They are off 23 percent from a 52-week high of $44.32.
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