New York Report: Blackberry hits a 10-year-low with new boss
US STOCK indexes were little changed yesterday in belowaverage trading volume, while shares of Blackberry plummeted to a 10-year low after the company replaced its chief executive.
US-listed shares of Blackberry tumbled 17.2 per cent to $6.43 a share after the smartphone maker said it was abandoning a plan to sell itself. With yesterday’s drop, the stock is at levels unseen since October 2003.
Twitter, meanwhile, raised the upper end of the projected price range for its initial public offering later in the week, an encouraging sign for the social media company.
The otherwise quiet start to the week follows a week of record highs for US stocks. It remains to be seen whether the market can push higher, with much dependent on the steps the Federal Reserve will take in the months ahead in response to economic data. The Fed’s massive bond purchases have helped prop up the economy and the equity market for much of the year.
The benchmark S&P index has risen 4.3 per cent over the past four weeks as the partial US government shutdown in October pushed back expectations for the Fed to begin curtailing its stimulus measures into the first quarter of 2014.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.33 points or 0.01 per cent, to 15,617.88, the S&P 500 gained 3.35 points or 0.19 per cent, to 1,764.99 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.872 points or 0.18 per cent, to 3,928.914.
The S&P Energy Index rose 0.8 per cent to 632.83. The sector’s top performer was Peabody Energy.