4:45 PM NY – After the Close Earnings.

Yahoo (YHOO: chart) reported second quarter earnings of $160 million drop from $164 million a year ago or flat earnings of 11 cents per share. The company revenue jumped 8% to $1.698 billion from $1.576 billion a year ago. Revenue excluding the cost of acquiring traffic in the quarter rose 11% to $1.244 billion compared to $1.123 billion a year ago. Operating income in the quarter declined 19% to 185 million from a year ago and free cash flow declined 8% from a year ago to $328 million.

Intel (INTC: chart) released its second quarter earnings of jumped 44% to $1.3 billion on revenue growth of 8% to $8.7 billion. The earnings per share in the quarter were reported at 22 cents compared to 15 cents a year ago. The second quarter gross profit margin declined to46.9% from 52% a year ago. Earnings per share benefited from 3 cents tax benefit on lower taxes. The company paid $251 million of taxes compared to $368 million a year ago.

For the third quarter the company guided between $9 and $9.6 billion and gross margin of 52%. The company expects tax rate of 29% lower than previous estimate of 31% and depreciation of $1.1 billion.


4:30PM NY, 10:30 PM Frankfurt, 2:00AM Mumbai – Global Markets

Merger talks and earnings dominated the trading sentiment in New York trading. Dow reached intra-day record of 14,000. European stocks closed lower. In Asian trading markets scaled back from recent highs.

Yields edged higher on 10-year U.S. bonds and closed at 5.083% and 30-year bond rose to close at 5.161%.

Crude oil dropped 13 cents to close at $74.02 per barrel, natural gas closed down 7 cent to $6.31 per mBtu, and gasoline futures down 2.55 cents to close at 210.07 cents per gallon.

Gold down 40 cents to close at $665.90 per ounce, silver lost 4.7 cents to close at $13.01 per ounce, and copper futures lost $82 to close at $7,866 per metric ton.

Dow Jones added 20.57 to 13,971.55, Nasdaq added 14.96 to 2,712.29, and S&P 500 declined 0.15 to 1,549.37.

Merger and takeover news dominated trading in New York. Lyondell Chemical (LYO: chart) agreed to be acquired by Basell N.V. of the Netherlands for $12.7 billion or $48 per share. The rich offer values the company at nearly 7 times earnings before interest and depreciation but several analysts indicated that higher offer is likely for the company. News Corp has reached preliminary agreement with Dow Jones to a $5 billion bid. The offer is likely to be put to shareholders and controlling shareholder Bancroft family. The family controls 64% of voting stock and 19% of economic interest in Dow Jones.

On the U.S. economy, an index of wholesale prices in June fell 0.2% after rising 0.9% in May. The core index, excluding the so called volatile food and energy components, gained 0.3% after gaining 0.2% in May. Industrial production in June gained 0.5%. U.S. Treasury Department said that foreigners purchased $112.6 billion of more stocks, bonds and other assets in May, higher than $72.7 billion purchase in April.

On the earnings front Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch reported better than expected earnings but earnings from Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola, and U.S. Bancorp disappointed traders.


2:30PM New York – Lyondell Chemical receives a bid for $48 per share.

Lyondell Chemical Company (LYO: chart) has agreed to be acquired for $48 per share or $12.66 billion. The stock traded at high as $46.96 on the news. The Russian immigrant billionaire controlled company, Basell, a joint venture between BASF and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, was acquired by Len Blavatnik, in the year 2005 for 4.4 billion euros. Earlier in the year Mr. Blavatnik reported his stake of 8.3% in the company and disclosed plans to buy the company, lifting the stock 40%.

The commodity chemical companies have soared in values in the last three years tracking the rise in oil prices. Refineries, chemical makers and processors have seen their values skyrocket. General Electric sold its plastic division to Saudi Basic Industries and Huntsman was acquired by private equity group Apollo Management. Mr. Blavatnik controlled companies were leading contenders to acquire both the companies.

India, Korea and Middle Eastern countries are building capacities to process commodity chemicals and are poised to take market share away from the larger companies in the developed economies.

11:30AM New York – Johnson & Johnson stock drops after the earnings release.