Stock Report: March 10 - 14
Game stocks fail to reflect strong February sales
US economic reports showed stable inflation this week, but the markets dropped sharply on Friday upon news of a government bailout for mortgage underwriter Bear Stearns.
The S&P finished the week at 1,288.14, with Nasdaq at 2,212.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.6 percent to 11,951.09.
NPD data released for the month of February showed that US consumers spent USD 668.7 million on software - up 47 per cent from the prior year - exceeding most analyst expectations. However, that consumer spending has not translated to stock gains.
Take-Two released Q1 financial results this week, showing a USD 38 million loss. The company gave no further information regarding its rejection of EA's takeover offer, which became a hostile bid before the end of the week.
Take-Two stock fell 1.1 per cent, whereas EA's stock rose 1.3 per cent this week.
New to our stock listing is Namco, which showed a gain this week after it announced that it would spend as much as JPY 12 billion (USD 120 million) to buy back up to 3.14 per cent of its outstanding shares.
We have also added Infogrames to our listing. The company recently welcomed a new CEO and a new company president and made an offer to purchase its subsidiary Atari Inc.
Atari requested an extension of the offer earlier in the week; Infogrames stock ended the week down 14.8 per cent.
Selected stock movements in the past week (at time of writing):
| Midway | 1.75 - 2.02 | +15.43% |
|---|---|---|
| THQ | 18.02 - 18.93 | +5.05% |
| Namco Bandai | 12.81 - 13.12 | +2.42% |
| Ubisoft | 53.44 - 54.40 | +1.80% |
| EA | 46.31 - 46.91 | +1.30% |
| Microsoft | 27.87 - 27.96 | +0.32% |
| Take-Two | 25.57 - 25.29 | -1.10% |
| Activision | 27.29 - 26.94 | -1.28% |
| Konami | 38.09 - 37.6 | -1.29% |
| Nintendo | 534.18 - 522.91 | -2.11% |
| SCi | 40.5 - 39.5 | -2.47% |
| Sega | 11.30 - 10.54 | -6.73% |
| Sony | 44.32 - 41.86 | -5.55% |
| Infogrames | 14.05 - 11.96 | -14.88% |
Please note that stock prices on differing markets may be influenced by separate local events, and shouldn't necessarily be compared like for like. This list is not a ranking of total market valuation; selected stocks only. Prices given in local exchange currency, except Tokyo stocks, which are converted into USD.