STOCKS NEWS US: Option expiration may have positive bias

Stocks on the move [HOT-RTRS] Real-Time Equity news [U E]

U.S. stock market report [.N]
1029 ET-19March2009 March quarterly expiration may be bullish
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option expiration is destined for one of its more positive expirations in a
while, said Larry McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis Corp in a note to
clients. "So that may hold off the bears for awhile," he added. The quarterly
expiration and settlement of four different types of options and futures
contracts occurs on Thursday and Friday. McMillan noted that buy programs could
be especially strong if the Standard & Poor's 100 index .OEX tops 380, but
there should be a bullish bias to Friday's expiration if OEX is anywhere above
365. The OEX is off 0.19 percent to 373.93 early on Thursday. In OEX, there is
virtually no March put open interest in-the-money but there is a "ton" of March
call open interest in-the-money. "That combination is bullish," he said. Very
little was exercised on Wednesday night and so the open interest remains.

Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net

1012 ET 19March2009-Oracle up after Citi target hike, results
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shares of Oracle Corp ORCL.0 rose 12.3 percent to $17.79 in morning
trade. Citigroup raised its target price on the business software maker to $21
from $20 and maintained its "buy" rating, citing quarterly results on wednesday
that showed operating profit margins continued to widen despite slowing
revenues. Citigroup also said the introduction of a 5 cents quarterly dividend
is likely to support the stock. Credit Suisse also lifted its target on Oracle
to $16.25 from $15.50.
Reuters Messaging:rm://edward.krudy.reuters.com@reuters.net))

0951 ET 19March2009-Citi: Dow may trade around 10,000 for years
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Citi on Thursday said that "as was the case with Dow 100 and Dow 1,000, Dow
10,000 may be a figure we trade around for years." The firm said that was
"revulsion" to such "new and exciting" investment vehicles such as leverage
credit structures, frontier markets and "allegedly uncorrelated assets," and
said that these feelings could persist for a noticeable amount of time.

"While such antipathy will change over time, it is not likely to shift
overnight, leaving many investors seeking clean balance sheets, dividends and
free cash flow as long-term favorites (for the next three-to-five years), even
if nearer term rallies compel higher beta stocks to perform well in the short
term," Citi wrote.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0939 ET 19March2009-AG Holder may adjust newspaper antitrust policies
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Holder, the attorney general of the U.S., late Wednesday said he was
open to adjusting antitrust policies for newspapers if it would keep the
industry alive.

Holder was responding to a call by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who
urged the Justice Department to give newspapers more leeway to merge or combine
operations. [ID:nN18352085]

Among newspaper stocks, New York Times Co (NYT.N) surged 4.5 percent to
$4.63. Washington Post (WPO.N) eased off 0.8 percent to $354.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0930 ET 19March2009-Markets open higher on strength in oil
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major U.S. indexes opened higher on Thursday, lifted as a surge in the
price of crude oil lifted energy shares and optimism was lifted by the Federal
Reserve's plan to lower borrowing costs.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 0.6 percent to 7,534.92 while
the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.9 percent to 801.79 and the Nasdaq .IXIC was up 1
percent to 1,506.22.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0910 ET 19March2009-Barclays upgrades Beckman Coulter to overweight
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barclays Capital on Thursday upgraded Beckman Coulter (BEC.N) to overweight
from equal weight, saying the company's revenue model was stable and that a
recently-announced acquisition was strategically sound.

The acquisition of Olympus Corp "should increase recurring revenue, allow
continued growth and share gains in immunoassay, strengthen the company outside
the U.S. and increase margins," the firm wrote. [ID:nBNG439965]

Shares of the maker of biomedical testing instrument systems closed
Wednesday at $46.70.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0900 ET 19March2009-Sony Reader taps Google's public domain books
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sony Corp (SNE.N) is making available public domain books from Google Inc
(GOOG.O) to users of Sony Reader, its electronic book reader, it said late
Wednesday. More than half a million classic titles will be free to users of the
Reader, it said, lifting the number of available titles in Sony's eBook Store
to more than 600,000.

The Kindle, Amazon's (AMZN.O) digital book reading product, has access to
about 245,000 titles, as well as newspapers, magazines and blogs.
[ID:nN18366249]

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net