It was a week of wide swings on Wall Street, as traders enduring the August doldrums traversed an oil slick to push prices up and down. When it was all over, stocks were slightly lower.
Among winners, shares of Boeing Co. circled higher as the Chicago-based aerospace giant toted up new orders.
Its hulking 747 jumbo jet, considered obsolete in some quarters but a workhorse that refuses to give up, got a big boost from United Parcel Service Inc.
UPS gave the iconic humpbacked plane a new lease on life when it ordered eight cargo versions of the 747-400, worth about $1.8 billion at list prices. That order, and a surprising streak of others this year, may cement a future for the 747, which many observers thought was overdue for a natural death.
“Nobody would have guessed they would have had 21 747 orders in the first half of the year,” said one analyst.
Shares of Boeing finished the week at $67.15, up 40 percent from their 52-week low of $48.10.
Shareholders of Fortune Brands Inc. got a lift as it completed the spinoff of its office products subsidiary, Acco World Corp. Acco then combined with smaller General Binding Corp. to form one of the world’s biggest office supply firms. The move allows Fortune Brands to focus on flagship products, including Moen faucets, Jim Beam bourbon and Titleist golf gear.
Its shares finished the week at $86.59, up 23 percent from a 52-week low of $70.35.
Drought dents Deere
On the downside, the severe Midwestern drought took a chomp out of profits for Deere & Co., sending the Moline, Ill.-based farm equipment-maker’s stock reeling. The company also issued weaker forecasts for the fourth quarter and full year.
Shares of Deere finished the week at $64.95, down 13 percent from their recent high of $74.73.
Shares of Sears Holdings Corp. fell after the Hoffman Estates-based retailer said it was scrubbing its longtime relationship with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.
The $600 million in ad spending will be consolidated at sister agency Young & Rubicam Chicago. Both are part of London-based WPP Group.
For many years Ogilvy had been considered part of the family at Sears, with responsibility for such yeoman brands as Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard. Y&R created the “softer side” campaigns that met with little success.
Sears Holdings finished the week at $135.14, off 17 percent from a recent high of $163.50.
Also hammered were shares of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, on news that rival Chicago Board of Trade will sell stock in an initial public offering. Many analysts were expecting the two exchanges to merge, creating a goliath that would dominate the world’s futures markets.
Merc stock finished the week at $273.50, off 13 percent from its recent high of $315.
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wsluis@tribune.com
