US shares score solid gains but Facebook flops

  • Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power
    Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be given more power to fight graft with the introduction of new legislation, the Malaysian Bar has said.

  • Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang
    Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers Chua Tian Chang and Tamrin Ghafar, and political activist Haris Ibrahim, have been arrested for sedition and will be held overnight at the police lockup in Jinjang today.

  • May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM
    May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM

    The 'People's Gathering' in front of the Amcorp Mall field in Petaling Jaya on Saturday will go ahead despite the police arresting several leaders of opposition political parties and non-governmental organisations today.

  • Opposition party papers seized as nationwide crackdown begins
    Opposition party papers seized as nationwide crackdown begins

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Over a thousand copies of PAS-owned Malay newspaper Harakah as well as DAP-owned The Rocket and PKR’s Suara Keadilan were carted off by home ministry officials from shops and several distribution centres in a nationwide raid today, as Putrajaya mounts an apparent crackdown against Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters.

  • Police to take action against group who disrupted candlelight vigil
    Police to take action against group who disrupted candlelight vigil

    GEORGE TOWN, May 23 — Police will take action against the group of men who disrupted a candlelight vigil in Esplanade last night that resulted in a scuffle, injuring a reporter and an activist.

US shares racked up strong gains Monday with the Nasdaq adding nearly 2.5 percent helped by an Apple surge, but Facebook shares flipped below their IPO price on their first full day of trading.

Jumps in the prices of the Nasdaq's two largest companies -- Apple and Google -- drove the composite index higher.

But trade was heaviest by far in Facebook, the Nasdaq's newest member and third-largest company, with its shares plummeting 11 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 135.10 points, or 1.09 percent, to 12,504.48.

The S&P 500-stock index climbed 20.77 (1.60 percent) to 1,315.99, while the tech-rich Nasdaq added 68.42 (2.46 percent) at 2,847.21.

Facebook, which sold 541 million shares to the public on Friday at $38 a share, sank from the opening and ended the day down 11 percent at $34.03.

"Retail investors are scared. Most people thought this was a hot deal, and now that it's not, no one knows where the bottom is," said Lou Kerner of the Social Internet Fund.

"Underwriters generally support the stock at the offering price, and that support now appears to be exhausted."

Meanwhile positive analysts reports gave Apple a 5.8 percent jump and Google rose 2.3 percent after Chinese antitrust regulators signed off on the company's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.

Motorola Mobility jumped 2.0 percent.

On the New York Stock Exchange, JPMorgan Chase led the trade, losing 2.9 percent as chief executive Jamie Dimon announced the company would suspend its share buyback program as it focused on cleaning up the problems in its in-house trading operations, the source of a $2 billion loss reported on May 10.

Electrical equipment manufacturer Cooper Industries jumped 14 percent on the news that it would be bought by Eaton Corp for $11.8 billion in cash and stock, a 29 percent premium on the Friday closing price.

Eaton shares fell 0.7 percent.

Lowe's Companies, the nation's second-largest home-improvement retailer, sank 10.1 percent after reporting better-than-expected profit in the first quarter but lowering its full-year forecast.

The bond market was mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.74 percent from 1.70 percent Friday, while the 30-year was flat at 2.79 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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