New York

Stocks rise on takeover deals

NEW YORK Wall Street eked out a modest gain Tuesday as investors, wary about the upcoming release of the Federal Reserve minutes, bought cautiously amid a series of new takeover deals and upbeat consumer confidence figures.

Stocks drew support from news that a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC said it will bid 71.1 billion euros, or $95.5 billion, for the Netherlands' ABN Amro, besting an offer from Barclays PLC. Other takeover news included an announcement that Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are buying Archstone-Smith Trust for at least $13.5 billion.

But trading was erratic with the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting scheduled to be released today. The minutes could provide some insight into future interest rate moves; many investors are hoping for a rate cut later this year. Wall Street also digested strong consumer confidence data, and a report on housing prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.06, or 0.10 percent, to 13,521.34.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.38, or 0.16 percent, to 1,518.11, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 14.87, or 0.58 percent, to 2,572.06.

Bonds fell after the consumer confidence data, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.89 percent from 4.86 percent late Friday. Yields have remained higher in recent sessions as fixed-income investors bet the Fed won't lower rates in the near future.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by almost 2-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 2.56 billion shares, up from 2.24 billion on Friday.

Housing prices fall in quarter, first since '91

NEW YORK U.S. home prices dropped 1.4 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, the first time since 1991 prices have shown a quarterly decline, according to a housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's.

"We still don't see anything that looks like a clear bottom," S&P index committee chairman David Blitzer said. "We're still headed down."

The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed the 1.4 percent drop in the price for sales of existing single-family homes in metropolitan markets in nine U.S. census divisions.

For March, S&P's 10-city and 20-city composite indexes, which measure a smaller number of cities than the national index, also fell, by 1.9 percent and 1.4 percent respectively over the last year.

The March sales figures show that 13 of 20 cities reported prices had dropped or remained flat, S&P said.

Boston, Detroit, San Diego and Washington, D.C., showed the greatest year-over-year declines in prices. Meanwhile, Charlotte, N.C., Seattle and Portland, Ore., had strong price appreciation over last year. Compared to February, the gains in those cities were more modest.

Archstone-Smith agrees to buyout

NEW YORK Archstone-Smith, a major owner of apartment buildings, said Tuesday it had agreed to a Tishman Speyer-led buyout valuing the company at $15.5 billion, but investors indicated they were expecting a higher bid.

Tishman Speyer, owner of New York's Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler building, was joined by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in the friendly takeover bid, which would turn one of the largest publicly traded real estate trusts over to private investors.

The buyout provides further evidence of a booming market for commercial real estate and intense investor interest in owning real estate investment trusts, which pay lower taxes by distributing almost all taxable income to shareholders.

The Archstone buyout would be the second-largest real estate acquisition in history.

Archstone's board approved the deal unanimously at a price of $60.75 per share. The company's last quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission listed total diluted shares outstanding at 231 million. With roughly another 27 million shares held by outside partnerships, the deal is priced at $15.5 billion.

California

Doctor group posts procedure prices online

TORRANCE Breaking with long-held medical tradition, a Southern California physicians group has become one of the first and largest health organizations in the nation to make prices for procedures easily available to the public.

HealthCare Partners put an itemized price list on its Web site last week, with little fanfare.

The Torrance-based company serves more than 500,000 patients, who can now learn without asking that a flu vaccine runs $15, a chest X-ray goes for $61, and a colonoscopy costs $424.

The page can be accessed easily by clicking on "fees for basic services."

The move was spurred in part by the growth of walk-in clinics at malls and Wal-Marts that provide simple medical services like vaccines and ultrasounds and make no secret of their prices.

HealthCare Partners hopes potential customers will appreciate their transparency and recognize the value of a physicians group over a walk-in clinic.

"It shows them, This is why I'm paying more,'" said healthcare consultant Mary Kay Scott. "They are giving me more."

Colorado

Brazilian firm to buy meatpacker Swift

DENVER In a union of two large meat-processing companies, a Brazilian firm announced Tuesday it will acquire Swift & Co. in a $225 million cash deal that will give the combined company greater access to expanding markets and operations on three continents.

J&F Participacoes SA, which controls Brazil's leading beef exporter Friboi, won out over other bidders for Swift, which was highly sought after because not many meatpackaging plants are put up for sale in wake of U.S. industry consolidation, analysts said.

Swift, headquartered in Greeley about 50 miles north of Denver, is the third-largest U.S. processor of beef and pork and has plants in six states and an operation in Australia.

"From a competitive market standpoint I think it's good," said Steve Meyer, president of Paragon Economics Inc., an Iowa-based livestock marketing firm. "We really didn't need to lose another company so this keeps them independent."

J&F will buy Swift from its owners, HM Capital Partners of Dallas and Vail-based Booth Creek Management Corp. It will assume $1.2 billion in debt and pay transaction-related expenses.

The companies said the combined company will become the largest beef-processing operation in the world. Closing, which is contingent upon antitrust reviews, is expected in mid-July.

From wire reports