Market Movers, 4/8/09
Thursday, April 9, 10:47 AM ET

Bed Bath and Beyond is up about 23% after the company reported positive earnings of 55 cents per share. Although same store sales declined by 4.3%, net sales were down only 0.5% over the same quarter last year.

Jos. A. Bank Colthiers reported record annual earnings today, sending the stock up over 18%. The company earned 3 dollars and 17 cents per share in 2008, up 17% from the prior year. The company ended the year with no debt, and with 123 million dollars in cash.

Homebuilder Centex is up over 24% today after an announcement that the company will merge with Pulte Homes, to create the country's largest homebuilding company. Under the merger agreement, Centex shareholders will receive 0.975 shares of Pulte common stock for each share of Centex they own, representing a significant premium to the recent price of Centex stock.

Shares of real estate finance company Gramercy Capital are higher by 26% in afternoon trading to 1 dollar and 54 cents per share, after the company announced it has successfully negotiated amendments to two debt facilities, with Wachovia and with Goldman Sachs. The amendments include elimination of financial covenants, and removal of mark to market and margin call provisions. The lenders also granted their consent for the company to proceed with a plant to internalize its management. GKK traded around 20 dollars per share just one year ago.

Ryder Systems is down 19% after lowering its first quarter earnings outlook. CEO Greg Swienton stated, "For the past two-and-a-half years we have been in a freight recession ... During the first quarter, we saw further material reductions in freight volumes."

Shares of Investment Technology Group are off nearly 25% after its report on 2009 US Trading Volumes disappointed investors. CFO Noward Naphtali explained, "We saw our full-service institutional clients retrench this quarter subsequent to significant declines in their assets under management, contributing to a sequential decline of approximately 17 percent in average US commissions per share." Naphtali optimistically added that their data indicates substantial investor assets are on the sidelines, and stated, "Once a market recovery begins and those assets return to the equity markets, we believe we are well positioned to increase trading volumes, average US commissions per share and related commission revenues."