div style="text-align: justify;"I just wanted to do a quick follow-up to the span style="font-weight: bold;"Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW)/ Rohm amp; Haas (NYSE:ROH)/span story:br /br /Barclays' Risk Arbitrage Team is out with a call saying they believe there are significant restrictions on Dow’s ability and incentives to maneuver its way out of the deal or into a price cut. They find the current risk-reward attractive and expect the deal to be completed on its current terms.br /br /span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"Notablecalls: /spanSo this means DOW will have to buy ROH for $78 per share in cash? Sure looks like it.br /br /Also, note that according the the initial agreement, if the merger is not completed by January 10, its price rises every day by a fixed amount to compensate Rohm investors for the delay.br /br /So if DOW does not cough up the cash by Jan 10, the deal will get ...

The Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) may be forced to abandon its takeover of Rohm & Haas Co. (ROH) now that a $17.4 billion joint venture with Kuwait’s state-run oil company has been scrapped. Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co. earlier this week cancelled plans to take a 50% stake in Dow’s plastics unit amid pressure from government officials alarmed by plunging oil prices. The venture would have created the world’s largest maker of polyethylene - a chemical used in wide array of plastic products, such as bottles and compact discs. It also would have provided Dow with a $7.5 billion cash infusion that the company had earmarked for its pending takeover of Rohm & Haas. The Philadelphia-based Rohm & Haas on July 10 agreed to a $78 a share takeover offer from Dow Chemical. Dow planned to finance the takeover with a $13 ...

Dow Chemical, Kuwait deal collapses… Nasdaq dragged by large-cap tech companies… Oil rises above $38 per barrel on Middle East tensions…  Dow off 1.6 pct, S&P off 1.6 pct, Nasdaq off 2.3 pct

Wall Street stumbled on Monday after a joint venture between Kuwait and Dow Chemical fell through, threatening one of the larger merger deals of the year and adding to fears about a faltering global economy.

Dow shares tumbled to their lowest since 1991 after Kuwait decided to end a $17.4 billion petrochemical joint venture amid slumping petrochemical sales and the global financial crisis.

The news ignited worries that the largest U.S. chemical company would not be able to buy rival Rohm & Haas , which Dow agreed to acquire for about $15.3 billion in July. Rohm & Haas (ROH) shares fell as much as 25 percent.

These declines were also exacerbated

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Monday December 1, 2008 Navivest

A simple law of gravity states that what goes up must come down and that applies to stocks as well. Last week, as stocks rose two days in a row, then three, in a very challenging economic environment, we were of the view that the moves did not make sense.

Consequentially, we recommended that subscribers to our Options Capitalist and Navivest Equity Trader take short positions. Those positions paid off rather well today as the stock market took a major tumble.

Partly responsible for today’s action, was possibly the chickens coming home to roost. Last week, the stock market ignored dismal economic data, including poor housing, consumer confidence and jobs numbers.

Adding fuel to the fire, we also got news today that the U.S. economy, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, has in fact been in a recession.

To the extent that the economy

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Ken Fisher recommended the following stocks in the July 21 issue of Forbes:

Dow Chemical:

a. superbly managed largest chemical company in the U.S.

b. Should overtake BASF someday as largest in world

c. sells only at 60% of revenue, 12 times 2008 earnings

d. 4.5% dividend

Rohm & Haas

a. owns Morton Salt

b. produces specialty chemicals

c. bought back 18% of shares in past four years

d. Sells at 1.1 times annual revenues, 11x 2008 forecasted earnings

e. 3.1% dividend

Franklin Resources

a. world leader in mutual funds

b. as stock prices rise, Franklin’s revenues rise

c. great CEO

d. should sell for more than 12.5x 2008 earnings

Ball

a. U.S. leader in metal and plastics containers

b. growing market share in a slow growth field

c. stock should do well when U.S stocks rally

d. sells at 70% of revenues and 12x 2008 earnings forecast

Merck and Pfizer

a. both are too cheap

b. congress isn;t going to kill prescription industry

c. selling at 10x and 7x 2008 forecasted earnings

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