Market roundup: A peachy week ahead?

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Now that this Big Three have all released their results for the first quarter of the year, there is a more subdued feeling on the markets.

3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) and Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) ended last week on less-than-auspicious terms, both closing lower before the long Labor Day weekend in the States, which meant that Wall Street enjoyed a day off yesterday (May 27th) just like here in the UK.

ExOne (NASDAQ:XONE) appears to still be benefiting from its post-quarterly results boost, however, while our market roundup newcomers Renishaw (LSE:RSW) and Arcam (Stockholm:ARCM) have been holding their ground.

3D Systems

3D Systems closed down by 0.3 per cent on Friday evening, sending its share price lower to $46.40. This is head and shoulders below the dizzy heights of the company's $48.86 52-week high, which it achieved in the middle of the month but is still a marked improvement on this time last year, when DDD stock was lingering just below $36.00 per unit.

Last week was a busy one for the industry giant. After surging past its year high, speculation mounted that the company is preparing to purchase Scandinavian additive manufacturing company Arcam, although it is likely that if this is the case the media will not know until both parties have shaken hands over such as deal.

Furthermore, last week, 3D Systems' shareholders approved an amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation to increase the authorised number of shares of common stock from 120 million to 220 million.

3D Systems also continued its run of new product releases, unveiling the new Cubify Draw - a 3D printing app for the iPhone and iPad, which had a positive impact on share price.

Stratasys

Stratasys is also subject to speculation that it too is engaging in a possible Arcam acquisition, although there is much less conjecture concerning the Minneapolis/Rehovot-headquartered company.

Furthermore, Stratasys announced that its 3D printing technology was used by Survey Copter - a subsidiary of EADS - for an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will be on display at the Paris Air Show next month.

Nevertheless, Stratasys ended last week's trading lower by nearly one per cent. The firm's share price was down to $85.10 per unit at close of play on Friday, slipping from the 52-week high of $91.30, which the company hit just one week previously.

ExOne

ExOne is enjoying an uptick after the initial slump its share price suffered after the boost given to it from its quarterly results. This fluctuation did not come as a surprise, as on the day it released its Q1 figures shares in the company rocketed to $48.60 per unit - and what goes up must come down.

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Now ExOne shares are finding their feet again and closed higher on Friday by a pleasing two per cent, recovering the unit value to $45.00.

Renishaw

Shares in Renishaw have stablilised after a choppy start to the month.

The company is still some way off its 52-week high of 2081.00p per unit - which it peaked to at the very beginning of the year, but has now made more headway. Renishaw was treading water as trading came to a close in London last week, but now the company's share price is up 0.5 per cent to 1765.00p per unit.

This is helped by the fact the company has acquired the business assets of LBC Laser Bearbeitungs Center and has been proudly showcasing its precision metrology technology ahead of the Advanced Manufacturing show, which is to take place next week at the Birmingham NEC.

Arcam

Arcam has opened the week's trading higher by two per cent, rising to 346.00 SEK per unit. The company's previous close was 339.00 SEK, which means Arcam's share price has rocketed to a new 52-week high. This time last year, Arcam's unit price was less than 50.00 SEK per share so if the acquisition rumours are true, this cherry is ripe for the picking - but who will they be?

At the end of last week, Arcam announced that it completed a private placement of 200,000 new shares, providing the company with 60 million SEK before transaction costs - news again that would buoy the company's market value.

The private placement has enables Arcam to issue new shares to a finite number of international institutional investors at 300 SEK per unit.