Paul Kangas Stocks In The News
Wednesday, February 08, 2006PAUL KANGAS: Stocks posted moderate gains early on today, with the tech sector heading higher on Cisco`s good earnings we told you about last night and also an upgrade on Dell helped as well, as did strong sales from McDonald`s and then falling oil prices. At noon, the Dow was up 53 points, NASDAQ up 11. Then the tech stocks` upward momentum spread and led to a full-fledged rally across the board. So the Dow Industrial Average came in with a gain of 108.86 points at 10,858.62. NASDAQ Composite was up just over 22 points ending at 2266.98. Standard & Poor`s 500 up 10.87 at 1265.65. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note slipped 5/32 to 99 9/32 putting the yield at 4.59 percent.
Big board volume leader on 37.8 million shares was Pfizer (PFE) with a nice gain of $1.43. As you heard, considering the sale of its consumer products business, which could fetch perhaps as much as $10 billion.
Nortel Networks (NT) easing $0.04. The company has agreed to a $2.5 million settlement of a class action lawsuit regarding its accounting scandal. We touched on that earlier.
And then you see Univision Communications (UVN) up $3.66. The company may put itself up for sale. Standard & Poor`s, interestingly, downgraded Univision today from "strong buy" to just a "hold."
General Electric (GE) $0.43 gainer there.
Time Warner (TWX) up $0.18, fifth in big board volume.
Disney (DIS) $0.20 gain.
DirecTV (DTV) moving up $0.49. Fourth quarter earnings of $0.09 for Direct, that`s versus a loss of $0.21 a share last year and a nickel above the Street estimate. The company plans to buy back up to $3 billion worth of its stock.
ExxonMobil (XOM) a $0.16 gain.
$0.14 rise in Ford Motor Co (F).
Verizon Communications (VZ) $1.09 gain.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), a Dow stock, up $1.64, participating in the high tech rally today very nicely.
Then we see another Dow stock, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) moving up $1.80. It has been mentioned as a possible buyer of Pfizer`s consumer products business.
Yet another Dow stock, General Motors (GM) down $0.82 today. Deutsche Bank securities downgraded it from "hold" to "sell." Of course, the company cut its dividend in half yesterday.
Lazard Ltd (LAZ) up $2.07. Fourth quarter earnings $0.57 versus $0.37 a year ago. Revenues up 22 percent and the company plans to buy back up to $100 million of its stock over the next two years.
Cigarette maker Reynolds American (RAI) up $3.60. Fourth quarter earnings jumped to $2.01 versus only $0.51 a year ago. Sales up 2.3 percent.
Then Watts Water Technologies (WTS) jumped $6.31 on higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.46 versus last year`s $0.30 on a 10 percent rise in sales. Those earnings were $0.04 above the Street estimate. The company`s also boosting its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.09 a share.
Another good gainer was General Cable Corp (BGC) rising $2.55. Fourth quarter earnings $0.29, up from $0.12 last year. Revenues up a very respectable 27 percent.
On the downside, one of the big percentage losers was Usec Inc (USU) off $1.64. The company will discontinue its $0.55 annual dividend and redirect the funds to reduce financing costs for the construction of a centrifuge plant that it has on the planning board.
Google (GOOG) topped NASDAQ`s active, up $1.16.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) rising $1.31. Standard & Poor`s today repeated a "buy" on Cisco thanks to the good outlook it told us about yesterday.
$1.21 gain in Apple computer (AAPL).
Intel (INTC) no change there.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down $0.03 and that was fifth in dollar volume.
Dell (DELL) up $1.83. The Sanford Bernstein brokerage upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform."
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.02 loss.
$0.55 drop in Broadcom (BCOM).
Applied Materials (AMAT) up $0.60.
And Oracle (ORCL) a $0.20 gainer there.
And then a new issue today, shares of Crocs Inc (CROX) were high stepping today you might say in its market debut. The footwear maker went public with 9.9 million share offering priced at $21, opened at $30. The high, $32.50.
