Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, February 09, 2006
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KANGAS: That AIG settlement helped Wall Street move steadily higher this morning, as did solid earnings from Aetna and Marriott and Best Buy`s boost in its fourth quarter earnings outlook. By 1:00 p.m., the Dow was up 80 points and the NASDAQ up 17. But it was all downhill from there this afternoon. The Dow industrial average closed with a gain of only 24 3/4 points at 10,883.35. The NASDAQ down 11.11 at 2,255.87. Standard & Poor`s 500 fell 1.87 to 1,263.78.
Today`s renewed sales of the 30-year Treasury bond brought strong demand from foreign central banks. The new bond sold at a high yield of 4.53 percent. Shorter dated Treasuries settled modestly lower. The 10-year note dropped 2/32, putting the yield at 4.55.
Big board volume leader on 27 1/2 million shares, Pfizer (PFE) edging down $0.03.
And then a new issue, Exco Resources (XCO), this is an energy exploration firm, 50 million shares offered at 13. T. Boone Pickens incidentally owns 13 percent of the firm. The stock opened at $13.20 a share and the high was $13.70, backed down a bit from there.
General Electric (GE) $0.18 gain.
Lucent Technology (LU) a nickel gain.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $0.47, fifth in big board volume.
Nortel Networks (NT) dropped $0.04.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.19 loss.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) off $1.16.
But Univision Communications (UVN) up $0.70. We learned yesterday the company may put itself up for sale. Today, News Corp said it would take a look at it.
And then tenth in volume was AT&T (T) showing no change on the day.
Aetna (AET) up $3.15. As I touched on, fourth quarter earnings sharply higher, $1.26. That was $0.02 to $0.03 above the Street estimate and the company boosted its forecast for new memberships.
Then Best Buy (BBY), star of the day, up $4.13. Company boosted its fourth quarter earnings estimate from $1.06 to $1.16, all the way up to $1.25 to $1.30. The company cited big sales of flat panel televisions.
Marriott International (MAR) up $1.53. Big fourth quarter earnings, $1.07, up from $0.79 a year ago and that was $0.09 above the Street estimate.
Brinks (BCO) on the other hand tumbled $5.03. The company had sharply lower fourth quarter earnings of $0.06 versus $0.29 last year.
Martin Marietta Materials (MLM) up $4.92. Fourth quarter earnings $1.02, up from $0.77 a year ago. Revenues up a respectable 16 percent.
Then the big percentage loser of the day, Graftech International (GTI), the company makes graphite electrodes for steel mills and it cut its 2000 earnings guidance from the level of $0.85, all the way down to $0.47. JPMorgan downgraded the stock from "over weight" to just a "neutral" rating.
And Maidenform Brands (MFB) down $2.10. The company cut its previous 2006 sales growth target of plus 7 to 10 percent, down to plus 5 to 7 percent and cited the cutback in business that it gets from Wal-Mart.
NASDAQ`s most active, Google (GOOG) getting hit again by profit takers, down $10.31, well below the record high of $475.
Apple Computer (APPL) down $3.86, profit taking there.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.15 gainer.
Intel (INTC) $0.33 rise.
And then fifth in volume was Microsoft (MSFT) losing $0.25 a share.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.12. After the close, Oracle says it`s going to cut 2,000 jobs. It also reaffirmed its third quarter earnings estimate of $0.18 to $0.19 a share.
Applied Materials (AMAT) a $0.02 loss.
Sandisk (SNDK) down $3.48.
Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.50 drop.
And then Whole Foods Market (WFMI) down $6.78. First quarter earnings higher, $0.40 versus $0.34 last year, but a penny below the Street estimate. Company sees fiscal 2006 earnings growth just below its projected sales growth of 18 to 21 percent. For some, that was disappointing.
Then we see XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XMSR), Oprah Winfrey has signed a three-year, $55 million contract for a weekly program on XM Satellite.
And finally, another new issue, Nighthawk Radiology Holdings (NHWK) soared $4.65. It priced 6.3 million shares at $16 each. The stock opened at $18.50, traded as high as $22.
