Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News

Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News

PAUL KANGAS: That dip in oil prices and those better than expected January retail sales triggered a strong rally on Wall Street. At noon, the Dow had already surged 122 points and the NASDAQ Composite was up 17. That pushed the Dow above 11,000 level, inspiring bullish confidence and scaring the bears into heavy short covering. That was a combination that kept the rally alive this afternoon. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 136 points at 11,028.39. The NASDAQ Composite up 22 1/3 points, ending at 2262.17. Standard & Poor`s 500 was up 12 2/3 points to 1275.53. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 8/32 to 99 3/32. That put the yield at 4.61 percent.

Now, let`s take a look at our stocks in the news tonight.

Familiar name at the top of the active board and that`s Pfizer (PFE),
20.2 million shares traded today, stock down $0.08.

Then General Electric (GE) up $0.21.

Lucent Technology (LU) $0.06 gain there.

Time Warner (TWX) dropped a dime.

Then a big loser, Transocean Inc (RIG) off $6.49. The company did have fourth quarter earnings of $0.45 versus a loss of $0.23 a share last year. But that $0.03 below the Wall Street earnings estimate and the company sees flat first quarter and second quarter results compared to the fourth quarter level, so not a good outlook there.

AT&T (T) moved up $0.64.

Followed by Motorola (MOT) with a $0.58 gain.

ExxonMobil (XOM) in the weak oil group down a nickel.

Bank of America (BAC) up $0.46.

And then Cendant (CD) losing $1.12. The company had a fourth quarter loss of $0.04 a share versus earnings of $0.23 last year. Cendant cited the slowdown on the residential real estate market and has a very cautious outlook. So the stock very weak today.

3M Company (MMM), a Dow stock, up $0.79. The company`s boosting its quarterly dividend 9 1/2 percent. It`ll go from $0.42 to $0.46 a share quarterly and the company also plans to buy back up to $2 billion of its stock.

Now let`s have the four best point gainers in the Dow in alphabetical order, Alcoa (AA), Altria Group (MO), Caterpillar (CAT) and Home Depot (HD) all better than $1 gainers today.

Deere & Company (DE) up $.87. First quarter earnings $0.99, $0.10 more than last year and $0.16 better than the Wall Street consensus.

The airlines as you might imagine strong on that sharp drop in oil prices. Continental Airlines (CAL) rising $1.54, the whole group very firm indeed.

Then we see Marsh & McLennan (MMC), the reinsurance company, down $1.51. Fourth quarter earnings excluding one time items $0.28 a share, $0.03 below the Street consensus. Revenues actually dropped by 2 percent over last year.

Then Genesee & Wyoming (GWR), this is a regional short line railroad with operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and Mexico, had good earnings, fourth quarter $0.39, up from $0.26 a year ago and revenues up a very respectable 29 percent.

Jarden Corporation (JAH) up $3.22. This company makes food sealing products for the home and things like that. Fourth quarter earnings of $0.04 versus a loss of $0.08 a share last year. Better than expected cash flow, up $250 million in the period.

Then Mueller Industries (MLI), which makes copper tubes and fittings, fourth quarter earnings $0.97 up from $0.42 a year ago. Sales jumped 47 percent.

On the downside, Suntech Power Holdings (STP), this is the Chinese solar panel manufacturer, fourth quarter earnings $0.09, down from $0.12 a year ago. That company just went public incidental last December at $15 a share and way up here, a little room for profit taking.

Holly Corp. (HOC), an oil refiner, down $4.50. Fourth quarter earnings $1.31, but that was $0.07 below the Street estimate and today CS First Boston downgraded it from "neutral" to "under perform."

NASDAQ`s most active, Google (GOOG) not participating in the rally, down $2.38.

But Apple Computer did (AAPL) with a gain of $2.94. Apple will begin shipping its new line of portable computers this week. These are the ones that carry the new Intel chip.

Microsoft (MSFT) $0.26 gain.

Intel (INTC) itself up $0.24.

Broadcom (BCOM) fell $1.78. That was fifth in volume.

Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.15 gain.

Amgen (AMGN) $0.79 rise there.

And Dell (DELL) edged up $0.43 a share.

Yahoo! a $0.68 gain.

Tenth in dollar volume on NASDAQ was Qualcomm (QCOM) with a nice move up of $1.65.

Then we see Kendle International (KNDL) up $4.74. This company`s involved in clinical research. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.31 a share, $0.05 above the Street estimate. The company sees 2006 earnings around $1.40 to $1.50 a share and that`s well above the Wall Street estimate of $124, so good strength in that stock.

On the downside, Rimage Corporation (RIMG) tumbling $5.91. This company is a CD and DVD publishing company, most technical information and the company cut its fourth quarter earnings guidance from the range of $0.27 to $0.32 a share all the way down to $0.22 a share, hence the weakness in the stock.

And those are the stocks in the news tonight.

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