Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, February 17, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened in retreat amid investor nervousness over that surprise jump in producer prices. The market was also vulnerable to profit taking after three straight days of gains. At mid-morning the Dow was off 35 points; NASDAQ down 12. Stocks improved this afternoon, but getting into positive territory was not in the cards as oil prices surged and investors turned cautious ahead of the long holiday weekend. The Dow Industrial Average lost 5 1/3 points at 11,115.32 today. This week it fell twice and rose three times for a net gain of 196.27 points. The NASDAQ Composite was down 12 1/4 points today at 2282.36. It also fell twice and rose three times this week, advancing 20.48 points overall. The Standard & Poor`s 500 lost 2.14, ending at 1287.24 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 12/32 to 99 21/32 putting the yield at 4.54 percent.
Topping the big board active list on 24.2 million shares, Time Warner (TWX) down $0.19 and here`s the latest. CEO Dick Parsons said the company has reached an agreement with Icahn Partners under which a firm controlled by billionaire Carl Icahn will not contest Time Warner`s current slate of directors. Time Warner will in exchange boost its stock buyback by $20 billion and it will cut costs by $1 billion by 2007.
EMC Corp (EMC) was up a nickel.
Pfizer (PFE) a penny gain there.
General Electric (GE) up $0.26.
Motorola (MOT), fifth in volume, was down $0.66.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $0.30 with those higher oil prices.
Qwest Communications (Q) a $0.13 gainer.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) dropped $0.38.
Then PXRE Group Ltd (PXT) tumbling $7.84, losing 66 percent of its value. The reinsurance firm is boosting estimates of the pre-tax impact of the hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, increasing it by up to a $311 million, bringing total losses up to as much as $788 million.
Then Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down $1.41 on Dell`s announcement it has no plans to use Advanced Micro Development (sic) chips in its computers.
Campbell Soup (CPB) up $0.19, higher earnings second quarter, $0.61, up from $0.57 last year, $0.02 above the Street consensus.
And then JM Smucker Co (SJM) stock lost $4.18. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.54, versus $0.60 a year ago. Sales dropped 2 1/2 percent. The company lowered its 2006 earnings guidance.
Then Constellation Brands (STZ) off $2.04. The beer, wine and liquor company will cut its fourth quarter earnings estimate from about $0.30 down to $0.25, but it will buy back up to $100 million worth of its own stock.
Let`s go from the food and wine now over to Weight Watchers Intl (WTW), seems appropriate, up $3.13. Fourth quarter earnings $0.38. That`s down from $0.41 a year ago, but a penny above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor`s upgraded the stock from "hold" to "buy" and Weight Watchers has initiated a $0.17 1/2 quarterly dividend per share.
RadioShack (RSH) tumbling $1.67. Fourth quarter earnings $0.36, that`s $0.31 below the Street estimate and way down from $0.81 last year. The company cites lower than expected battery sales. That`s a high profit margin item.
Then Keyspan Corp (KSE) up $4.28. The big northeastern energy provider confirms it`s in talks with various partners about a possible corporate combination.
Finally, Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI) down $1.74. Fourth quarter earnings tumbled to $0.19 from $0.46 a share last year. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "sell."
Google (GOOG) topped the NASDAQ active list, up $2.29.
Intel (INTC) $0.74 loss.
Dell (DELL) down $1.58. Record fourth quarter earnings out yesterday as we reported, but that cautious outlook about the first quarter hurting the stock.
Apple Computer (AAPL) down $0.28.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.11 and that was fifth in dollar volume.
Nvidia (NVDA) a $0.27 gain.
Applied Materials (AMAT) down $0.24.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $0.21.
Amgen (AMGN) $0.92 rise.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.12 loss.
Finally, XM Satellite Radio Holdings (SMSR) down $2.41, big loss reported yesterday and a director resigned and today, its rival, Sirius Satellite (SIRI) reported a loss as well. Fourth quarter minus $0.23, $0.02 worse than last year`s loss.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
