Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks moved steadily higher this morning, led by a strong financial sector thanks to those record earnings at Goldman Sachs. That drop in retail sales seemed to foster a bond market rally which also helped stocks. At noon the Dow was up 37 points, NASDAQ gained 15. Stock prices grew stronger as bond yields eased further while the market breadth improved. Then, as a full-fledged rally developed, some frantic short- covering added to the gains. So the Dow industrial average closed up 75 1/3 points at 11,151.34. The NASDAQ Composite was up 28.87 at 2295.90. Standard & Poor`s 500 up 13 1/3 points at 1297.48. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 20/32 to 98 15/32, lifting the - I should say dropping the yield to 4.69 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 24.8 million shares, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) bouncing back $0.99 after several days on the sell off after a few downgrades.
Then Lucent Technologies (LU) edged a nickel higher.
Motorola (MOT) $0.43 gain.
No change in Pfizer (PFE).
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) down $1.28. The company`s in the midst of a secondary offering of 55 million shares of its common stock priced at $50.25 a share.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.11.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.14 gain.
North Fork Bancorp (NFS) which of course is going to be taken over by Capitol One, down $0.13 after a big gain yesterday.
Then Procter & Gamble (PG) down $1.97. Now after the close yesterday, as we reported, P&G boosted its quarterly dividend from $0.28 to $0.31, also boosted the low end of its earnings estimate. But the company disappointed investors with a sales forecast reduction for eastern Europe and Asia, hence the stock down today.
ExxonMobil (XOM) moved up $1.17, tenth in volume.
Disney (DIS) a dime gain there. Comcast is in talks to buy Disney's 40 percent stake in e-entertainment cable network. Comcast already has a controlling interest in that network.
Encana (ECA) up $2.41. The company expects its natural gas sales in North America to grow by 8 to 12 percent per year until 2009.
CHC Helicopter (FLI) a nice gain of $3.26. The controlling shareholder of the company, Craig Dobbin, has disclosed that he'd been talking to two private equity firms regarding the potential acquisition of the company and maybe taking it private.
Then came the home builders, MI Homes (MHO) up $4.07. CS First Boston upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform," made the same upgrade on DH Horton, whose stock jumped $2.13. And the home builder group in general very, very strong today.
Medicis Pharmaceutical (MRX) gained $2.88. The company has acquired the rights for a skin care product called Reloxin from a French firm known as Ibsen (ph) and it will market this product in the United States, Canada and Japan.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) stock was hotter than its sauces today, up $5.29. Fourth quarter earnings of $0.16. That's versus a $0.14 loss last year and same store sales were up a respectable 14 percent for Chipotle.
CentraCore Properties (CPV) a big loss of $2.54. The company`s largest tenant Geo Group will not renew its leases which account for 86 percent of the company's base rents, kind of bad news there.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list up $14.10 on that partial victory in court today.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $1.64.
Intel (INTC) rose $0.03.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.39 gainer.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.12. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Converse (CMVT) down $4.30. The company`s postponing its January quarterly report pending an investigation into how it accounted for stock options, could result in a restatement of results.
Broadcom (BRCM) up $0.93.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $1.04 gain.
Amgen (AMGN) up $1.42.
Tenth in dollar volume was Yahoo! (YHOO) with an $0.84 gain.
Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) down $2.78, big percentage drop on disappointment over mid-trial results of the company's treatment for hepatitis C.
And then a nice little gain by Juniper Networks (JNPR) today, up $1.26. Now this is on take over speculation and a number of analysts believe the potential suitor is most likely LM Ericsson
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
