Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, March 17, 2006
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KANGAS: Stocks continued their winning ways this morning as the recent upward momentum generated enough bullish conviction to override General Motor`s increased loss and an up-tick in bond yields. At mid-session, the Dow was up 31 points. NASDAQ Composite had gained 11. The market was able to hold its modest gains amid heavy trading linked to the quadruple witching. That`s the quarterly event when stock options and futures expire simultaneously. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 26.41 points at 11,279.65. It rose in all but one day this week, gaining 203.31 points overall. The NASDAQ Composite advanced almost seven points to 2,306.48 today. It, too, was up four of the days this week and it gained 44.44, overall. The Standard & Poor`s 500 Index rose 1.92 ending at 1,307.25 today. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 7/32 to 98 20/32, putting the yield at 4.68 percent.
Most active big board issue, General Electric (GE) on 31.3 million shares, edging $0.13 higher.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.04 loss.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.34 gain.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.59.
Citigroup (C) was fifth in big board volume with a gain of $0.09 a share.
Lucent Technologies (LU) dropped a penny.
Followed by AT&T (T) with a loss of $0.11.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.14.
Then American Intl Group (AIG) down $0.42. It traded as low as $67.03 today after reporting sharply lower fourth quarter earnings, $0.14 down from $0.66 last year and most expected AIG would have earnings of $0.17, better than they reported. These are operating earnings incidentally. Standard & Poor`s however today did repeat a "buy" recommendation on American International Group.
Procter & Gamble (PG) was tenth in volume with a loss of $0.29.
Will Lyon Homes (WLS), look at that gain up $23.30 or almost 31 percent. William Lyon, the chairman and CEO has commenced an offer to buy all the stock he doesn`t already own for $93 a share. This news sent some of the other home building stock higher on takeover speculation.
Then we see Tektronix (TEK) doing well, up $4.11. Third quarter earnings higher, $0.30 versus $0.26 a year ago, but the company also sees fourth quarter earnings rising all the way up to $0.38 to $0.42 and on top of that, Bank of America repeated a "buy" recommendation on Tektronix.
Genentech (DNA) doing well, up $5.55. Genentech officials said that the company is forecasting 2006 earnings will rise between 40 and 50 percent.
Maytag (MYG) down $1.23. Some analysts think the company`s takeover by Whirlpool may be challenged by the Department of Justice on concerns about competition. Whirlpool stock was down $1.29 closing at $86.25 a share.
The Mills Corp (MLS), this is a real estate investment trust and it was downgraded by Citigroup from "hold" to a "sell." Down she went, nearly $2.
Tribune Co (TRB) losing $1.41. Deutsche Bank downgraded this stock from "hold" to "sell" because of lower than expected newspaper revenues coming in.
World Fuel Services (INT) up $3.24. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.53 a share, excluding one-time items. Those earnings were $0.09 above the Street consensus.
Then Pride Intl (POE), the contract oil driller issued preliminary fourth quarter results of $0.24 up from $0.15 last year, but it delayed the final results because it`s looking into allegations of improper payments to foreign government officials. So we`ll have to wait for the final figure for a while.
Google (GOOG) topped the NASDAQ`s most active with a gain of $1.02.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.23 rise there.
Intel (INTC) down $.011.
Apple Computer (AAPL) $0.35 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.37, fifth in dollar volume.
Amgen (AMGN) fell $0.59.
Qualcomm (QCOM) moving up $0.90.
Oracle (ORCL) a dime gain.
Applied Materials (AMAT) down $0.21.
And Yahoo! (YHOO), tenth in volume, down $0.06 a share.
Viropharma (VPHM) plunging $5.38 on concerns the company could face very tough competition from generic drug rivals after the FDA dropped the need for human clinical trials for the company`s antibiotic called Vancocin. That`s as long as its rival`s product is up to the same standards that this company`s held.
And finally we see Worldspace (WRSP) down $2.63. Fourth quarter results yesterday a big loss of $0.90, but a lot narrower than last year and today, the SG Cowan brokerage downgraded it from "outperform" to "neutral" so that hurt a bit.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
