Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, March 20, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street`s blue chips opened about 20 points higher on the Dow while the NASDAQ Composite rose eight points on carryover strength from last week`s nice rally. The market turned mixed however after the February leading economic indicators showed a 0.2 percent drop, suggesting slower growth ahead. A sharp decline in oil prices failed to rally stocks as traders moved to the sidelines on caution ahead of tonight`s speech by Fed chief Bernanke. The result was a narrowly mixed close. The Dow Industrial Average posted a loss of 5.12 at 11,274.53. NASDAQ Composite was up 7 2/3 points to 2314.11. Standard & Poor`s 500 down 2.17 at 1305.08. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 4/32 to 98 24/32, putting the yield at 4.66 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 36.8 million shares, Lucent Technology (LU) losing $0.08. An article in this week`s "Barons" financial magazine suggests the company`s experiencing a shrinking pool of customers due to all the mergers in the telecom industry.
Time Warner (TWX) was up $0.08.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) did very well, rising $1.07. The company plans to hire 150,000 people in China over the next five years. That`s five times the number of employees there now as the company embarks on a major store expansion.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.39.
Pfizer (PFE) an $0.08 gainer. That was fifth in big board volume.
Then Boston Scientific (BSX) moving up $0.88. A leading proxy advisory service is recommending to Boston shareholders approve the merger with Guidant Corp. That vote is scheduled for March 31.
General Electric (GE) dropped a penny.
Nortel Networks (NT) $0.07 loss there.
AT&T (T) down $0.18.
No change on the day in Bank of America (BAC), tenth in volume.
Boeing (BA) did well, $0.33 gain, traded as high as $78.86. The company is noting that the demand for its new 787 Dreamliner is very strong and Prudential Securities upgraded the price target from $77 to $83 a share.
We touched on earlier, Michaels Stores (MIK) doing well, up $4.39. The company is going to explore alternatives to enhance shareholder value and that could include the possible sale of the company.
Kerzner Intl Ltd (KZL), this is the big resort and casino company. It`s going to be acquired for $$76 a share in cash by an investment group led by the firm`s chairman, Saul Kerzner. The stock had a nice move today.
Hanson PLC (HAN) up $2.42. This is a British building materials company and it`s up on speculation that LaFarge Corporation might make a takeover bid for Hanson.
The Mills Corporation (MLS), the real estate investment trust, was down nearly $2 Friday after Citigroup downgraded it to "sell." The company also said then it`s going to file its 2005 annual report late and today Bank of America downgraded the stock from "neutral" to "sell."
Schering-Plough (SGP) edged up $0.85 a share. Bank America upgraded it from "sell" to "neutral" on the promising sales outlook for the company`s Vitorin cholesterol drug.
And on the downside, Fording Canadian Coal (FDG) off $2.34. The company sees lower than expected sales because of high inventories at a number of its customers` plants.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $8.40.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.39 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.12. After the close, Oracle in with fourth quarter earnings of $0.19 a share, up from $0.18 last year and a penny above the Street estimate, but revenues I think were a little disappointing. The stock dropped $0.50 in after hours trading.
Apple Computer (AAPL) down $0.67.
Intel (INTC) an $0.08 gain there, fifth in dollar volume.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.06.
Yahoo! (YHOO) gained $0.37.
Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) moving up $0.22, pretty good percentage move. The company said today it has surpassed the four million mark in subscribers.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.46 loss.
And Sandisk (SNDK) off $1.19.
There`s Dell (DELL) up $0.68. The company plans to have 20,000 employees in India sometime over the next three years.
And finally we see SBS Technologies (SBSE) jumping $5.39. The company will be acquired for $16.50 a share in cash by a General Electric Japanese joint venture.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
