Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened slightly lower amid investor confusion over the mixed signals of the producer price index and disappointment that Bernanke gave no hint about ending rate hikes in last night`s speech. The Dow and the NASDAQ moved just single digits all morning long and then a flurry of buying in the tech sector along with a drop in oil prices help the Dow jump to a 40-point gain and NASDAQ to 16 point advance briefly this afternoon, but traders sold into the strength, so the Dow Industrial Average closed down 39 points at 11,235.47. The NASDAQ Composite was off 19.88, ending at 2294.23. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index fell 7.85 to 1297.23. In the bond market, the 10-year note was down 15/32 to 98 8/32, putting the yield at 4.72 percent.
Big board volume leader second day running, today on 19.4 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) down $0.02.
Ford Motor (F) was up $0.13, even though Citigroup repeated a "sell" recommendation, also repeated "sell" on General Motors (GM) whose stock fell - gained $1.15 to $22. Of course reportedly, GM is making progress in talks with the UAW.
ExxonMobil (XOM) a $0.06 gainer. The company announced today it plans to expand its oil refining capacity.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.09 loss.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.16 drop. That was fifth in big board volume.
General Electric (GE) fell $0.16.
EMC Corp (EMC) $0.29 loss there.
Cendant (CD) bucked the trend, up $0.31.
Citigroup (C) down $0.18.
And AT&T (T) dropped a dime, tenth in big board volume.
CBOT Holdings (BOT), CBOT up $7.74. An exchange membership today sold for a record $3.1 million.
Then we see Bally Total Fitness Hldg (BFT) up $1.15, almost a 15 percent rise. The "New York Post" reported Richard Branson`s Virgin group is eyeing the company as a possible takeover target.
And then Jones Apparel Group (JNY) up $4.02. It`s retained Goldman Sachs to advise it on the possible sale of the company.
Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) buttoned up a gain of $3.71 after reporting fourth quarter earnings of $0.41, up from $0.33 a year ago and $0.04 above the Street estimate. Revenues were up a respectable 11 percent and the company also gave an upbeat outlook.
Corus Group Plc (CGA) up $1.33. The Fitch rating service has upgraded it from - the company`s outlook from "stable" to "positive" and that helped the stock.
Gamestop (GME) up $3.60. Fourth quarter earnings jumped to $1.10 from only $0.64 last year and that was $0.03 above the Wall Street estimate.
MGM Mirage (MGM) was up $1.30. Bear Stearns upgraded it from "peer perform" to "out perform."
Harman Intl industries (HAR) which is involved with high hi-fi audio equipment down $7.12. RBC Capital brokerage downgraded it from "outperform" to just "sector perform."
And then Steinway Musical (LVB) hitting a sour note, off $1.59. Fourth quarter earnings $0.66, way down from $0.84 a year ago and the company said it expects the US piano business to remain challenging.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) dropping $2.65. The company said results from the first of two phase three trials for its Viramidene hepatitis C treatment did not achieve all of the desired end points.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down $8.27.
There you see Apple Computer (AAPL) off $2.18. You heard the news, what`s going on in France.
Intel (INTC) a $0.16 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) was down a dime.
And Microsoft (MSFT) closed down $0.15. After the close, Microsoft said it plans to delay the consumer launch of its much-anticipated Windows Vista operating service or system to January 2007 from its earlier target for the second half of this year. In after hours trading, Microsoft was down around $27 even per share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.27 loss there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.72.
Dell (DELL) moved up $0.51.
And then Broadcom (BRCM) an $0.08 gain there.
Tenth in dollar volume on NASDAQ was Amgen (AMGN) losing $0.88 a share.
Shuffle Master (SHFL) up $5.82. First quarter earnings came in at $0.21, up from last year`s $0.17. The company also boosted its 2006 earnings guidance from the Wall Street estimate of $1.02 a share to as high as $1.05 per share.
Another good gain there in Healthways (HWAY) up $7.62. Second quarter earnings $0.34, up from $0.24 last year. It boosted its 2006 earnings guidance from about $1.12 all the way up to $1.18.
And over on the American exchange, Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings (HCM) closed with a gain of $0.55, but it was as high as $5.60 this morning after Hanover said it`s going to buy back up to two million of its own shares.
Another American exchange issue, Core Molding Technology (CMT) tumbling $2.66. The company`s fourth quarter earnings tumbled to $0.10 from $0.29 last year and sales actually fell 6.6 percent.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
