Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks posted solid gains this morning as fears of higher interest rates subsided, while better than expected results from Verizon, St. Paul Travelers and Archer Daniels Midland impressed buyers. At noon, the Dow was up 63 points. NASDAQ rose three. A steady flow of strong corporate earnings and brokerage upgrades kept the blue chip rally alive this afternoon, but the tech- laden NASDAQ market remained a laggard. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 73.16 at 11,416.45, as you heard, a fresh six-year high. The NASDAQ gained only five points to 2309.84. Standard & Poor`s 500 rose eight points to 1313.21. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note rose 7/32 to 95 10/32, putting the yield at 5.12 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue on 26.8 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) showing no change.
Then Coeur d`Alene (CDE) down $0.57 and the stock traded as low as $5.86 today. Yesterday, Bolivia said it will nationalize the oil industry there. T hat raised fears that that nation will do the same with foreign mining companies like Coeur d`Alene which as $35 million invested in a mine in Bolivia. The country`s vice president however says no mining expropriations are planned, but those corporations will pay higher taxes.
Time Warner (TWX) an $0.08 gain.
Nortel Networks (NT) rose a penny.
No change in Ford Motor Co (F) despite the drop in April sales. That was fifth in volume.
Pfizer (PFE) up $.06.
Bank of America (BAC) a $0.28 gain.
TXU (TXU) up $7.59. First quarter operating earnings more than doubled from last year, $1.09 versus $0.51 and the company plans to expand outside of Texas.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on those higher fuel prices, up $1.25.
And Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) up $3.90. Third quarter earnings up 29 percent as you heard. That`s $0.53 a share, up from only $0.41 last year, $0.07 above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor`s upgraded ADM stock from a "hold" to a "buy."
Verizon Communications (VZ), a Dow stock, down $0.15. Its first quarter earnings came in at $0.60 a share. That was a penny above the Street estimate, but down $0.03 from last year`s first quarter.
Then the best percentage gainer of the day, Visteon (VC), the auto parts maker, up $1.09. First quarter earnings of $0.02 a share versus a loss of $1.30 last year. The company said lower costs offset a 41 percent drop in sales.
Then we see St. Paul Travelers (STA), the big insurance firm, up $2.20. First quarter earnings $1.41, $0.12 above the Street estimate and well above last year`s $1.23. Also St. Paul is boosting its quarterly dividend 13 percent to $0.26 a share and it`s going to buy back up to $2 billion of its own stock.
Big loser, Administaff (ASF) tumbling $10.82, a strange situation. First quarter earnings $0.37, way up from $0.18 last year, $0.03 above the Street consensus. But a number of analysts said the second quarter outlook for the company is not up to expectations and that sent the stock tumbling.
Timberland co (TBL) down $3.74. First quarter earnings, $0.45, down from $0.61 last year. Revenues fell 1.2 percent.
Airgas (ARG) off $2.92. Yesterday it has nicely higher first quarter, fourth quarter earnings but today Keybanc and BB&T Capital brokerages both downgraded the stock from "buy" to just a "hold." It had quite a move as you see.
Hovnanian Enterprise (HOV), the home builder, down $2.39. The company sees lower than expected second quarter earnings of $1.40 to $1.50. That`s versus its previous forecast of $1.55 to $1.80. That was a much higher guidance.
Google (GOOG) topped NASDAQ`s most active down $4.10.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.28 drop.
But Apple computer (AAPL) up $2.02, renewed contracts the company did with the four major music firms to continue selling songs through the iTunes music store at a flat rate of $0.99 a tune.
Intel (INTC) $0.10 gain.
$0.43 rise in Cisco Systems (CSCO), fifth in volume on a dollar basis.
Gilead Sciences (GILD) down just over $3.
Dell (DELL) fell $0.22.
Amgen (AMGN) $0.87 loss there.
Yahoo! (YHOO) off $0.23.
Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) moved up $0.26. It had a smaller than expected first quarter loss and bigger than expected rise in subscribers.
Then over on the American Exchange, Metalico (MEA), look at that gain, 40 percent. The company had the scrip metal recycler had its best first quarter ever, $0.11 in earnings versus $0.07 a year ago. Revenues up 24 percent.
And also on the American exchange, Apex Silver (SIL) down $3.30 on concern that Bolivia may nationalize the mining companies down there and it does have mining interests in Bolivia.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
