Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, May 05, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: 0n Wall Street, rising stock prices were the order of the day. That lower than expected job growth soothed fears that the Fed would extend its rate hikes into June and July, due to an overheating economy. At noon, the Dow surged 110 points. NASDAQ was up 16. That strong upward momentum attracted more buying this afternoon, including frantic short covering and the market ended sharply higher. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 138.88 at 11,577.74 today and that index is now within 150 points of its all-time closing high. This week it fell twice, rose three times, had a net gain of 210.60 points. The NASDAQ Composite was up 18.67, closing at 2,342.57 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week, advancing exactly 20 points overall. The Standard & Poor`s 500 Index gained 13.51 closing at 1,325.76 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 13/32 to 95 12/32 putting the yield at 5.11 percent.
Most active big board issue on 30 1/2 million shares was Disney (DIS) moving up $0.69. Pixar shareholders approved the company`s takeover for $7.4 billion. Disney says it is a done deal.
El Paso Corp (EP) up $1.69. First quarter earnings jumped to $0.49 from $0.17 a year ago. Revenues up 41 percent. Wachovia upgraded the stock from "market perform" to "out perform."
Lucent Tech (LU) a $0.04 gainer there.
Time Warner (TWX) down $0.07.
General Electric (GE) a $0.36 gain. That was fifth in volume.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.53.
Citigroup (C) gained nearly $1.
Liberty Media (L) an $0.18 rise.
EMC Corp (EMC) edged a penny higher.
And Motorola (MOT) was up $0.35.
Let`s have a look at the five best dollar performers in the Dow 30 average and alphabetically from American Express (AXP) all the way down to United Tech some big gainers there. Incidentally, AG Edwards boosted United Technology`s price target from $65 to $73 a share.
Aon Corp (AOC), this is the insurance company, down $3.95. First quarter earnings came in at $0.57, down from $0.59 last year and the company cited restructuring charge. The earnings were $0.06 below the Street estimate.
Then we see another insurance company, Scottish Re Group (SCT) down $2.91. It too had lower earnings, first quarter only $0.20, down from $0.74 a year ago. The Keefe Bruyette brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform." Bear Stearns downgraded it from "out perform" to "peer perform."
Medco Health Solutions (MHS) up $1.99. The pharmaceutical benefits company had first quarter earnings of $0.56, up from $0.47 a year ago. Revenues rose 21 percent.
The medical equipment company Resmed (RMD) up $4.96. Third quarter earnings $0.34, up from $0.25 last year. Revenues up a massive 50 percent increase there.
Four Seasons (FS) did well, up $9.40. First quarter earnings, $0.38, way up from $0.14 last year and $0.04 above the Wall Street estimate.
Oceaneering Intl (OII) up $6.73. First quarter earnings $0.93, more than double last year`s $0.40. Revenues jumped 37 percent in that period.
On the downside, Williams Coal (WTU), this is a trust and it`s going to cut its quarterly cash distribution by 53 percent from $0.56 1/4 all the way down to $0.26 2/3. The company cited lower natural gas prices and sales volumes, big percentage loss there.
Terex (TEX) up $7.39. The construction equipment maker had first quarter earnings of $1.57, $0.21 better than the Street was expecting and up from $0.59 a year ago. Revenues rose 21 percent in that period.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) a $5 gainer. First quarter earnings, $0.38, up from $0.29 last year. Revenues up 31 percent. Prudential upgraded it, the price target from $0.59 to $75 a share.
NASDAQ`s most active, Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.36.
Google (GOOG) $0.45 drop.
Ebay (EBAY) fell $1.72. Apparently analysts were not impressed by yesterday`s meeting with company officials.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $0.76.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) an $0.11 drop. That was fifth in dollar volume on NASDAQ.
Intel (INTC) up $0.17.
Applied Materials (AMAT) rose $0.50.
Amgen (AMGN) up $0.16.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.22 rise.
Sun Micro (SUNW) a $0.15 gain and that was tenth in volume
Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR) came public today, 7.1 million shares offered at $15. The company makes medical devices. The stock opened at $16.07, got as high as $17.75, then backed of a little, but still a nice debut, first day of trading.
Activision (ATVI) up $1.67. This video game publisher reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.03 a share versus an earnings of a penny last year, but that loss was nowhere near as bad as the Street was expecting, which was about minus $0.08 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news.
