Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, May 18, 2006
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JEFF YASTINE: There was only a little moderation in the selling on Wall Street today. Early in the session, the Dow chopped around as traders tested the waters. It didn`t help that a couple of other Fed governors made rather hawkish comments on inflation. And the selling gathered momentum into the last hour, so the Dow closed down 77 1/3 points to 11,128.29. The NASDAQ Composite falling 15.5 points to 2,180.32. And the S&P 500 dropping 8.5 points to end at 1,261.81. Bonds rallied nicely on short covering and a report from the Philly Fed showing job weakness in the mid-Atlantic region. The 10-year note rising 21/32 to 100 15/32 and that pushed the yield down to 5.07 percent.
First we have Burger King (BKC), this is an IPO we`ve mentioned in the last couple of days, not exactly a whopper on its first day of trading, rising $0.50, but not bad considering what the rest of the market was doing. The number two fast food chain offering 25 million shares priced at $17 each, netting $425 million. Burger King says it will be used to pay down debt.
Pfizer (PFE) losing $0.38.
Lucent Tech (LU) down two pennies.
General Electric (GE) dropping $0.27.
Sprint Nextel (S) rising $0.76. The company spun off its local phone unit to shareholders who will get one share of that spin off. It`s called Embar (ph) for every 20 Sprint Nextel shares that they own. Sprint Nextel says it will now turn its attention to expanding its wireless services.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) gaining $0.32. An analyst at Morgan Stanley upgrading the stock.
And then Nortel Networks (NT) dropping $0.09.
Time Warner (TWX) losing $0.13.
Citigroup (C) down a dime. And Home Depot (HD) with a gain of $0.40 for the day.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained $0.58, but it rose more than $4 after hours and that after Dell announced it would begin using AMD chips in some of its higher end offerings, so a decent move for that stock after hours.
IBM (IBM) slipping $0.61. Big blue says it will acquire a private firm, Rambo (ph) Technology for undisclosed terms. Rambo software allows network administrators more easily upgrade computer systems without disruption to corporate users.
Then shares of Goldcorp (GG) and really the rest of the mining sector getting whacked as the price of gold bullion dropped nearly $11 to $680.90 an ounce. Goldcorp`s profits tripled from the year ago period. The company also trying to integrate some newly acquired mining operations and look for places it can cut costs.
Limited Brands (LTD) donning a nice gain, $1.38, profits in the first quarter rising 19 percent.
But earnings not as bright at New York & Co (NYW), this women`s apparel retailer saw a plunge in profits with same store sales falling over 9 percent.
Then Suntech Power (STP) lit up by about $4.40. This is a Chinese solar power company and first quarter sales more than doubled to $90 million. That company came public in December at $15 a share.
Investors throwing the book at Barnes & Noble (BKS) after the retailer warned of more weakness in sales. The stock falling over $3. Executives still think they can make their earnings targets though.
Over at the NASDAQ, Microsoft (MSFT) edging up a dime.
But Google (GOOG) losing $3.50, giving back yesterday`s gains.
Sears Holdings (SHLD) soaring over $17. The retailer combo, Sears and Kmart matching estimates. Analysts applauding the cost cutting efforts there which helped to boost margins even though the Sears side of the business saw an 8 percent drop in same store sales during the quarter.
Apple Computer (AAPL) sliding a little over $2.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) though with a gain of $0.11. And Intel (INTC) dipped a penny but lost $1 after hours, again on that news about Dell starting to use some AMD chips.
Yahoo! (YHOO) dropping more than $1.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down over $0.50.
Oracle (ORCL) losing $0.08.
Dell (DELL) and there`s the gain of $0.32, but it also rose a bit after hours, after the close reporting a match of profit estimates, which were lower last week.
Bea Systems (BEAS) jumping $1.47. The business software maker boosting profits by a better than expected $0.12 a share.
And then finally we have Immucor (BLUD) which fell $1.83. The Piper Jaffray brokerage downgrading those shares and you can see they moved from about $23 at the high back around June, July, last year, down to around $16, $17 a share, $17.03 to be exact today.
And those are our stocks in the news tonight.
