Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, May 25, 2006
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street rose steadily this morning as inflation concerns were eased by a weaker-than-expected 5.3 percent rise in first quarter gross domestic product. A 2 percent decline in April existing home sales was in line with expectations. An upgrade on Wal-Mart stock helped the Dow post an 84-point gain at noontime, when the NASDAQ was up 21 points. The rally continued throughout the afternoon, so stocks ended near their very best levels of the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 93.73 points at 11,211.05. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted just over 29 points to 2,198.24. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index rose 14.31 ending at 1,272.88. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 8/32 to par and 13/32 putting the yield at 5.07 percent.
Big board volume leader at 28 1/2 million shares, Mastercard (MA) charging ahead by $7 from an offering price of $39, traded or it was offering 61 1/2 million shares, opened at $40.30, the high of the day $46.05, close right near the high, so the securities started coverage with a "buy."
Then El Paso Corp (EP) with an $0.29 gain. UBS financial upped its price target from $18 to $20 a share and repeated a "buy" on El Paso.
Ford Motor (F) gained $0.22.
General Motors (GM) up another $1.39. It was up $2.03 yesterday on a Merrill Lynch upgrade. Today the "Detroit News" reported over 20,000 hourly workers have accepted GM`s buyout offers.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) helping the Dow as well, up $1.42. Bank of America upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy," boosted a 12-month price target from $44 to $55 a share, citing the company`s early success in selling higher end merchandise.
Nortel Networks (NT) up $0.02.
A penny gain in Pfizer (PFE).
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $1.42.
GE (GE) gained $0.16.
And Time Warner (TWX), tenth in big board volume, up $0.08.
Stone Energy (SGY) had a quite a day on the upside, gaining $9.19, traded a little over $50 a share. Energy Partners Limited is offering to buy out the firm for a combination of cash and stock worth $52 a share. That`s a 26 percent premium over the buyout bid from Plains Exploration.
Big Lots (BLI), another good gainer, up $2.80. The discount retailer reported more than a doubling of first quarter earnings from last year, $0.13 versus $0.06. Sales up 4.7 percent, nice move in the stock.
Big loser on the downside here, Midway Games (MWY) losing $1.56. The company is offering $75 million in convertible notes yield 7 1/8 percent. They represent possible earnings dilution.
Vonage Holdings (VG) off another $1.85. It went public yesterday as you recall at $17 and fell $2.15. Today, Halle Research brokerage began coverage with a "sell" recommendation. Down it went.
The golds were hot today, Glamis Gold (GLG) up $2.12 after JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
And then Goldcorp (GG) up $1.88 after Raymond James financial upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform." June gold incidentally as you saw was up $11 an ounce in New York today.
Toro (TTC) up $1.70. Second quarter earnings $1.56, up from $1.33 last year, $0.06 better than the Street consensus.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list up $1.74. You heard about the teamwork it`s doing with Dell.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.24 gain.
Ebay (EBAY) up $3.68. Prudential upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight" on valuation. Also the company and Yahoo! are going to share Internet search and advertising and online payment technology.
Intel (INTC) in there with a $0.16 gain.
And then Yahoo (YHOO) itself up $1.13 on the news about eBay.
Apple Computer (AAPL) a $0.99 rise.
Joy Global (JOYG) mining equipment company, down nearly $5. Second quarter earnings $0.66 versus $0.31 but the company said profit margins in the second quarter are not sustainable.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) was up $0.03.
And Broadcom (BRCM) $0.45 drop.
Tenth in volume, Qualcomm (QCOM) lost - or gaining $0.47 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
