Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, June 02, 2006
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened higher after that smallest rise in jobs since last October suggested that it might be time for the Fed to stop its rate hikes. An early 30-point gain turned into a 68-point loss in the Dow by noon, on concern that the employment report could signal an economic slowdown. Countering fears of that slowdown was a smaller than expected 1.8 percent drop in April factory orders and that helped the market trim its losses by the final bell.
So the Dow Industrial Average closed off only 12.41 at 11,247.87. That was today. In this four-day week, it rose twice, fell twice for a net loss of 30.74 points. The NASDAQ Composite fell .45 to 2219.41 today and it also rose twice and fell twice and rose twice and fell twice this week for an overall gain of 9.04. The Standard & Poor`s 500 was up 2.51 ending at 1288.22 today. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note jumped 27/32nds to 101 and that put the yield all the way down at a flat 5 percent.
For the second day in a row, the most active bib board issue was Qwest Comm Intl (Q)
. Today it traded 17 1/2 million shares. It moved up a nickel.
Then Lucent Tech (LU) down $0.04.
Followed by Time Warner (TWX) with an $0.18 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.29.
And fifth in volume was General Electric (GE) with an $0.11 gain.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell $1.29. Goldman Sachs says competitive pressures are increasing in the micro processor business. Goldman said yesterday`s annual meeting of the company confirmed that view.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $0.54.
And then Citigroup (C) $0.31 gain there.
Nokia (NOK) fell $0.26.
Tenth in volume was Home Depot (HD) losing $0.55. Almost a third of the voting shareholders of Home Depot withheld their support for Chief Executive Officer Bob Nardelli`s (ph) reelection and 10 out of 11 directors got the same treatment by shareholders at the annual meeting.
Bausch & Lomb (BOL) up $2.02. Goldman Sachs today upgraded it from "under perform" to "in line." I think part of the reason that stock is down from a 12-month high of about $89 a share, all the way at 51 now.
Walgreen Co (WAG) up $2.05. Its May same store sales up a very respectable 9.9 percent.
King Pharmaceuticals (KG) however down $0.88. Bank of America downgraded it from "neutral" to a "sell."
Revlon (REV) losing 37 percent of its value with that loss of $1.13 after the company forecast 2006 revenue growth will be much lower than expected because of poor sales of a number of products as you see there.
Then we see Pulte Homes (PHM) dropping $1.70. The company cut its 2006 earnings forecast down to $4.70 to $5 from over $6 due to about a 30 percent drop in new home orders coming into the company.
Haverty Furniture (HVT) however up $1.47. Its May same store sales up 18 percent and the Morgan Keegan brokerage upgraded the stock from "under perform" to "market perform."
Blyth (BTH) down $2.06. The company makes candles and other d‚cor. First quarter earnings much lower than expected at $0.12, down from $0.25 a year ago and sales actually fell 4 1/2 percent during the period.
Heico (HEI) which makes aircraft parts, up $2.38. Second quarter earnings comfortably higher at $0.28 versus $0.22 last year and sales jumped 38 percent during the period.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) up $2.39. The Steifel (ph) Nicolaus brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
Volume leader was Google (GOOG) on NASDAQ once again, down $3.18 today.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.06.
Apple Computer (AAPL) $0.51 drop.
Intl (INTC) bucked the trend, up $0.19.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.06 loss, fifth in dollar volume.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) up $0.19.
Amgen (AMGN) a $0.39 gainer.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) fell $0.52.
Qualcomm (QCOM) a nickel drop.
And tenth in volume was Dell (DELL) rising $0.16 a share.
Encysive Pharmaceuticals (ENCY) up $1.50, almost a 35 percent gain after Cowan and Company upgraded it from "neutral" to "outperform" on optimism the company`s hypertension drug may soon get approval from European regulators.
Then we see Black Box Corp (BBOX) tumbling $9.51. Fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.53 versus $0.39 a year ago, but the Street estimate was way up there at $0.75 a share.
And Omni Energy Services (OMNI) doing well, up $1.50. The company said second quarter revenues will likely exceed Wall Street estimates of almost $26 million.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
