Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened with a reflex rally from yesterday`s tumble, with the Dow up 25 points early on while the NASDAQ rose three points. That mild comeback didn`t impress investors, so they turned to the sell side on continuing concerns over inflation and more rate hikes. At noon, the Dow was down 111 points and the NASDAQ fell 23 points. Some very cautious buying helped the market move above its worst levels of the day this afternoon, but stocks still ended broadly lower. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 46.58 at 11,002.14. The NASDAQ Composite was down 6.84 ending at 2,162.78, while the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index fell 1.44 ending at 1,263.85. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 5/32 to par and 30/32nds, putting the yield at 5.01 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 20.2 million shares was General Electric (GE) moving up $0.33. The company said it invested $75 million for the construction of the world`s largest solar power plant in sunny Portugal.
Time Warner (TWX) was up $0.13.
Pfizer (PFE) dropped a dime a share.
ExxonMobil (XOM) gaining $0.35.
Fifth in volume was Lucent Tech (LU) which dropped $0.03 a share.
Interpublic Group (IPG), the big advertising firm, down $0.54. The company is seeking a new $526 million credit facility. Nortel Networks (NT) dropped 6 points. The company in with a first quarter loss of $0.04 a share, double the $0.02 loss of a year ago and worse than most analysts expected.
SprintNextel (S) was up $0.66.
AT&T (T) rose $0.13.
And then tenth in volume, Motorola (MOT) down $0.06 a share.
United Tech (UTX) the Dow stock, down $1.40. The company`s going to pay $283 million to settle a lawsuit with the Department of Defense over accounting practices at its Pratt & Whitney unit.
General Motors (GM) an $0.80 loss, even though the company`s CEO says that the restructuring is making good progress and the company may experience tailwinds in the second half of this year.
International Paper (IP) down $0.46, even though Prudential equity brokerage upgraded it from "under weight" to "neutral" because of the company`s recent success in selling its coded paper unit and apparently getting a decent price for them.
Freddie Mac (FRE) lost nearly $2 a share after CS First Boston downgraded it from "out perform" to "neutral" and it did the same for Fannie Mae whose stock closed down $0.94 at $49.08 a share.
DR Horton (DHI) the home builder, off $1.40. Wachovia Securities downgraded it from "over weight" to "market neutral" and did the same downgrade for a number of other home building stocks.
KB Home (KBH) dropping $3.28.
While Lennar (LEN), Pulte Homes (PHM) and Toll Brothers (TOL) all lost more than $1 a share.
Eastman Chemical (EMN) down $1.82. Bank of America downgraded it from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
On the upside though, Moody`s (MCO) rose $1.16 on news it plans to buy back up to $2 billion of its own stock.
And Callaway Golf (ELY) up $0.50 a share. The company declared its regular quarterly dividend of $0.07 a share and also plans to buy back up to $50 million of its own common stock. Google (GOOG) topped the active list with a gain of $15.55. The company today released a web-based spread sheet taking another step into Microsoft`s turf.
And Microsoft (MSFT) hit a new 12-month low apparently on that news, down $0.37.
Apple Computer (AAPL) lost $0.28.
Intel (INTC) a $0.19 drop.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) bucked the trend and up $0.29, fifth in volume.
Broadcom (BRCM) down $1.95.
Sandisk (SNDK) gained $0.44.
Ebay (EBAY) losing $0.91.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.49 gain.
And Hansen Natural (HANS) on a little profit taking, down $6.12 a share.
Evergreen Solar (ESLR) up $1.78. The story here, Renewable Energy Corp. boosted its stake in a joint venture between Evergreen and Q Cells (ph) Corp. and up went the stock of Evergreen on that news.
Brightpoint (CELL), this company`s involved in logistics services for the wireless industry and Deutsche Bank downgraded it from "buy" to "hold."
And then over on the American Exchange, Home Solutions of America (HOM) tumbling $2.80. The company`s in talks to buy an ownership stake in American Renaissance Homes and also may loan that company $800,000. Investors probably didn`t like that idea, judging by what happened to the stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
