Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, June 08, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street headed lower for the fifth straight session this morning on interest rate worries underscored by that rate hike in Europe and weak global markets. As potential buyers hugged the sidelines, the Dow tumbled 173 points by noontime with the NASDAQ off 51 points. That steep selloff and the weak oil futures triggered enough buying this afternoon to help the market recover nicely and close narrowly mixed. Dow Industrial Average actually ended with a gain of 7.92 at 10,938.82. The NASDAQ Composite closed off just 6 1/2 points at 2145.32. Standard & Poor`s 500 was up 1 3/4 points at 1257.93. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 7/32nds to 101, putting the yield at exactly 5 percent.
The most active big board issue on 31 million shares, Nortel Networks (NT) gaining $0.02.
Followed by Lucent Tech (LU) with $0.06 loss.
Then General Electric (GE) up $0.17.
Time Warner (TWX) down $0.18.
Fifth in volume, the Ishares Japan (EWJ) down $0.43.
ExxonMobil (XOM) was up $0.72 despite the drop in oil prices.
And there you see Pfizer (PFE) down a nickel. As you just heard, two men have sued the company, alleging its cholesterol drug Lipitor is causing health problems.
Ford Motor co (F) was down $0.13.
Corning (GLW) a $0.21 loss.
And then tenth in big board volume AT&T (T) losing $0.01.
Procter & Gamble (PG), the star of the Dow today, up $1.50. After the close yesterday, the company reaffirmed its fourth quarter sales growth will be in the range of 20 to 24 percent and earnings will be at $0.52 to $0.54. That apparently put analysts at ease and hence the nice performance of the stock today.
Merck & Co (MRK) gained a penny. The FDA has approved the company`s cervical cancer vaccine called Gardosil.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) closed down only $0.97, but it traded as low as $26.23. This morning after Citigroup cut its 2006 earnings estimate from $1.28 a share down to $1.14 and it also cut the price target on AMD from $42 down to $33. Citigroup cited the company`s overly optimistic and aggressive expansion plans.
Halliburton Co (HAL) closed with a gain of $1.74, but traded as low as $67.93 this morning after the company said it may take on far more debt or acquisitions.
Good gainer was Volt Information Sciences (VOL) moving up $3.04. Second quarter earnings jumped to $0.59, up from $0.29 a year ago and that was $0.23 better than the Street consensus for earnings.
Cascade (CAE), which makes forklifts and other materials handling equipment, up $2.42. First quarter earnings were lower, $0.84 versus $0.95 a year ago, but that was $0.07 above the Wall Street consensus and on top of that, the DA Davidson brokerage upgraded Cascade from "neutral" to "buy" on a valuation basis. You can see it had a recent slump.
Southern Peru Copper (PCU) off $1.91. Citigroup downgraded this stock from "buy" to "hold" due to a strike at a company mine in Mexico and of course it didn`t help today that copper futures dropped about 6 percent on the (INAUDIBLE).
Luby`s (LUB), the cafeteria company, serving up some good third quarter earnings, $0.25 versus $0.15 last year and a 3.4 percent rise in sales and $1 gain on the stock today.
Tribune Co (TRB) gained $1.27. The company will proceed with a $2 billion stock buyback despite opposition from a major shareholder.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list with a gain of $6.79.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $2.20. Apple`s in a deal with CBS to download to its iPod TV programs like "CSI" and "Survivor."
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.07 gain.
Intel (INTC) down $0.28. Citigroup cut Intel`s earnings estimate for this year from $0.86 to $0.77 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.02 drop there. That was fifth in volume.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $1.03.
Broadcom (BRCM) losing $0.02.
Amgen (AMGN) bucked the trend, up $1.20.
Sandisk (SNDK) losing $0.14.
Level 3 Comm (LVLT) dropped $0.02.
Novellus Systems (NVLS) up $1.71. The company gave an upbeat second quarter sales forecast.
And then the men`s clothier, Joseph A. Bank Clothiers (JOSB) tumbling $10.73. First quarter earnings lower, $0.32 versus $0.38 and that was $0.14 below the Wall Street estimate.
Finally a low-priced issue going lower down $1.11, Finisar (FNSR), which is in optical sub-systems, had fourth quarter earnings of $0.01 versus a loss of $0.15 last year, but the Street was looking for $0.03 in earnings, not $0.01.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
