Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Fears of a Fed-induced recession were countered on Wall Street this morning by that solid jump in housing starts. An upbeat sales forecast from Target also helped the Dow post an 87 point gain at noon with the NASDAQ up 13 points. But it was all downhill from there as buyers backed away on unimpressive volume and a lack of leadership in the early upturn. So the Dow Industrial Average saw its closing gain cut to only 32.73 points at 10,974.84. The NASDAQ Composite lost 3 1/3 points to 2107.06. Standard & Poor`s 500 just a small fraction lower at 1240.12. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 4/32 to 99 25/32, putting the yield at 5.16 percent.
The most active big board issue Ford Motor Co (F) on a lot of trading late in the day, total of 28.1 million shares exchanged. The stock down $0.34 a share.
Then Pfizer (PFE) with an $0.11 loss.
Sprint Nextel (S) moved up $0.19.
EMC Corp (EMC) a $0.03 drop.
Motorola (MOT) was down $0.19, even though Merrill Lynch upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" on optimism over next month`s scheduled meeting with analysts.
Then we see General Electric (GE) losing $0.02.
Followed by Nortel Networks (NT) up a nickel.
AT&T (T) down $0.26.
Lucent Tech (LU) a $0.03 drop.
No change at all in ExxonMobil (XOM) on the day.
General Motors (GM) closed down $0.70. Both Standard & Poor`s and Moody`s cut the company`s debt ratings another notch after GM offered collateral to renew and extend a $5.6 billion credit facility to the year 2011.
Then we see Target (TGT) losing $0.06 although it traded as high as $49.70 in the morning after it gave an upbeat sales forecast but not much reaction after that.
Then Kroger Co (KR) the big grocery chain rising $1.01. First quarter earnings $0.45, up from $0.40 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street estimate, sales gained 8 percent. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "buy" on the stock.
Well, if your name is Smucker (SJM) you better be good when it comes to earnings. The fourth quarter came in beautifully, $0.62, up from $0.45 a year ago, $0.04 better than the Street expected. The company reaffirmed its 8 percent long-term sales growth target.
Then Factset Research (FDS) up $3.37. This company provides information to the financial industry. Its third quarter earnings $0.41 up from last year`s $0.39, $0.03 better than expected. Revenues jumped 25 percent. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "strong buy" recommendation.
Actuant (ATU), the tool and engineering firm down $10.12. Third quarter earnings were high, $0.86, up from $0.66 a year ago, but the company gave a disappointing fourth quarter earnings forecast of about $0.75 a share versus the Street estimate of $0.84. Bear Stearns on top of that downgraded it from "outperform" to just a "peer perform."
Group 1 Automotive (GPI) tumbling $4.16. Standard & Poor`s and Moody`s cut their outlook for the auto dealer on its plan to offer $250 million in convertible senior notes to institutional buyers.
Gildan Activewear (GIL) moving up $2.59. It will acquire Kentucky Derby hosiery company for $45 million and says the deal will add about $0.30 a year to its earnings. Nice reaction in the stock.
Commercial Metals Co (CMC) down $1.43. Third quarter earnings $0.62, up from $0.57 a year ago, but that was $0.08 lower than the Wall Street expectation.
Trinity Industries (TRN), the rail car maker, up $1.77. The company boosted its second quarter earnings guidance from the range of $0.52 to $0.57 to $0.060 to $0.65 a share.
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Microsoft (MSFT) edging a penny higher.
But Google (GOOG) down $0.97.
Apple Computer (AAPL) a $0.27 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.09 loss there.
Dell (DELL) off $0.39, fifth in dollar volume on NASDAQ. Qualcomm (QCOM) moved up $0.52.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.09 loss.
Amgen (AMGN) was down $0.79.
Sandisk (SNDK) lost $1.51.
And then Oracle (ORCL), tenth in volume was down $0.04 a share.
CFC Intl (CFCI), this company`s in the chemical coatings business and its stock jumping $5.11. A unit of Illinois tool works will acquire it for $16.75 a share in cash.
And over on the American exchange, Badger Meter (BMI) up $2. The Baird brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform" on valuation.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
