Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: The problems with North Korea pushed oil prices to close at a new record high in New York trading today. Light sweet crude for August delivery settled up $1.26 to $75.19 a barrel. That`s two cents higher than the record set back in April during rising tensions with Iran.
Oil experts are now predicting $80-a-barrel crude, possibly by year`s end. The bullish momentum spilled over into gasoline future prices as well, as they rose sharply to $2.28 a gallon. That was buoyed in part by fears of falling inventories.
The government`s weekly survey of energy supplies is due out tomorrow, and is expected to show a decline of almost 1.5 million barrels of gasoline.
Well stocks headed broadly lower this morning on that spike-up in oil prices and the tensions caused by North Korea. A stronger than expected seven-tenth percent rise in May new factory orders renewed concerns about higher interest rates. So after 90 minutes of trading, the Dow was off 101 points and the Nasdaq down 42.
Weak tech stocks kept the bears in control this afternoon, although the market did end above its lows of the day. The Dow industrial average closed off 76.20 at 11,151.82. The Nasdaq composite lost 37.09 points at 2,153.34.
Standard and Poor`s 500 down 9.28, ending at 1,270.91. In the bond market, the ten-year note fell 18/32nds to 99 and seven 32nds, putting the yield at 5.23 percent.
Most active big board issue on 16.3 million shares. Pfizer moving up a dime followed by G.E. with a two cent loss. AT&T dropped three cents even though Bank of America Securities upgraded it from neutral to buy, saying that it expects to revise AT&T`s earnings upward.
EMC was down a penny. Exxon Mobil on those record high oil prices, moved up 40 cents, that was fifth in big board volume. Lucent Technologies dropped a nickel a share and Hewlett-Packard moving up 26 cents in an otherwise weak high-tech group. Nortel Networks down eight cents. Sprint Nextel down 15 cents. Bank of America, tenth in volume, was up six cents a share.
Advance Micro Devices fell 70 cents even though UBS Securities, well because UBS Securities cut second quarter earnings from 35 cents down to 33. Also cut it`s price target from 33 dollars to 29 dollars a share, saying AMD is going to have to lower its ship prices to remain competitive.
Wachovia Corporation down 83 cents. The company has agreed to pay 25 million dollars to settle allegations that some of its analysts issued biased reports to gain investment banking business.
Occidental Petroleum was up 22 cents even though the company is going to record a 309 million dollar after tax charge, or 71 cents a share in the second quarter. It`s related to the recent seizure of its block 15 investment in the country of Ecuador.
Duquesne Light Holding up $2.95, one of the best percentage gainers today, a consortium led by Mcwarr (ph) Infrastructure Partners will acquire Duquesne for $20 a share.
McGraw-Hill Companies up $1.02. Citigroup upgraded it from hold to buy and also boosted its price target from 55 to 58 dollars a share.
Kookmin Bank, the South Korean bank, down $4.13. The Korea Exchange Bank Union and some of its senior officials are calling for an investigation of Kookman and possible accounting irregularities
And we see Goodrich Petroleum moving up $1.52. Raymond James Financial Brokerage upgraded it from outperform to a strong buy, boosted its price target from 34 dollars a share all the way up to 47 dollars a share.
Google topped Nasdaq`s most active list, losing $1.74. Then Microsoft, 35 cent loss. Apple Computer down 95 cents. Apple will soon introduce its new IMAC personal computer, selling for $899. It`s designed especially for students. Intel, 61 cent drop. Hansen Natural, the energy drink company, u $7.14. Qualcomm down $1.29 even though Matrixx Research upgraded it from hold to buy.
Cisco was down 40 cents. Marvell Technology is down $3.53. Marvell is being investigated regarding its stock option granting practices. SanDisk, down $2.66. And then Oracle, tenth in volume, a 24 cent loss.
Rambus, Inc. moved up $1.53. The company is in a licensing agreement with Toshiba regarding memory controllers.
And Atheros Communications fell $2.71. Jeffrey`s Brokerage downgraded it from buy to hold.
Over on the American Exchange CD&L, which is a custom delivery service, had a big day on the upside, 28 percent gain. Velocity Express will acquire this company for $3.00 a share in cash.
Also on the American, Vaalco Energy losing $1.08, as Jefferies Brokerage downgraded that stock from hold to underperform on evaluation basis.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight .
