Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, July 06, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks got a good opening lift from that initial drop in oil prices, while hopes for a pause in rate hikes were boosted by slow June retail sales. A sharp gain in Altria stock on a favorable court ruling which we`ll detail shortly helped boost the Dow 100 points by noontime with the NASDAQ up 12. Weakening tech stocks and caution ahead of tomorrow`s employment report cut the market`s gains this afternoon, but the Dow still closed up 73.48 at 11,225.30. The NASDAQ Composite was up exactly 1 3/4 at 2155.09. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index rose 3.17 at 1274.08. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 10/32 to 99 17/32, lowering the yield to 5.19 percent.
There is is, Altria Group (MO) trading 26.7 million shares, closing up $4.43 which accounted for 33 points of the Dow`s 73-point gain and Altria traded as high as $79 a share.
Let`s look at how it affected some of the other tobacco stocks, this decision and British American Tobacco (BTI), which trades on the American exchange, up $1.62.
Nice gain in Carolina Group (CG).
And a big gain in Reynolds American (RAI), up $4.59.
Vector Group (VGR) up just a fraction.
Now back to EMC Corp (EMC) on the active, second in activity, up $0.14.
Followed by Nortel Networks (NT) with a $0.09 gain.
Lucent Tech (LU) edged a penny higher.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on those high oil prices, up another $0.92, fifth in big board volume. Time Warner (TWX) was down $0.15. The "Wall Street Journal" reports that its AOL unit may offer services for free in order to boost advertising revenues.
Pfizer (PFE) showed no change on the day.
General Electric (GE) up $0.19.
Advo (AD), which is the nation`s largest direct mail media company, is going to be taken over by Molasses Communications for $37 a share, huge gain today.
And then Kraft Foods (KFT), tenth in volume, down $0.77. The Lehman Brothers brokerage thinks that the Kraft spin off from Altria could happen as soon as the fourth quarter. Meanwhile today, Merrill Lynch downgraded Kraft stock from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
BJ`s Wholesale (BJ) off $1.96. June sales slipped 1/10 percent. Street was looking for a 2.4 percent rise and on top of that, the company cut its second quarter earnings estimate from $0.47 to $0.37 a share.
Aeropostale (ARO), the women`s apparel maker, retailer, up $1.95. June same store sales rose 5.3 percent.
Another apparel retailer Guess (GES) up $2.08. Its June same store sales rose 12 percent.
Peoples Energy (PGL) up $3.08. The company and WPS Resources confirmed that they are in talks about a potential business combination. WPS Resources stock fell $2.03 to $48.14.
Par Pharmaceutical (PRX) had a rough day, down $4.78. The company has found accounting errors in its financials, so it`s going to have to restate results lower for the years 2004, 2005 and the first quarter of 2006.
First Marblehead (FMD) tumbling $8.84 a share. Friedman Billings brokerage confirmed that Bank of America, one of Marblehead`s long-standing partners, is now outsourcing new private student loan products to a competitor, bad news for Marblehead.
Acuity Brands (AYI), which is in lighting products had a nice third quarter earnings, $0.63, up from $0.44 a year ago on an 11 percent rise in sales.
And then the cotton seed maker, Delta & Pineland (DLP) up $2.33. Third quarter earnings, $1.28, way up from $0.91 last year. Sales jumped 41 percent. Google (GOOG) topped the NASDAQ`s most active, up $1.73.
Followed by Apple Computer (AAPL) down $1.23.
Ebay (EBAY) was off $1.51. The company announced some major management changes prompting Citigroup to cut its price target from $51 to $40 a share and CIBC cut its target from $45 down to $35 a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.13 gain.
Hansen Natural (HANS), profit taking there, down $1.68.
Intel (INTC) rose a dime.
A $0.03 gain in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Qualcomm (QCOM)
a $0.30 rise.
Yahoo! (YHOO) up $0.64.
And Openwave Systems (OPWV) tumbling $3.70. The company sees a fourth quarter loss of $0.13 to $0.14. The Street was looking for earnings of $0.22. Disappointing sales in Europe and Japan are the problem. The company makes software enabling cell phones to access the Internet.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
