Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks headed lower this morning on disappointment over Alcoa`s revenue shortfall that we told you about yesterday, along with Lucent`s earnings warning. Other negatives were higher oil prices and Merrill Lynch`s downgrade of three major airlines. Ninety minutes into the trading session, the Dow was off 70 points; NASDAQ down 19.
An upbeat forecast from chip equipment maker KLA-Tencor triggered a rally in the depressed tech sector this afternoon, which spread over into the broader market. So the Dow Industrial Average rebounded to close up 31.22 at 11, 134.77. The NASDAQ Composite was up nearly 12 points at 2128.86. Standard & Poor`s 500 up 5.18 at 1, 272.52. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 6/32 to par and 5/32, putting the yield at 5.11 percent.
Most active issue on the big board trading 62 1/2 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) losing $0.15. After the close yesterday, as we reported, the company warned third quarter earnings would drop to $0.02 from $0.07 a year ago.
EMC Corp (EMC) managed to gain $0.09. Yesterday it was down $0.77 on a warning that second quarter earnings would be $0.12, a penny below its previous guidance.
Nortel Networks (NT) down $0.14.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.38.
Time Warner (TWX) an $0.11 loss. The company said its AOL business will sacrifice almost $1 billion of operating profits through the year 2009 under its plan to offer free online service, $1 billion.
Motorola (MOT) down $0.04.
And then AT&T (T) $0.14 drop.
Home Depot (HD) fell $0.62.
General Electric (GE) $0.19 loss.
Qwest Communications (Q) a nickel drop, tenth in volume.
Alcoa (AA) lost $1.63 today on disappointment that its second quarter revenues reported after the close yesterday were shy of Wall Street expectations, a little disappointment there.
Moving along, we see a very weak airline group, there we go, AMR (AMR) off $0.41, but it traded as low as $25.84 after Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" on valuation. It did the same for some other major airlines, namely Continental Air (CAL), which closed off only $0.37, but it was as low as $29.60.
And US Air Group (LCC) down $2.40 on the close, but its low of the day was $51.60, so they made some pretty good comebacks.
Talbots (TLB) up $4.10. The company says it`s making progress on its integration with J. Jill brands and expects to narrow second quarter losses to only $0.08 to $0.10 a share.
Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) up $1.61. Second quarter earnings $0.61, $0.02 above the Street estimate and up from $0.59 a year ago. Revenues rose 9.6 percent.
Choicepoint (CPS) down $3.39. The company`s in the risk management information business and it`s going to divest its direct marketing, its forensic DNA and shareholder service operations. CS First Boston apparently didn`t like the idea, downgraded it from "outperform" to "neutral" and cut its target price on the stock from $52 all the way down to $40 a share.
Darden Restaurant (DRI) lost $1.22. The June same store sales for its Olive Garden restaurant chain were up 3 percent, but the Red Lobster chain same store sales dropped 5 percent.
Brush Engineered Material (BW) up $3.37. The company boosted second quarter earnings estimates from a range of $.25 to $0.30 up to $0.32 to $0.35 on better than expected demand for its metal products.
And gold was - the golds were strong, up $1.06 on Newmont Mining Materials (NEM). Those terrorist bombings in Mumbai, India, sent gold, the August contract in New York up $17 an ounce to $643.10 an ounce.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $6.36.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.40 drop, there you see it.
Apple Computer (AAPL) $0.65 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.28.
Intel (INTC) rose $0.49, fifth in volume. Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.07.
Followed by Sandisk (SNDK) down or up $2.14.
Applied Materials (AMAT) $0.35 gain.
Ebay (EBAY) $0.82 rise.
Hansen Natural (HANS) up $4.36.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC) up $3.23. It gave an upbeat second quarter earnings forecast. That`s what set off that tech rally today.
And Flir Systems (FLIR) up $5.08. A unit of Textron selected the company to provide sensor systems for its reconnaissance helicopter program.
And Harbor Florida Bancshares (HARB) doing well, up $6.79. National City Corp will acquire this company for $45 a share in National City stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
