Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, July 13, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened sharply lower, extending yesterday`s steep losses as oil surged to a record high amid growing turmoil in the Middle East. Hardly helping was a Merrill Lynch downgrade of Wal-Mart and CIBC rating cut on Disney. At the outset of trading, the Dow fell almost 100 points. NASDAQ lost 30. After a feeble midday rally failed, stocks were beaten down further and ended near the day near their worst levels. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 166.89 points at 10,846.29. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 36.13 to 2,054.11, while the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index lost 16.31 ending at 1,242.29. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 9/32 to par and 14/32, putting the yield down to 5.07 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 61.4 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) down $0.06. Followed by EMC Corp (EMC) with an $0.11 drop.
Then Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) losing almost $1, traded as low as $43.71 this morning after Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" citing weaker sales trends at Wal-Mart which threatened the company`s long- term top line growth prospects.
General Electric (GE) down $0.39.
AT&T (T) dropped $0.60, fifth in big board volume.
Ford Motor Co (F) losing $0.32. Ford is cutting its quarterly dividend in half, from $0.10 to $0.05 a share and it`s reducing the amount directors are paid to serve on the board.
ExxonMobil (XOM) moving up a dime after those record high oil prices.
Time Warner (TWX) down $0.34.
Pfizer (PFE) dropped $0.31.
And Disney (DIS), another Dow stock on the downside, off $1.21. The CIBC World Markets brokerage downgraded Disney from "sector perform" to "under perform" on a valuation basis, thinks the stock`s a bit high.
Pepsico (PEP) moved up $0.97 against the general trend. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.80, up from $0.70 last year and $0.03 better than the Street estimate. Revenues during the period were up 12 percent.
As you might expect, the airlines plunged today. US Airways (LCC) down $4.03 on that record high oil price of almost $77 per barrel.
Let`s have a look at some other major carriers in the sector. AMR (AMR) losing $2.24.
A $2.32 loss in Continental Air (CAL).
And UAL (UAUA) off $2.15 a share.
Warner Music Group (WMG) down $5.23. The company`s reviewing a European court decision would annulled the merger between Sony and BMG and how that decision might impact Warner`s potential combination with EMI Group.
Jones Apparel (JNY), the big wholesaler, downgraded by Merrill Lynch today from "neutral" to "sell." Media General (MEG) was off $2.85. Second quarter earnings plunged 47 percent from last year, $0.85 versus $1.61.
And Marriott Intl (MAR) fell $1.32, 22 a share I should say. Second quarter earnings, $0.42 excluding one-time items, $0.02 above the Street estimate, but the company`s third quarter revenue forecast was at the lower end of Wall Street estimates.
Google (GOOG) topped NASDAQ`s most active list with a loss of $8.42.
Apple Computer (AAPL) down $0.71.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.38 loss.
Intel (INTC) down $0.16. Incidentally, Intel is laying off 1,000 managers on a world-wide basis.
Dell (DELL) was down $0.68. The company`s cutting back on its rebates in order to simplify pricing.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.24 loss.
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.12, a little weakness there. Its rival in Europe for software, SAP forecast lower than expected second quarter revenues.
Sandisk (SNDK) dropping $2.63. The company`s in a pact with Toshiba to build a new chip factory that`s going to cost about $3 billion.
Broadcom (BRCM) was up $0.45, bucking the overall trend.
And Yahoo! (YHOO) down $1.15, tenth in NASDAQ volume.
Cree Inc (CREE) plunging 21 percent with that loss of $4.86. The company cut its fourth quarter earnings guidance on lower than expected sales of its LED products.
And then a major loser, Sento (SNTO), an information technology firm, dropping 53 percent and then some. The company sees a first quarter loss of $0.36 to $0.38 versus its previous estimate of a profit (ph).
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
