Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, July 17, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened higher as buyers took the upper hand in the belief the market was oversold after last week`s tumble. At the outset of trading, the Dow rose 32 points and the NASDAQ gained four. The blue chips held modest gains over the next few hours led by Boeing and McDonald`s. A drop in oil prices was another plus. The market spent the rest of the day however trading in a very narrow range of just slightly higher ground. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 8.01 at 10,747.36. NASDAQ Composite up .37 at 2,037.72. Standard & Poor`s 500 lost 1.71, ending at 1234.49. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note edged up 1/32 to par and 14/32, putting the yield at 5.07 percent.
Most active big board issue on 23.9 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) dropping $0.02.
Followed by EMC Corp (EMC) with a decent gain of $0.26.
Then Citigroup (C) off $1.18. You heard about those earnings of $1.05 on the second quarter, a penny shy of estimates and on top of that, Prudential securities downgraded the stock from "over weight" to "neutral." Standard & Poor`s cut its 2006 earnings estimate by a nickel a share, down to $4.25 for Citigroup and also lowered the price target on the stock from $68 down to $52 a share.
Time Warner (TWX) was off $0.20.
Then General Electric (GE) with a $0.25 gain, fifth in big board volume.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on those lower oil prices dropped $0.90.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) losing $0.03.
Ford Motor Co (F) gained that much.
Pfizer (PFE) showed no change. Morgan Stanley cut the price target on Pfizer by a $1 from $29 to $28 due to a modest cut in earnings estimates.
And then Windstream (WIN), this is a when issued (ph) stock and the company is a combination of Alltel`s wire line operations and Valor Communications Group. The stock replaced Cooper Tire and Rubber in the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index after the close of trading today.
Boeing (BA) a $1.70 gainer. Now the company first reported that it got a $4.9 billion order for 20 of its 777 jetliners from the nation of Qatar. Later, Boeing rescinded that report, but said it`s still in negotiations with Qatar, so it`s still up in the air, so to speak.
Anyway, Disney (DIS) was up $0.11, even though SG Cowen brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "neutral," citing a slowdown in its fiscal 2007 earnings growth picture.
Then we see McDonald`s (MCD), the star of the Dow today, up $1.68. The company sees second quarter earnings coming in at $0.67 a share, including $0.10 from the sale of its Chipotle Mexican Grill. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "strong buy" on McDonald`s today.
Harley-Davidson (HDI) moving up $0.79. Second quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.91 versus $0.84 a year ago. Sales were up 3 percent during that period.
Then a major loser, Spectrum Brands (SPC) dropping 33 percent of its value. The company sells consumer batteries and electric shavers and other grooming instruments like that and it says its third quarter forecast for earnings indicates the full year results will fall substantially below its previous guidance.
WW Grainger (GWW) off $10.63 a share. Second quarter earnings higher, $1.02 versus $0.89 a year ago and that was $0.03 above the Street estimate, but the company cut its 2006 sales growth guide from about plus 10 percent to plus 8 percent. Standard & Poor`s cut the price target on the stock from $94 down to $84 a share.
Then Computer Sciences (CSC) dropping $2.07. The Jefferies brokerage downgraded it from "hold" to "under perform" on slowing growth outlook and cut its price target from $61 all the way down to $44 a share.
Mattel (MAT), turnaround, up $1.72. Second quarter earnings of $0.10 versus a loss of $0.23 last year. Revenues up 8 percent.
And then we see Kinetic Concepts (KCI) doing well, up $2.36. A Merrill Lynch analyst says the company has a strong patent infringement case against BlueSky Medical regarding its wound healing product.
Topping the active list on NASDAQ, Google (GOOG) up $4.39.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $1.70. This week`s "Barron`s" says Apple is going to see stronger demand for its Macintosh computers because they can use Windows operating system.
Intel (INTC) $0.04 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.19.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.03 gain, fifth in volume.
Then Qualcomm (QCOM) up $0.19.
And Baidu.com (BIDU) up $5.34. Friday, the Piper Jaffray brokerage upgraded Baidu from "market perform" to "out perform," boosted its price target from $75 to $110 a share.
Yahoo! (YHOO) down $0.24.
Ebay (EBAY) a $0.98 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.13, tenth in volume.
And then a major loser, 51 percent of its value, Threshold Pharmaceutical (THLD), that`s negative reaction to the company`s decision to stop development of a prostate treatment due to disappointing results in trial.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
