Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, July 24, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Those solid earnings from Merck and Schering Plough gave Wall Street a healthy boost this morning. The HCA buyout was another shot in the arm for the bulls as the Dow rose steadily to a 150 point gain by noontime, when NASDAQ soared 36 points. The market rallied right onto the final bell on good results from American Express and optimism Texas Instruments would report strong earnings after the close. So the Dow Industrial Average ended up 182.67 points at 11,051.05. The NASDAQ Composite jumped 41.45 to 2061.84. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index rose 20.62 ending at 1260.91. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note held steady at par and 19/32, putting the yield at 5.05 percent.
Big board volume leader on 25 million shares was Pfizer (PFE), another big pharmaceutical, up $0.96, bolstered obviously by the good earnings from Merck and Schering Plough.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell $0.87 on news it`s going to acquire ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion in cash and stock that`s worth a little over $20 a share to ATI. We`ll see it on the active list on NASDAQ in just a moment. Motorola (MOT) was up $0.72. The company plans to buy back up to $4.5 billion in its stock over the next three years.
Halliburton (HAL) gained $1.60, even though Merrill Lynch today downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
ExxonMobil (XOM) rising $1.43. That was fifth in big board volume.
General Electric (GE), $0.37 gain.
Texas Instruments (TXN) closed up $0.84, then after the close, the company in with second quarter results, $0.47, up from $0.35 last year and that was about in line, maybe a little better than expected. Revenues were up 25 percent. In after hours trading, Texas Instruments stock was about $1 than the price you see here.
Merck and Company (MRK) on those good earnings, up $1.59. You saw that earlier and the same with Schering Plough which gained $1.10.
AT&T (T) tenth in volume, up $0.44 a share.
American Express (AXP) edged up just $0.04. It did trade as high as $51.65 earlier today after reporting second quarter earnings of $0.76, down from $0.81, but its revenues were up 14 percent and I think investors liked that.
Bell South (BLS) an $0.80 gain. Second quarter earnings $0.60, up from last year`s $0.51. Those results do include Cingular in this activities.
Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) up $7.50 a share. The company boosted its first quarter revenue growth estimate from the high teens to the mid twenties. The company says there`s strong (INAUDIBLE) demand for many of its products. Stock doing well.
EXCO Resources (XCO), an oil driller, up $1.85. It will acquire Winchester Energy for $1.2 billion in cash. That`ll give EXCO a lot of drilling, undrilled locations for its multiple-year drilling program, so it`ll keep busy with the acquisition.
HASBRO (HAS) up $1.66. Second quarter earnings dropped to $0.07 from $0.13 last year, but that was in line with estimates and the company gave a rather upbeat outlook and that`s what helped the stock.
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) rising $1.69. JMP Securities upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform." And then Prepaid Legal Services (PPD) up $2.07. Good earnings second quarter, $0.81, almost double last year`s $0.44 a share.
And OM Group (OMG), this is a specialty chemical company, boosted its second quarter earnings estimate from right around $1 to (INAUDIBLE) $1.09, all the way up to $1.80 a share, quite a boost.
Titanium Metals (TIE) rose $1.95. Second quarter earnings $0.31, nicely above last year`s $0.20 and sales jumped 64 percent.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list closing with a gain of $0.79. The low of the day interestingly was $381.
ATI Technologies (ATYT) up $3.11 on a Advanced Micro Device acquisition which is worth today about $20.30 a share.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $0.70.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.13 rise.
Yahoo! (YHOO) gained $1.05, fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) $0.33 rise.
Dell (DELL) got an upgrade from Citicorp, a $0.84 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.49 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) was down $0.14.
But Amgen (AMGN) rose $0.72, tenth in volume.
Silicon Laboratories (SLAB) up $6.20. Second quarter earnings $0.37, about $0.04 above the Street estimate. Webb Bush (ph) Morgan issued a "buy" recommendation and the company`s going to buy back up to $100 million of its own stock.
Netflix (NFLX) up $0.71. After the close, second quarter earnings, $0.24, way up from $0.09, but after hours, the stock plunged $5 when the company failed to raise its outlook. Apparently a lot of investors expecting that.
NovaGold (NG) on the American Exchange, up $3.88. Barrick Gold will buy all the shares it doesn`t own for $14.50 each.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
