Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, July 28, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street surged higher this morning on hopes, as Suzanne reported that that sluggish GDP data would cause the Fed to pause in its rate hike campaign. Lower oil prices also fueled bullish sentiment and so the Dow vaulted to a 135 point gain by 1:00 p.m. with the NASDAQ up 36 points. Better than expected earnings and a drop in bond yields kept the rally alive, so the Dow Industrial Average closed up 119.27 points at 11,219.70 today. This week, it fell twice, rose three times, had a net gain of 351.32 points. That`s 3 1/4 percent. The NASDAQ Composite was up 39.67 points ending at 2094.14 today. It also fell twice and rose three days this week for an overall gain of 73 3/4 points. That`s 3.7 percent. Standard & Poor`s 500 advanced 15.35, ending at 1278.55 today. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 11/32 to 101 even, putting the yield at a flat 5 percent.
Big board volume leader on 24.3 million shares was Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.46 and as you heard, Jeffrey Kindler will replace Hank McKinnell as CEO.
Lucent Tech (LU) $0.07 gain.
Then AT&T (T) up $0.38.
As was Motorola (MOT).
ExxonMobil (XOM) edging up $0.53 a share, fifth in big board volume.
General Electric (GE) a $0.37 gain.
Merck & Co (MRK) up $0.14.
Cendant (CD) gained $0.42.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) advanced $1.
And Aetna (AET) moving down $1.08, tenth in big board volume.
Chevron (CVX) fell $1.68 despite reporting second quarter earnings of $1.97, up from $1.76 last year, but those earnings were $0.24 below the average Wall Street consensus. Massey Energy (MEE) down $4.06. The company in with second quarter earnings of only $0.04. The Street estimate was $0.37 and last year, they earned $0.44 a share. Revenues dropped 4 1/2 percent. The results were hurt by fire-related problems and Credit Suisse removed it from the focus list at that particular brokerage.
Perkinelmer (PKI) down $2.12. After the close yesterday, it had lower second quarter earnings out, $0.19, versus $0.22 a year ago. It sees third quarter at $0.28, but that`s below the $0.30 Street estimate.
Circuit City Stores (CC) moved up $1.96. The Raymond James financial brokerage upgraded it from "market perform" to "strong buy" and did the same upgrade on Best Buy, whose stock was up $1.39 today.
Universal Health Services (UHS) up $4.49. Big second quarter earnings, $0.78, up from $0.61 last year. That was $0.13 above the Wall Street consensus for earnings.
Becton Dickinson (BDX) up $2.92. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.81, $0.02 above the Street and up from $0.73 last year. Revenue up 5.7 percent. The company boosted its 2006 earnings guidance.
Western Digital (WDC) up $1.15. Big earnings there, fourth quarter, $0.53, $0.18 above the Street estimate, way up from $0.19 last year. Revenues jumped 15 percent. Standard & Poor`s upgraded Western stock from "hold" to a "buy."
Inco Ltd (N) up $2.50. The company is dropping its buyout bid for Falconbridge, but wants a merger with Phelps Dodge. Phelps stock jumped $3.42 today and Falconbridge itself was up $0.36 a share.
Libbey (LBY) up $1.59. Excluding a $0.95 acquisition charge, the company earned $0.27 a share in the second quarter, up from $0.25 a year ago and that was $0.12 above Wall Street estimates.
Baker Hughes (BHI), the big oil drilling firm, down $2.95 despite higher second quarter earnings of $1.07 versus $0.64, but you can see the stock has had a sharp recent rise.
And Mohawk Industries (MHK) rolled out the carpet for buyers today after reporting higher second quarter earnings of $1.76, up from last year`s $1.45 and revenues jumped a very impressive 27 percent.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ`s most active list, up $2.19.
Followed by Google (GOOG) which did well on $5.72. Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.38 gain there.
Intel (INTC) a $0.71 rise.
Fifth in volume was Dell (DELL), gaining $0.67 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.39.
ATI Technologies (ATYT) $0.34 rise.
Yahoo! (YHOO) edged up $0.77.
Qualcomm (QCOM) had a good day, up $1.27.
Tenth in volume was Ebay (EBAY) rising $0.73 a share.
Rackable Systems (RACK) down $13.68. The computer storage products company had sharply higher second quarter earnings of $0.28 versus $0.12 last year, but the company sees third quarter revenues only at or even below Wall Street estimates. Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock from "outperform" to just "market perform."
And Sierra Wireless (SWIR) down $3.57. The story here, Piper Jaffray downgraded it from "outperform" to "market perform" because of weak pricing for the company`s modems. The company says it`s just trying to have a break even third quarter.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
