Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street`s response to that good news on inflation was a rollicking morning rally, which was also spurred by easing oil prices. By midday, the Dow had surged 103 points, NASDAQ up 35. The rally displayed impressive staying power, as interest rates fell while optimism rose that tomorrow`s consumer price report would show little inflation, if any. So the market went on to end at its best level of the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 132.39 points at 11,230.26. The NASDAQ Composite soared 45.97 to 2115.01. Standard & Poor`s 500 was up 17.36 points, ending at 1285.57. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 17/32 to 99 and 17/ 32. That put the yield down to 4.94 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 18.7 million shares, Sprint Nextel (S) down $0.17.
EMC Corp (EMC) moved up $0.27.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the lower oil prices, down $0.56. Exxon was only one of two Dow stocks down today. We`ll see the other one shortly.
Lucent Tech (LU) was up a dime.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.09 gain, was fifth in big board volume.
Home Depot (HD) moving up $1.18. Second quarter earnings, $0.93, up from last year`s $0.82 and a penny above the Street estimate. Sales were up a very impressive 17 percent.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.32 gain.
And Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) the only other of the two losers in the Dow 30, off $0.45. Wal-Mart reported lower second quarter earnings, $0.50, down from $0.67 a year ago, first time in a decade year to year lower earnings. Same store sales up a tepid 1.7 percent and incidentally I should say the second quarter earnings did include one time charges.
Motorola (MOT) $0.53 gain.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) was tenth in volume with a gain of $0.70.
3M Co (MMM), there`s a Dow stock, up $1.16. The board has approved an additional $1 billion stock buyback, nice move in the stock.
And then Deere & Co (DE) up $0.33. It traded as high as $70.08. Third quarter earnings moved up to $1.85 from $1.58 last year, $0.04 above the Wall Street estimate.
Then CA Inc (CA) used to be called Computer Associates. First quarter earnings dropped to $0.06 versus $0.16 last year, but the company plans to buy back up to 41 million shares. It`s going to cut 1700 jobs or 10 percent of the work force and today Standard & Poor`s upgraded it from "sell" to a "hold," hence the closing gain.
Agilent Technologies (A) moved up $2.65. Third quarter earnings jumped to $0.46 from only $0.19 a year ago. Revenues up 17 percent.
Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL) did well, up $3.53. Fourth quarter earnings $0.76, well above $0.40 a year ago and revenues up a very respectable 25 percent.
BJ`s Wholesale Club (BJ) fell $1.69 on lower earnings, second quarter, $0.39 versus $0.44 a year ago and same store sales were up only 1.8 percent.
UBS Ag (UBS), the big Swiss-based financial firm, second quarter net income jumped 47 percent over last year and the company says 2006 overall, the outlook is very strong.
Delta & Pineland (DLP), this is a cotton seed company. It`s going to be acquired by Monsanto for $1.5 billion. That works out to $42 per share in cash. Monsanto stock edged up $0.39 incidentally.
Google (GOOG) topped NASDAQ`s most active with a nice gain of $11.54.
Apple Computer (AAPL) did well, up $2.51.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.56 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.18.
Intel (INTC) $0.26 rise there.
Then Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.86.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.43 gain.
Broadcom (BRCM) edging up $1.80.
No change in Amgen (AMGN) today.
Tenth in volume was Dell (DELL) actually up $0.84. Of course the company says the battery problem on some of its computers will have no material impact on the company.
Tripath Imaging (TPTH) up $3.70, a mere 72 percent gain. Becton Dickinson is offering to buy the 93.5 percent of the stock it doesn`t already own for $9.25 a share. Then Optical Cable (OCCF) up $2.25, look at that percentage gain. Superior Essex Corp is offering to acquire this company for $6 a share in cash.
And then we see Simclar (SIMC) down $3.16, big percentage loss. The company`s in the electrical mechanical products business and it said it will miss its deadline for filing second quarter results due to accounting errors.
And over on the American exchange, Medifast Inc (MED), which is into weight loss products, second quarter earnings jumped to $0.11 from $0.06 a year ago and although the company boosted its 2006 full year revenue guidance, it did not boost its 2006 earnings estimate and that unnerved investors.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
