Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Falling oil prices helped Wall Street start the day on an up note, spurred as well by those tame consumer prices. After 90 minutes of trading, the Dow posted a 53 point gain and the NASDAQ was up 14. Stocks continued their winning ways for the third straight day as bond market yields fell to four-and-a-half month lows. So the markets closed near their highs for the day. The Dow Industrial Average ended 96.86 points higher at 11,327.12. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 34.53 ending at 2,149.54 and the Standard & Poor`s 500 up 9.85 at 1,295.43. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained another 18/32 to par and 3/32. That cut the yield all the way down to 4.87 percent.
Most active big board issue on 25 1/4 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) edging $0.02 higher.
Sprint Nextel (S) rose $0.10.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.34 gain. Monday, Bear Stearns upgraded Ford from "under perform" to "out perform" and it`s been edging higher ever since.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the sharply lower oil prices, down $1.12.
And then Pfizer (PFE) a $0.35 gain. Vice Chairman Karen Caton (ph) who failed in the recent contest to become chief executive officer, is leaving the firm in the coming months.
General Electric (GE) a $0.51 gain.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) closed up $0.44 and then after the close, the stock shot up to $36.25 after HP reported third quarter earnings excluding items of $0.52 a share. That was $0.04 better than the Street was expecting and on top of that HP gave an upbeat outlook for the rest of the year. Time Warner (TWX), there you see it, up $0.06.
And then Companhia Vale (RIO) up $0.52. This is a Brazilian mining company that`s bidding $86 a share cash Canadian for Inco and most investors feel that`s better than Tech Cominco`s (ph) bid which is cash and stock. So Tech Cominco was up $2.17. Inco itself up $2 or down $2.42 and Phelps Dodge is still in that race and its stock edged up $0.24 a share today.
Nortel Networks (NT), tenth in volume, rose $0.07.
Texas Instruments (TXN) a $0.78 gain. Cowan and Company brokerage started coverage with an "out perform" rating and sees Texas Instruments stock rising 10 to 30 percent over the next 12 months.
On the other hand, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up $1.70, even though Cowan started coverage on this one with "neutral" because it says the recent run up in the stock has pretty well peaked out. It didn`t do it today, that`s for sure.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) up $7.88. Second quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.72, up from $0.63 a year ago. Sales were up 15 percent. The company sees full year earnings above the Wall Street consensus. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "strong buy" on Abercrombie and UBS Prudential and Citigroup all boosted earnings estimates for the company.
Pep Boys (PBY), the auto parts wholesaler and retailer, up $1.01. The second quarter earnings came in at $0.03. That`s up from $0.01 last year and a penny above the Street estimates. The company said it`s ended its strategic review process about alternatives that it was using Goldman Sachs for advice on. It may pick up on that later however.
And then Carolina Group (CG), the cigarette manufacturer, down $3.22. Lowe`s Corporation is going to sell 15 million shares in a public offering through JPMorgan.
And then the troubled real estate investment trust Mills Corp (MLS) down $3.20. The president is resigning and the Steeple Nicholas (ph) brokerage issued a "sell" on Mills Corp stock today.
Talbots inc (TLB), the department store, up $2.26. The company in with a second quarter loss of $0.07 a share versus earnings last year, but the loss was due to the cost and the acquisition of Jay Jill (ph), which is considered a plus in the long run.
Lone Star Technologies (LSS) up $3.52. The company`s in a jointventure with China`s Valin (ph) Tube and Wire Company and the Jefferies brokerage upgraded Lone Star stock today from "hold" to a "buy."
Google (GOOG) topped the active list, jumping $6.75.
Apple Computer (AAPL) had a good day, up $1.53.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.45 gain there.
Broadcom (BRCM) did well, up $2.47.
Microsoft (MSFT) edging $0.08 higher, fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) a $0.48 gain.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $2.38. Merrill Lynch added Qualcomm to its focus list today.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.18 loss.
Dell (DELL) $0.65 gain.
And Amgen (AMGN), tenth in volume, was up $0.92.
Marvell Technology Group (MRVL) a $2.04 gain there. The company will report just a portion of its second quarter results tomorrow, mostly revenues as a result of it still reviewing its stock option practices.
And then we see Daktronics (DAKT) tumbling $8.57 or almost 28 percent. First quarter earnings came in just a bit higher, $0.12, up from $0.11 last year, but those earnings were lower than the Street estimate by $0.04 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
