Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened slightly higher on a drop in oil futures, which we`ll detail next. But then stocks sold off when existing home sales came out. So the Dow moved from an early 20 point gain to a 47 point mid day loss when the NASDAQ was off 15 points. The blue chips dropped as much as 70 points in mid-afternoon, but then recovered a bit by the final bell. Dow Industrial Average closed off 41.94 points at 11,297.90. The NASDAQ Composite lost 15.36 to 2134.66. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index fell 5.83 ending at 1292.99. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 3/32 to par and 14/32, putting the yield at 4.82 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue was Ford Motor Co (F) on 16.6 million shares, moving up $0.34. "Wall Street Journal" today did report that the company is interested in possibly joining an alliance between Renault or Nissan Motors.
And then Sprint Nextel (S) was also up $0.34.
Pfizer (PFE) rose $0.16.
Motorola (MOT) $0.63 drop.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the lower oil prices fell $0.58, fifth in volume.
Texas Instruments (TXN) fell $1.01.
General Electric (GE) $0.17 loss.
Lucent Tech (LU) down $0.03.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) edging up another $0.02 after gaining about $1.50 yesterday on a Bear Stearns upgrade to "out peform."
And then we see Gateway (GTW) rising $0.23, good percentage move as you heard, has an offer to sell its retail operation and perhaps the entire company.
Weyerhaeuser Co (WY) up $1.32. That`s on top of nearly a $3 gain yesterday when the company said it`s selling its composite (INAUDIBLE) business in Ireland. And today, Weyerhaeuser said it`s selling its fine paper business to the Canadian firm Domtar for $3.3 billion. Weyerhaeuser will use the proceeds to pay off debt.
Then we see weak steel, U.S. Steel (X) off $1.14 on news that a major Chinese steel company is cutting prices by 4 percent.
Let`s look at a couple of other major steels, Allegheny Tech (ATI) and Nucor (NUE) also on the downside today.
The home builders as you might imagine, down, $2.66 loss on KB Home (KBH). And JPMorgan downgraded that stock today from "neutral" to under weight.
Let`s have a look at some of the other major home builders. Beazer Homes (BZH), Centex (CTX), Pulte Homes (PHM) and Ryland Group (RYL) all onthe downside today.
Payless Shoes (PSS) off $2.94. Second quarter earnings were up $0.48 versus $0.29 a year ago but the earnings were $0.05 below the Wall Street consensus.
Esco Tech (ESE) down $5.14. A major customer has delayed an advanced metering project for at least one year. AG Edwards today downgraded Esco from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
International Securities Exchange (ISE) down $3.16. Bear Stearns downgraded it from "out perform" to "peer perform."
Regis Corp (RGS), the hair salon operator, off $1.65. Fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.90 versus last year`s $0.64, but it sees first quarter earnings dropping to only $0.44 to $0.48 a share.
And the book seller Borders Group (BGP) down $0.46. The company in with a second quarter loss of $0.29 versus earnings of $0.02 a year ago. Sales dropped 4 percent. The company`s going to have a third quarter loss of $0.60 to $0.75, sees earnings in the fourth quarter of $1.80 to $2, but the problem is, Wall Street was expecting $2.18 in earnings.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list, down $4.86.
Apple Computer (AAPL) down $0.31. After the close, Apple said it`s going to pay $100 million for a license to use Creative Technology Limited`s patented digital music player technology and that`ll settle legal disputes between the two companies. Creative Technology stock after hours was up $1.41 at $7.42. Not much change in Apple after hours.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.05 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.04 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) was down $0.19 a share.
And then we see Applied Materials (AMAT) rising $0.32.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.16 drop.
Rambus (RMBS) up $1.98. A Federal judge made a ruling that might resolve the six-year patent dispute with Hynix (ph) Semiconductor.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.74 loss.
Similar drop in Sandisk (SNDK). Internet Security Systems (ISSX) up $1.62 on news IBM will acquire the company for $28 a share in cash.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
