Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks moved lower this morning, despite that continuing weakness in oil prices, as investors focused on the sharp drop in consumer confidence.At noon, the Dow was down 38 points, NASDAQ was off 15. Stocks rallied after 2:00 p.m., when the August 8 Federal Reserve meeting minutes were released. The voting members said the pause in rate hikes was appropriate to limit risks of tightening too much. So the markets ended the day with small gains across the board. The Dow was up almost 18 points to 11,369.94. The NASDAQ Composite was up 11.60 ending at 2172.30. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index closed up 2.5 points exactly to 1304.28. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 3/32 to par and 23/32, putting the yield at 4.78 percent.
The most active big board issue as it has been so frequently recently, Ford Motor Co (F) today on 14 million shares moved up $0.21. Speculation began yesterday the company may sell its finance unit, Ford Credit.
Lucent Tech (LU) moved up $0.04.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the lower oil prices, down $0.69.
SprintNextel (S) a $0.23 gain.
General Electric (GE), fifth in volume, was up $0.26.
Bank of America (BAC) gained $0.11.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.06 rise.
Motorola (MOT) up $0.28.
EMC Corp (EMC) gained a dime.
And Citigroup (C), tenth in volume, was up $0.14 a share.
Boeing (BA) down $0.94. Even though the company announced a plan to buy back up to $3 billion or 5 percent of its common stock.
Then we have a look at BP Plc ADR (BP). You heard the story, Federal investigators are examining whether the company manipulated crude oil and unleaded gasoline markets. The stock down on the news.
Morgan Stanley (MS) fell $1.25. Bernstein research thinks third quarter brokerage earnings will be disappointing and see Morgan Stanley`s investment banking revenue down 20 percent from a year ago. And weaker results from other as well. Let`s have a look at some of those others in the banking business. Bear Stearns (BSC) off over $4.
$2.44 loss in Goldman Sachs (GS).
And then Lehman Brothers (LEH) off $1.94 a share.
First Horizon National (FHN), this is a mortgage company. The company sees third quarter profits below the second quarter level due to fewer mortgage loan originations and meager profit margins.
Ryland Group (RYL), the home builder, in the same basic business. Bank of America downgraded it from "neutral" to an outright "sell."
Ocwen Financial (OCN) down $1.64. It`s a mortgage services firm and the Piper Jaffray brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform" on a valuation basis.
And then the tax preparation firm Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (JTX) off $2.10. The Credit Suisse brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to just a "neutral" rating.
Finally a gainer, Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS) up $3.12. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to a "buy."
And Kinetic Concepts (KCI) rising $1.65 after the company announced it`ll buy back up to $200 million of its own stock.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the active list. You heard the news, stock down $0.50.
Google (GOOG) fell $2.
Intel (INTC) a $0.30 gain. Intel has introduced a new high-end chip to better compete with Advanced Micro Devices.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down $0.11.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.27 gain, fifth in dollar volume.
Ebay (EBAY) up $1.38.
And Sandisk (SNDK) gained $1.86.
Oracle (ORCL) lost $0.02. Applied Materials (AMAT) moving up $0.36.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.41, tenth in volume.
Viropharma (VPHM) up $1.43, nice percentage move. The company had promising results from early trials of its treatment for hepatitis C.
And then Sanderson Farms (SAFM), which is a major poultry producer, up $3.43 a share. The company came in with third quarter earnings of $0.16, $0.03 above the Wall Street estimate, even though they were well down from last year, but last year included a one-time tax break.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
