Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, September 01, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street cheered that employment report, which offset news of a drop in consumer sentiment and a 1.2 percent decline in July construction spending. The Dow rose 40 points at the opening of trading, while the Nasdaq gained 8. Then after a mid-day lull, the market resumed its rally as interest rates and oil prices fell, boosting bullish confidence. So stocks ended near the day`s best levels. The Dow Industrial Average closed up exactly 83 points, at 11,464.15 today. That was a three-month high, incidentally. This week, it rose four times, advancing 180.10 points overall.
The Nasdaq composite was up 9.41, ending at 2,193.16 today. It also rose four times this week. Had a net gain of 52.87 points.
Standard & Poor`s 500 was up 7.19, ending at 1,311.01 today.
In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 2/32 to 101 6/32, putting the yield at 4.73 percent.
Most active Big Board issue on 17.3 million shares, Lucent Technologies (LU), ending edging a penny higher.
Then Bristol Myers (BMY), with a nice gain of $1.20. A court has granted preliminary an injunction ordering Apotex Corp to halt sales of its generic version of Bristol Myers` blood thinner Plavix. Both AG Edwards and Standard & Poor`s upgraded Bristol`s stock from sell to hold today.
There you see Ford Motor (F) losing a dime.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.40.
GE (GE), an $0.08 gain. That was fifth in Big Board volume.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) rising $0.43.
EMC (EMC) a $0.20 gain.
Nortel Networks (NT) edged up a nickel.
Transocean (RIG) had a good gain of $4.43. The company got a $378 million 30-month charter from the Norwegian company Statoil for its Transocean Leader drilling unit. A very expensive one.
Sprint Nextel (S) was up $0.17, 10th in Big Board volume.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) up $1.08 today. After the close yesterday, as we`ve reported to you, NASA awarded the company its Orion space contract worth billions of dollars, as you can see.
And then, Vimpel (VIP) -- this is the big Russian cell phone company - - up $3.27. Good earnings second quarter, $0.96, and that was $0.03 better than the Street was expecting. Nam Tai Electronics (NTE), Chinese electronics firm, had predicted third-quarter sales to be 8 to 13 percent below its previous guidance, and that earnings for the third quarter would be 20 to 25 percent below its previous guidance of $0.30 to $0.32 a share.
Verifone Holdings (PAY) up $5.32. The company is in the electronic payments business, and its third quarter earnings more than double from last year, $0.24 cents versus $0.10 cents. The revenue is up 17 percent. It boosted its 2006 earnings guidance. Raymond James financial brokerage upgraded it to outperform.
Then, Advo (AD) snapping back $2.40 after tumbling over $8 yesterday when Valassis sued to rescind its $37 a share buyout offer, claiming Advo misrepresented its financial conditions. Today Advo said that was just a buyers remorse lawsuit due to a negative reaction about Advo`s takeover attempt by VCI shareholders. VCI stock was down $1.23, at $18.49.
And Devon Energy (DVN) a $1.66 gain. Morgan Stanley upgraded it from equal weight to overweight.
Topping the active list on Nasdaq, Cisco (CSCO) moving up $0.28, followed by Intel (INTC), $0.31 cent gain there.
Apple Computer (AAPL) rose $0.53. The company said Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt turned down stock options offered by Apple, even though he has been elected to Apple`s board of directors. Google itself was up $0.07 today. Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.14 gain, fifth in volume.
SanDisk (SNDK) down $0.14.
Qualcomm (QCOM) moved up $0.68. A district court has dismissed Broadcom`s (BRCM) antitrust suit against Qualcomm.
eBay (EBAY) in there with $0.33 gain, then Broadcom itself, down $1.44.
Oracle (ORCL) was off $0.16.
Omnivision Technologies off $1.21. Pacific Growth brokerage is concerned about the company`s profit margins, even though its earnings were higher than first quarter 25 -- I should say $0.28 versus $0.25.
Summa Industries (SUMX) up $6.29. The company makes plastic optical components. And a private Swiss company, Habasit Holdings, will acquire it for $15 a share.
And finally, Intergraph (INGR) up $6.54. A private equity group to acquire it for $44 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
