Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Friday, September 08, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street posted moderate gains this morning on that continuing drop in oil prices and of course after two days of losses, bargain hunters boosted stocks too. At noon, the Dow was up 36 points and the NASDAQ gained six points. As oil fell to that five-month low, inflation fears eased pushing stocks to close near their best levels of the day. The Dow Industrial Average gained 60.67 points ending at 11,392.11. And for the short four-day trading week, it rose twice, fell twice, had a net loss of 72.04 points. The NASDAQ Composite was up exactly 10 1/2 points today at 2165.79. It was also up twice and down twice this week, had an overall loss of 27.37 points. The Standard & Poor`s 500 Index rose 4.90 ending at 1298.92 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 4/32 to par and 25/32, putting the yield at 4.78 percent.
Most active big board issue, 31.7 million shares traded, Lucent Tech (LU), no change today. As we reported yesterday, shareholders did approve the merger with Alcatel.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.88 on those lower oil prices. Motorola (MOT) moved up $0.66.
Valero Energy (VLO) down $1.47. Stock`s been weak since Wednesday when Citigroup downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" because of weaker refining profit margins.
Qwest Communications (Q) down $0.39. That was fifth in big board volume.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) moved up $1.21. UBS financial brokerage upgraded its price target from $21 to $25 a share.
Pfizer (PFE) up $0.14.
Ford Motor (F) up $0.19. The new CEO, Alan Mulally will be paid $2 million in salary annually, $7.5 million for signing bonus, $11 million to cover the options he forfeited by leaving Boeing.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) up $1.18.
And then Micron Tech (MU) gained $0.94. Jeffries brokerage upgraded Micron from "hold" to "buy" on increasing memory chip prices and also boosted its price target from $16 to $21 a share.
Schlumberger (SLB) down $0.55, although it traded as high as $60.49 this morning after UBS upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" on valuation. The stock has dropped about 14 percent over the last six weeks or so.
Then we see Cascade Corp (CAE), this is a manufacturer of materials handling equipment, up $5.23. Second quarter earnings jumped to $0.91 from $0.84 a year ago. Company also plans to buy back up to $80 million of its own stock.
Equifax (EFX) up $3.92. The company`s involved in financial information and it boosted its 2006 earnings guidance from around $1.95 to $2 a share or maybe a little over. Street estimate`s $1.93 a share.
Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB) up $1.47. The chief exec at an investor presentation today said the company will cut costs by $70 million and improve its profits by over $100 million. Stock did well.
Another Cooper Companies (COO), this is the one that manufactures contact lens and other health and medical products. Third quarter earnings were actually lower, $0.74 versus $0.80, but the Piper Jaffray brokerage upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform" in the belief the company has turned the corner. Volt Information Sciences (VOL) tumbling $6.15. The company`s involved in staffing and telecommunications. Third quarter earnings higher, $0.53 versus $0.32, but the Street was looking for $0.63. Hence the stock took a tumble.
Then this books retailer, Borders Group (BGP) up $1.38. Credit Suisse brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform," but interestingly, Credit Suisse downgraded another book seller, Barnes and Noble (BKS) which fell $0.03, downgraded it from "neutral" to "under perform."
And this was one airline weak today, Airtran Holdings (AAI) losing $1.19. The company lowered its third quarter revenue forecast. Standard & Poor`s downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the active list again on NASDAQ, down $0.28.
Google (GOOG) $0.64 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.23 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.17.
Fifth in dollar volume was Oracle (ORCL) dropping a dime a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) gained $0.21.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.43 loss.
Ebay (EBAY) moved up $0.90, $0.98 I should say.
And then Sandisk (SNDK) had a nice gain of $1.60 today.
Tenth in NASDAQ dollar volume was Broadcom (BRCM) with a loss of $0.34 a share.
Finally, Luna Innovations (LUNA) tumbled $1.31 or almost 27 percent. As you can see, that stock just went public back in early June at $6 and down $1.31 today. The company lowered its outlook for 2006 and the WR Hambrecht brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "hold."
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
