Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, October 05, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: On Wall Street, major stocks averages opened with single-digit gains on those better than expected retail sales, but that rise in oil prices then turned stocks lower. By late morning, the Dow was off 21 points. NASDAQ was flat. Light selling pressure and a solid gain in Caterpillar stock got things back on track this afternoon, helping the Dow post its third straight record closing high. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 16.08 points at 11,866.69. The NASDAQ Composite was up 15.39 at 2,306.34. Standard & Poor's 500 rose exactly 3.00 points ending at 1,353.22. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 12/32 to 102 3/32, putting the yield at 4.61 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 26 million shares was Lucent Tech (LU) showing no change.
And then Sprint Nextel (S) with a $0.51 gain.
Qwest Comm (Q) dropped $0.28, even though the company says it's going to buy back $2 billion of its own stock. However, investors were disappointed the company did not initiate a cash dividend.
CVS Corp (CVS) off $1.22. Wal-Mart's accelerated generic drug plan hurt competitor stocks like CVS.
Then McDonald`s (MCD) off $0.20 a share. That was fifth in big board volume. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) itself down $1.14. Those September same store sales up only 1.3 percent, not as good as expected earlier.
Micron Tech (MU) down $0.54.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.19.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.34 drop.
And tenth in big board volume was AT&T (T) losing $0.46 a share. Nucor (NUE), the steel company, up $3.23. The Federal Trade Commission reportedly approved the company`s plan to acquire Verco Manufacturing for about $180 million.
And then another strong steel, good old United States Steel (X) up $4.68. That's on takeover speculation due to the increasing consolidation in the steel industry just recently.
Corrections Corp of America (CXW) which runs prisons for profit, up $3.51. The stocks of prisons for profits actually were strong across the board on California`s decision to allow out of state facilities to house inmates and that`s due to overcrowding out west.
Let's have a look at two other stocks in that sector. The Geo Group (GEO) rose $2.20.
Cornell Cos (CRN) a $0.70 gain there. Elsewhere, Marriott Intl (MAR) up $2.52. Its third quarter earnings, $0.33 a share and that was $0.03 above the Street estimate.
Par Technology (PTC), a major loser, down $1.72, almost 19 percent after the company said its third quarter revenues will be 5 percent below a year ago and its earnings will be only $0.04 to $0.07. That's versus the Street consensus of $0.15 a share.
Guess? (GES), the clothing retailer, up $3.77. September same store sales up a very respectable 11 percent. On the other hand, Dillard's (DDS) fell $2.48 after reporting September same store sales were flat. That was clearly a disappointment.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF) however, up $3.34. The company lifted its earnings outlook for the second half of this year by $0.10 a share to as much as $3.30 a share. Google (GOOG) topped the active list, down $3.89 after a big gain yesterday.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.02 drop.
Apple Computer (AAPL) off $0.55. The company says it's going to have to restate its financials because of stock option problems.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.03.
Starbucks (SBUX) gained $2.73. September same store sales were up a better than expected 6 percent. Starbucks plans 40,000 stores worldwide. That's 10,000 more than originally planned. Research in Motion (RIMM) gained $1.22.
$0.04 drop in Intel (INTC).
Amgen (AMGN) up $1.76.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.09 gain.
Sandisk (SNDK), tenth in volume, down $0.80 a share.
Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) gained $2.74. A recent study released shows the company`s allergy treatment is showing great promise.
Ikanos Communications (IKAN) fell $3.18, a 29 percent drop. The company issued a third quarter revenue warning. It cut its estimate of revenues from a high of $43 million down to about $37 million. The Needham brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold" and Deutsche Bank cut its price target from $15 all the way down to $8 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
