Paul Kangas; Stocks In The News
Friday, October 06, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened broadly lower as that much weaker than expected jobs report gave investors an excuse to take profits after the sharp recent run up. An hour into trading, the Dow posted a 49 point loss. NASDAQ was off 14. A budding rally was cut short by a tumble in GM stock on that Kerkorian news, but the Dow partially recovered from a 55 point mid- afternoon deficit as oil prices eased. Today, the Dow Industrial Averageclosed off only 16.48 at 11,850.21. This week, it fell twice and rose three times, for a net overall gain of 171.14 points. The NASDAQ Composite was off 6.35, ending at 2299.99 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week for a overall gain of 41.56 points. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index was down 3.64, ending at 1349.58 today. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note fell 23/32 to 101 12/32, putting the yield up to 4.70 percent.
Big board volume leader on 29.2 million shares was General Motors (GM) down $2.08, traded as low as $30.50 as Kirk Kerkorian backed away as you heard.
Micron Tech (MU) down $2.40. After the close yesterday, out with fourth quarter earnings of $0.08, up from $0.07 last year, but well below the Street expectation of $0.14 a share. Today, Merrill Lynch downgraded Micron from "buy" to "neutral" and Goldman Sachs repeated a "sell" recommendation.
Lucent Tech (LU) was down $0.08.
And then CVS Corp (CVS), the big drug store chain, down $1.61. The stocks of drug store chains, pharmacy benefit manager, drug wholesalers, all down today on the news that First Data Bank could be forced to lowerits benchmark drug prices used by health plans and Medicaid programs to determine what they pay pharmacies. Let`s have a look at some other majors in that field.
Amerisourcebergen (ABC) down on $0.78.
But Cardinal Health (CAH), Caremark Rx (CMX), McKesson (MCK) and Medco Health Solution (MHS) all more than $2 losers, rough group.
Getting back to the active list, Sprint Nextel (S), fifth in volume, was up $0.62 a share.
Then Walgreen Co (WAG) affected by the news on CVS, down $0.73.
And then Time Warner (TWX) a $0.17 gain.
Qwest Comm (Q) rose a nickel.
EMC (EMC) a $0.30 gainer.
Pfizer (PFE), tenth in volume, was down $0.09 a share.
Sovereign Bancorp (SOV), the Philadelphia company, up $2.50. "The Wall Street Journal" today reported there could be a boardroom battle next week which just might oust CEO Jay Sidhu, who some of the directors believe - well they blame him for the stock`s lackluster performance in recent months.
Global Signal (GSL) up $3.84. This is a company that operates communications towers and Crown Castle International will acquire it for $5.8 billion. It`ll either be 1.61 shares of Crown Castle or $55.95 a share for Global Signal shareholders.
CBOT Holdings (BOT), Chicago Board of Trade, doing very well, up $6.66. The company`s agricultural complex traded a record 929,546 contracts yesterday alone.
Agco (AG), farm machinery company, down $1.55. The company warned 2006 earnings and revenues will fall short of expectations due to weak market conditions in its business.
Salesforce.com (CRM) up $2.39 Bank America upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its price target from $34 to $46 a share.
On the downside, Omnicare (OCR) losing $2.07. The nursing home pharmacy provider will pay $52.5 million to settle charges it fraudulently billed Medicaid. Google (GOOG) topped the active list, up $8.69. You heard the news there.
Intel (INTC) a $0.15 loss.
Apple Computer (AAPL) down $0.61.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $1.23.
But Cisco Systems (CSCO) bucking the trend, up $0.19 a share, fifth in dollar volume.
Microsoft (MSFT) dropped a nickel.
Sandisk (SNDK) moving up $1.92.
$0.22 gain in Applied Materials (AMAT).
Starbucks (SBUX) down $0.28.
And Oracle (ORCL) a $0.07 loss, tenth in volume.
Chattem (CHTT) up $9.77. The company markets health care products and this is a positive reaction to the company`s acquisition of some of Johnson & Johnson`s brands.
And then Mobility Electronics (MOBE) losing about 42 percent of its value today. The company will lose two major contracts, one with Dell and one with Energizer Holdings.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
