Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street got off to a shaky start on Alcoa's earnings shortfall and Legg Mason's earnings warning both of which we told you about last night. After an hour of trading, the Dow was off 41 points, NASDAQ down seven. A midday rally turned stocks narrowly mixed, but when a small plane crashed in New York City, the Dow plunged 70 points on concerns about terrorism. Stocks recovered on confirmation the crash was an accident. Sothe Dow Industrial Average closed down 15.04 points at 11,852.13. NASDAQ Composite off 7.16 at 2308.27. Standard & Poor's 500 was down 3.47 ending at 1349.95. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to par and 23/32 and that put the yield at 4.78 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 19.3 million shares Nortel Networks (NT) edging a penny higher.
Followed by Sprint Nextel (S) with a $0.54 loss.
AT&T (T) was up $0.19. Antitrust regulators approved the company's buyout of BellSouth tomorrow. The FCC is supposed to vote on that transaction.
Alcoa (AA) down $1.44. As we told you, after the close yesterday, the company's earnings were disappointing, even though they were nicely higher.
E*Trade Financial (ET) dropped $2.15. That's because Bank America is planning to offer some of its customers free online trading. This undermined a number of the online broker group. Let's have a look at a couple of others affected.
TD Ameritrade (AMTD) down $2.28.
Charles Schwab (SCHW) fell $0.84 a share.
Back to the active board, we see Pfizer (PFE) down $0.27.
Followed by Citigroup (C) with a $0.44 loss.
Time Warner (TWX) bucked that trend, up $0.14.
Then Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) with a gain of $1.13 after Think Equity brokerage upgraded it from "sell" to a "buy," also boosted its price target on AMD from $20 to $30 a share.
ExxonMobil (XOM) tenth in volume, was down $0.67.
Monsanto (MON) losing $2.46. The company out with a fourth quarter loss of $0.27 a share today, worse than expected and worse than last year's loss of $0.23 a share. The company forecast 2007 earnings at around $1.54. That's below the $1.62 Wall Street consensus.
Then we see Host Hotel and Resorts (HST), which owns the Ritz hotelchain. The company forecast fourth quarter earnings at $0.55 to $0.58 and that's below the $0.61 Street estimate.
Legg Mason (LM) off $18.16. After the close yesterday as we reported, the company reported or warned that second quarter earnings will be $1 and that's $0.16 below the Wall Street consensus. Stock hard hit today.
Sony ADR (SNE) up $1.15. The story here, the company's joint venture with LM Ericsson tripled its third quarter profits.
And then Jacuzzi (JJZ) bubbling up with a $2 gain after news that Apollo Management will acquire it for $12.50 a share in cash.
And Media General (MEG) down $3.50. Third quarter earnings lower, $0.37 versus $0.41 a year ago. The company blamed higher operating costs.
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Google (GOOG) down $0.15.
Followed by Intel (INTC) with no change.
Apple Computer (AAPL) was down $0.58. Some of the directors may have conflicts of interest as they check regarding the stock option grants.
Sandisk (SNDK) down $0.71.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $1.10 and that was fifth in volume.
Microsoft (MSFT) off $.15.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.07 gain.
Yahoo! (YHOO) down $0.23.
TD Ameritrade (AMTD) you saw earlier, down $2.28.
And Dell (DELL) was off $0.55, tenth in volume.
Rambus (RMS) up $1.85. Toshiba is going to use the company's memory controller technology.
And over on the American exchange finally, Barnwell (BRN) rose $2.20 on news its largest shareholder is urging a stock buyback and an evaluation of strategic alternatives, including the same of the company's valuable energy division.
