Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, October 12, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks rallied right out of the starting gate today after McDonalds boosted its earnings guidance and the Street saw good earnings from Pepsico, Yum Brands and Harley-Davidson. By noon, the Dow was over the 11,900 level with an 80 point gain and stocks kept going higher after the Fed`s beige book report showed the economy continued to grow despite the housing slump. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 95.57 to a new high at 11,947.70. The NASDAQ Composite jumped 37.91 to 2,346.18. Standard & Poor`s 500 up 12.88 ending at 1,362.83. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 1/32 to par and 25/32, putting the yield at 4.78 percent.
Monsanto (MON) Big board volume leader on 16.8 million shares, several large blocks of two to three million, stock closing up $0.96, a little bounce back after recent weakness.
Then AT&T (T) up $0.64. The FCC delayed the vote on AT&T`s takeover of BellSouth until tomorrow.
Time Warner (TWX) up $0.12.
McDonald`s (MCD) a $0.98 gainer. September same store sales up a respectable 9.8 percent and the company boosted its third quarter earnings guidance from the Street estimate of $0.63, up to $0.69.
General Electric (GE) whose earnings are due out tomorrow, gained a nickel today, fifth in volume.
Citigroup (C) down $0.20.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.36 gain.
ExxonMobil (XOM) rose $1.12.
Qwest Comm (Q) an $0.08 rise.
Sprint Nextel (S), tenth in volume, up $0.39.
Pepsico (PEP) fell $1.01 despite third quarter earnings jumping to $0.88 from only $0.51 a year ago, $0.02 above the Street consensus. But analysts are concerned about a slowdown in the company`s profit growth and apparently that`s what hurt the stock.
Yum! Brands (YUM) which owns KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and so forth had good third quarter earnings, $0.83, up from $0.69 last year. The company boosted its 2006 earnings estimate by $0.06 a share.
Safeway (SWY), the big grocery chain, down $0.42, even though its third quarter earnings were $0.39, up from $0.27 last year, but not as good as expected apparently.
Then we see Harley-Davidson (HOG) doing well, up $1.73. Third quarter earnings came in at $1.20, way up from $0.96 last year and $0.10 above the Street consensus and sales were at a record high for the motorcycle company.
Winnebago Industries (WGO) an RV maker, down $1.08. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.30 from $0.46 last year. Revenues actually dropped 11percent. Standard & Poor`s downgraded Winnebago stock from "hold" to a "sell."
Systemax (SYX) down $3.24. The company`s in the computer parts business and it`s going to delay reporting second quarter results. Problem is it also was late in posting first quarter results and apparently some investors a little upset.
Heartland Payment (HPY) down $0.71. The Baird brokerage downgraded it from "outperform" to just a "neutral" rating.
And Mentor Corp (MNT) down $1.19. An advocacy group called Public Citizen is calling for a criminal probe into allegations the company failed to give regulators information about potential problems with its silicone breast implants, down went the stock.
Deluxe Corp (DLX) a check writer and so forth, check printer I should say, up $3.08. The company boosted its previous third quarter earnings guidance, up $0.41 to $0.45, all the way up to $0.59 to $0.61.
And then CB Richard Ellis (CBG), this is the commercial real estate services company, up $1.76. It`ll replace BellSouth in the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index when the FCC approves AT&T`s takeover of BellSouth. As I mentioned, the vote was delayed until tomorrow. We could learn that quickly. It could go into the S&P 500.
Microsoft (MSFT) topped NASDAQ`s most active with a gain of $0.68.
Google (GOOG) $0.94 rise.
Intel (INTC) $0.60 gainer.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $2.03. Incidentally, Apple`s earnings are due out next Wednesday.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) gained a nickel. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Costco Wholesale (COST) there you see it, up $3.83 on those good earnings.
Sandisk (SNDK) $1.01 rise.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.41 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $0.62. And Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.18.
Simclar (SIMC) up $3.85, huge percentage gain. The manufacturer of electronic products says its restatement of some of its financials turning out to be better than expected.
And Hemosense (HEM) up $1.23. The company`s blood monitoring systems will be used by check up clinics in Wal-Mart stores.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
