Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, October 16, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: That news on UnitedHealthcare sent the stock off about 3 percent at the outset of trading and undermined the blue chips a bit, as did analyst downgrades on General Electric and Home Depot. But the Dow turned an early seven point loss into a 12 point gain by noon with on an upgrade of Alcoa. And then lower bond yields this afternoon boosted the Dow to within three points of the 12,000 mark before easing back a bit. The Dow closed up 20.09 at a record 11,980.60. NASDAQ was up 6.55 at 2363.84. Standard & Poor`s 500 gained 3.43, ending at 1369.05. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 5/32 to par and 23/32, putting the yield at 4.78 percent. Big board volume leader was General Electric (GE) with a $0.42 loss, traded 17.6 million shares. Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" on a valuation basis.
Then came Unitedhealth Group (UNH) with a loss of $1.21. As you heard, CEO William McGuire stepped down because of the backdating of some of the stock options.
EMC Corp (EMC) was a $0.14 gainer.
JLG Industries (JLG) up $6.85. JLG makes aerial platforms and booms and it`s going to be acquired by Oshkosh Truck for $28 a share in cash. Oshkosh stock fell $3.05.
Then we see Time Warner (TWX) with a $0.24 gain, fifth in volume.
ExxonMobil (XOM) gained $1.43 on that surge in oil prices.
Lucent Tech (LU) a $0.03 gainer.
AT&T (T) down $0.61.
Motorola (MOT) fell $0.71.
And Wachovia (WB) off $1.22. Wachovia out with third quarter earnings higher, $1.17 versus $1.06, but a 5 percent rise in revenues was lower than expected, hence the loss of the stock.
Alcoa (AA) up $0.65. Prudential Equity upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight" with a $32 a share target, did the same with Alcan, whose stock moved up $1.61.
Then let`s have a look at IBM (IBM), big news here, Deutsche Securities says big blue`s stock is undervalued and should be trading around $105 a share, did trade as high as $87.60 today and earnings for big blue are due out tomorrow.
Home Depot (HD) down $0.55. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" on concern about the recent management changes.
And then interestingly, Goldman Sachs upgraded Lowes Companies (LOW) from "neutral" to "buy" on the belief it`ll rebound when the housing market recovers.
Elsewhere we see Eaton (ETN) up $5.25. Third quarter earnings rose 25 percent to $1.62. Revenues were up 13 percent.
On the downside, Labranche & Co (LAB), this is a stock specialist firm, off $1.98. Third quarter earnings came in lower, $0.13 versus $0.15 a year ago and that`s due to a rise in margin interest expenses according to the firm.
Maidenform Brands (MFB) off $1.66. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "neutral" to "sell."
And then Greenbrier Co (GBX) which makes rail cars is acquiring another one of those, Meridian Rail Holdings for $227.5 million in cash. Positive reaction there.
Intel (INTC) topped the active list on NASDAQ, edging up a penny. The company boosted its fourth quarter revenue guidance.
Google (GOOG) $5.55 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) was up $0.08.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $0.38.
And then Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.24 loss, earnings due out tomorrow as you heard.
Sandisk (SNDK) I should say, that was up $1.69. Quarterly results are due out tomorrow and the WR Hambrecht brokerage thinks Sandisk will have better than expected earnings.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.06 gainer. Research in Motion (RIMM) down $3.22.
And then Broadcom (BRCM) moved up $1.10.
Amgen (AMGN) $0.79 loss.
Open Solutions (OPEN) gained $7.28. Carlyle Group will acquire this firm for $38 a share.
And look at this percentage gain, Lumera (LMRA) up 216 percent today. The company had a successful test of its millimeter wave wireless bridge. The system will allow the transmission of vast amounts of data on telecom networks.
And then over on the American exchange, Delta Apparel (DLA) falling $2.16. The company cut its first quarter earnings guidance from the range of $0.43 a share, down to $0.25 to $0.27 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
