Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a modest sell off on the election results, sending the Dow off 31 points and the NASDAQ down seven. A rise in oil futures and political uncertainties kept stocks on the defensive through the noon hour, with the Dow still off 31 points but the NASDAQ improved to a two point gain. The market's mild downturn attracted buyers this afternoon, lifting it to a positive close. Dow Industrial Average gained 19.77 to a new record closing high at 12,176.54. The NASDAQComposite was up 9.06, ending at 2384.94. Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 2.88 to 1385.72. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 6/32 to 101 27/32, putting the yield at 4.64 percent. Most active big board issue on 23 million shares, Pfizer (PFE) losing $0.43 on concern that the Democratic Congress could impact drug pricing in a negative way apparently.
Motorola (MOT) down $0.45.
Lucent Tech (LU) moved up $0.03.
Merck & Co (MRK), another defensive drug issue, down $1.56, but in addition, Merck disclosed it had four separate tax disputes in the United States and Canada with a potential liability of $5.6 billion.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the higher oil prices today gained $1.60, fifthin volume.
Time Warner (TWX) down $0.16.
AT&T (T) edged up $0.07.
Sprint Nextel (S) $0.35 gain.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) down $0.62.
And Halliburton Co (HAL), tenth in volume, rose $0.17.
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) off $1.57. Managed health care firms are viewed as vulnerable to lower profits under the Democratic Congress. Let's have a look at how some of the other stocks in the sector fared.
Aetna (AET) down nearly $1.
Humana (HUM) losing almost $3.50.
And Wellpoint (WLP) down $1.32.
Another group under the gun so to speak, General Dynamics (GD) among defense contractors, off $1.51. And let's have some others in the group, have a look at them.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) losing just over $1.
Northrop Grumman (NOC) off $1.42.
And Raytheon (RTW) off $0.72.
On the upside, Scottish Power PLC (SPI) rising $7.30. There's speculation the company may get a buyout offer from (INAUDIBLE). That's the big Spanish utility company.
On the downside, another Scottish firm, the insurance company, Scottish Re Group Ltd (SCT) losing $1.63. Scor Management said it will not make a buyout bid as has been rumored occasionally.
And Hospira (HSP), which makes medical products, third quarter operating earnings came in at $0.45, a penny below the Street estimate. Standard & Poor's cut its price target for the stock by $3, down to $36 a share. Sotheby's Holdings (BID), the auction house, off $2.81. Wedbush Morgan brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" on a valuation basis.
And Medicis Pharmaceutical Co (MRX) rising $2.49. The company got FDA marketing approval for its Ziana acne gel. JPMorgan upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "over weight" and after the close, Medicis reported third quarter earnings, excluding items, were $0.28 a share and that was $0.05 better than the Street expected.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ with a gain of $2.43.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) closed up $0.26, but you heard, those earnings for the first quarter, $0.02 better than expected and the stock in after hours trading was just above $27 a share so a nice move up.
Microsoft (MSFT), now of course, the new Vista is ready to go almost, a $0.03 gain.
Apple Computer (AAPL) up $1.94. A top official at Apple gave an upbeat outlook on holiday sales for its iPod products.
And then we see Intel (INTC) with a $0.09 loss. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Looking ahead, we see Research in Motion (RIMM) rising $2.10.
Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.29 gain.
Sandisk (SNDK) lost $0.24.
Broadcom (BRCM) a $0.09 drop.
And tenth in volume was Dell (DELL) losing $0.38.
Trimeris (TRMS) moving up $1.80, nice percentage gain there, almost 23 percent. It's a drug developer and it's a third quarter turnaround, earnings of $0.16 versus a loss of $0.15 last year.
And then, True Religion Apparel (TRLG) down $5.80. The company sells upscale denim clothing and reported lower than expected third quarter profits and gave a disappointing outlook.
