Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, November 16, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips extended their push into record heights this morning bolstered by that benign consumer inflation news, those lower oil prices and continuing merger activity. At noon, the Dow posted a 36 point gain. NASDAQ was up one point. Stocks added to their gains this afternoon as oil prices went into a tailspin. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 54.11 at a new record high of 12,305.82. The NASDAQ Composite was up 6.31 at 2449.06. Standard & Poor's 500 up 3.19 ending at 1399.76. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 12/32 to 99 21/32, putting the yield at 4.67 percent.
Big board volume leader on 30 million shares was Hertz Global (HTZ). You heard about it going public at $15. The high of the day, $15.77 and then it backed down a bit.
Then came Time Warner (TWX) with a $0.37 gain.
Followed by KBR (KBR) up $3.75 from its $17 a share offering price. The high of the day, $21.31, backed down a bit.
Clear Channel (CCU) up $1.24. As you heard, two private equity firms acquiring it and the price per share is $37.60.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $2.13 along with that sharp plunge in oil prices.
Pfizer (PFE) was up $0.23.
Motorola (MOT) a $0.35 gain.
Reckson Associates (RA), this is a self-managed REIT. The "Wall Street Journal" reports Carl Icahn and Maclowe Properties are preparing a $4.6 billion bid. That works out to about $49 a share.
Halliburton (HAL) down $1.04.
And then AT&T (T) a $0.14 gain, tenth in volume.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) closed up $0.37 and just after the close, reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.68, $0.04 above the Street estimate. There was no appreciable change in the stock in after hours trading.
And then Reader's Digest Association (RDA) was up $1.19. As you heard, Ripplewood Holdings acquiring it and the price there is $17 a share in cash.
Barnes & Noble (BKS), the book seller, down $2.23. Preliminary third quarter results $0.04 loss versus break even last year. The company cited stock option expenses for the loss.
Then Williams Sonoma (WSM), the home products retailer, down $3.48. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.25 from $0.31 a year ago. The company cut its fourth quarter estimate and the Morgan Keegan brokerage downgraded it to just a "market perform" rating.
Buckle (BKE), the clothing retailer, up $2.68. Third quarter earnings higher, $0.89, up from $0.82 a year ago and that was $0.13 better than the Street was expecting.
The Men's Wearhouse (MW) down $3.08, even though third quarter earnings rose to $0.58 from $0.44 a year ago and $0.04 better than the Street thought, but the company said fourth quarter earnings will be $0.72 to $0.76 and the Street estimate there higher at $0.78 a share.
Hillenbrand Industries (HB) in the funeral services business had a turnaround. Fourth quarter earnings of $1.09 versus a loss of over $3 a share last year.
And the building products company ElkCorp (ELK) up $2.76. A private investment group is proposing a $35 a share cash buyout bid for that company.
JM Smucker (SJM) down $2.64. Citigroup downgraded it from "hold" to a "sell."
NASDAQ's most active, Google (GOOG) up $3.97.
Followed by Apple Computer (AAPL) up $1.56. The highly anticipated iPod phone from Apple due to come out early next year.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.35 gain there.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.55.
Research in Motion (RIMM) rose $5.77, fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) gained a penny.
And then Dell (DELL) down $0.65. The story with Dell, it's delaying its third quarter report due to some accounting problems.
Sears Holdings (SHLD) off $9.89. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.83, excluding items, well below the Street estimate of $0.98 and same store sales actually fell 4 percent.
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.51 loss.
And Applied Materials (AMAT) down $0.67. Applied Materials in with fourth quarter results, $0.33, $0.02 above the Street estimate, but revenues were shy of estimates.
And Rambus (RMBS) up $5.07. American Technological Research has issued a "buy" on that stock and boosted its price target to $32 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
