Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stock prices moved steadily higher this morning. That GDP upward revision sat well with investors, as did a rebound in the dollar. At noon, the Dow posted an 85 point gain and the NASDAQ Composite was up 20 points. The rally eased as oil prices surged, but that beige book report dispelled fears of a hard landing, helping stocks end on a strong note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 90.28 points at 12,226.73. The NASDAQ Composite was up 19.62 at 2432.23. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 12.76 ending at 1399.48. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 5/32 to par and 26/32, putting the yield at 4.52 percent.
Once again the most active big board issue today on 40.3 million shares, Lucent Tech (LU) edging a penny higher. It's soon to be taken over of course by Alcatel.
Second in volume was Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.02. Pfizer's going to cut 2200 jobs or 20 percent of its domestic work force. The company cites slowing sales growth and increasing generic competition.
AT&T (T) moved up $0.68. An AG Edwards upgrade on Verizon helped the whole telecom sector move higher today.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on those higher oil prices, up $1.87.
Ford Motor Co (F), fifth in volume, edged $0.02 higher.
Qwest Comm (Q) a $0.23 gain.
General Motors (GM) fell $0.47.
But CVS Corp (CVS), the big pharmacy chain, up $0.96.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.15 rise.
And Bellsouth (BLS), another firm telecom stock, up $0.79 a share.
And there you see Verizon Comm (VZ) moving up $0.49. AG Edwards upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
And then NYSE Group (NYX) down $5.45. JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to "neutral," partly because of the stock's high price earnings ratio at 30 times earnings.
On the upside, New York Times (NYT) up $1.55. The "New York Post" newspaper reported that former AIG Chairman Hank Greenberg has been buying big blocks of "New York Times" stock to break the Sulzberger family stranglehold on the media empire, but after the close, Mr. Greenberg said he only owns 100,000 "New York Times" shares and has no intention of boosting its stake. The stock dropped about $1 from this price in after hours trading on that news.
Mobile Telesystems (MBT), this is the big Russian cell phone company, up $3.69. It came in with third quarter earnings a little better than expected, $1.21 for ADS versus $1.26 last year, but revenues were up a very impressive 30 percent.
Fluor Corp (FLR) up $2.94. The company has been awarded a $2.2 billion engineering and construction management contract for a Saudi Arabian petrochemical complex.
Then Tiffany & Co (TIF) up $2.29. Third quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.21 versus $0.16 last year on a 6 percent rise in same store sales.
Aeropostale (ARO), this is the teen apparel retailer, up $1.98. Third quarter earnings $0.61 versus $0.47 a year ago, 19 percent rise in sales, nice move.
Manitowoc Co (MTW) gained $4.12 and the company forecasting 2007 earnings between $3.75 and $4 a share. That's well above the Street estimate of $3.65.
And Talbots (TLB) up $1.26. Wedbush Morgan started covering the stock with a "buy" and a 12-month target of $32 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple Computer (AAPL) down $1, but it traded as high as $93.15. Bear Stearns boosted its target from $94 to $100 a share.
Google (GOOG) down $4.85.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a nickel gain.
$0.18 rise in Microsoft (MSFT).
Intel (INTC) $0.26 gain. That was fifth in volume.
Then we see Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.14.
Dell (DELL) $0.67 gain.
Sandisk (SNDK) up or down $1.04.
$0.65 loss in Broadcom (BRCM).
And Qualcomm (QCOM) up $0.80.
And finally, Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) surged $2.39 on positive results from a late stage trial of the company's hepatitis "b" vaccine.
