Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks sold off this morning ahead of that Fed rate decision. Disappointing earnings from best buy and downgrades on Alcoa and Nucor offset solid earnings from Goldman Sachs. So at midday then, the Dow was off 70 points, NASDAQ down 22. Stocks improved this afternoon thanks to the Fed, an upturn in bonds and a drop in oil prices. But the Dow Industrial Average still closed down 12.90 points at 12,315.58. The NASDAQ Composite was off 11.26 at 2,431.60. Standard & Poor's 500 down 1.48 ending at 1,411.56. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 8/32 to 101 2/32, putting the yield at 4.49 percent. For the fifth consecutive trading session, Ford Motor Co (F) topped the active list today on 29.4 million shares. Then came General Electric (GE) with a $0.42 gain. GE is boosting its quarterly dividend from $0.25 to $0.28 a share and also forecast 2007 earnings will be $2.17 to $2.23. That's still below the Street estimate of $2.24. Texas Instruments (TXN) up $0.47. After the close yesterday as we reported, company cut its fourth quarter earnings estimate down to $0.37 to $0.40. The Street estimate has been $0.42, but today JPMorgan upgraded Texas stock from "neutral" to "over weight" and it wound up with a gain.
Pfizer (PFE) lost a penny.
Best Buy Co (BBY) down $2.62, major casualty, traded as low as $50.31. Third quarter earnings were $0.04 below the Street estimate. They came in at $0.31 a share versus $0.28 a year ago and the rival, Circuit City stock incidentally in sympathy fell $1.36 to $23.58.
Citigroup (C) was down $0.63. Late yesterday the company named its investment banking chief as the new chief operating officer, but investors may have expected a bigger management shake up or maybe a major restructuring. The stock acted like it was a bit disappointed there.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.03 loss.
Corning (GLW), $0.57 drop.
AT&T (T) moved up $0.46.
And Motorola (MOT), tenth in volume, down $0.42.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) closed down $0.18, although the CEO told analysts this morning fiscal 2008 revenues should top $100 billion for the first time ever.
Then came Alcoa (AA) hurting the Dow a bit with that $0.44. RBC Capital downgraded it from "sector perform" to "under perform" on valuation.
And then came Goldman Sachs (GS) down $2.52 despite reporting a 93 percent increase in fourth quarter earnings over last year, $6.59, up from $3.35 and that was $0.55 above the Street estimate. Of course, the stock had quite a run.
Nucor (NUE), the steel company, down $4.75. The company sees fourth quarter earnings around $1.05 to $1.15. The Street estimate is way up there at $1.44. Big steel, U.S. Steel (X) was down $3.96 in sympathy.
And then Spartech (SEH) which is involved in thermo-plastics had higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.27 versus $0.16 a year ago, but the Keybanc brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold" on a valuation basis.
Celestica (CLS) down $1.14. The company cut its fourth quarter earnings guidance from $0.15 to $0.23 to just break even or maybe $0.06 a share in earnings at best.
And Cooper Cos (COO) which makes medical products and also contact lens, got a downgrade from Bear Stearns from "peer perform" to "under perform."
NASDAQ's most active, Apple Computer (AAPL) down $2.61.
Followed by Google (GOOG) off $2.15.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.11.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.03 drop.
Intel (INTC) rose $0.03. That was fifth in volume.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.55.
Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.26 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.08.
And then On Semiconductor (ONNN) a $0.32 gain there.
And tenth in volume was Qualcomm (QCOM) with a $0.06 closing loss.
Mamma.com (MAMA) did very well today, up just 80 1/2 percent with that gain of $1.91. The company has launched a new video search engine on its website and a very positive reaction to that, wouldn't you say?
Epix Pharmaceuticals (EPIX) was up $1.67 or 30 1/4 percent on news the company's in a pact with Glaxo Smithkline to develop a variety of drugs including one for treating Alzheimer's disease.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
