Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street got an early boost from those better than expected retail sales and the prospect of more airline industry consolidation. The Dow jumped 40 points at the outset of trading and the NASDAQ Composite rose seven points. But the early upturn ran into resistance as oil futures rebounded, so by mid-afternoon the Dow and the NASDAQ posted single digit losses. Buyers did return in the final hour though and the market ended slightly higher. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 1.92 at 12,317.50. NASDAQ Composite up .81 at 2432.41. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.66 ending at 1413.22. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 23/32 to par 9/32, lifting the yield to 4.59 percent.
For the sixth trading session in a row, Ford Motor (F) topped the active list today on 55.8 million shares. The company did announce some management changes, but nothing major.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.22, second in volume.
Then came a new issue DCT Industrial (DCT). This is an industrial properties real estate investment trust, 16.3 million shares offered at $12.25, opened at $12.76, high of the day $12.90, backed off a little. The trading symbol is DCT as you might expect.
GE (GE) $0.14 loss. Yesterday the company boosted its quarterly dividend from $0.25 to $0.28 but forecast 2007 earnings of $2.23 at best and that was a penny below the Street estimate.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $1.11. Morgan Stanley boosted its price target from $75 to $86 a share.
US Bancorp (USB) up $1.20. The company's boosting its quarterly dividend from $0.33 to $0.40 a share.
Then Home Depot (HD) up $0.41. The company is buying Chinese retailer called Homeway (ph) but it did not disclose any terms.
Time Warner (TWX) up $0.07.
Then Texas Instruments (TXN) down $0.34.
Tenth in volume, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) with a $0.30 loss.
Then came the airlines, Continental (CAL) up $1.88. "The Wall Street Journal" reported it is in merger talks with UAL as we heard earlier.
And let's see what UAL (UAUA) did and that was up $2.01.
Some of the other majors, Alaska (ALK), American (AMR) and Southwest Air (LUV) all on the plus side today in that very active group.
Buckle (BKE), the apparel retailer, announced a $3 per share special cash dividend for shareholders. It also declared a three for two stock split, nice combination there.
And then Cooper Companies (COO) down $4.86 after dropping over $3 yesterday on a Bear Stearns downgrade. Today the Baird brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "neutral" even though it reported higher fourth quarter earnings of $0.13 versus $0.19 a year ago, but it did lower its fiscal year 2007 revenue guidance and that's what hurt the stock.
Another new issue, Atlas Energy Resources (ATR), a natural gas developer, 6.3 million shares offered at $21, opened at $21.86, the high $22.85, not a bad debut.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ up $2.91. An analyst at the Piper Jaffray brokerage said the company should sell as many as 16 million iPod digital music players in the December quarter. That's well above the Wall Street estimate of 15 million.
Google (GOOG) second in volume, down $2.79.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.12 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.17 rise there.
And Research in Motion (RIMM) had a good day, up $2.84, fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) a $0.03 loss.
Followed by eBay (EBAY) which was up $0.85.
Qualcomm (QCOM) dropped $0.44.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.03 gain.
And then tenth in volume was Yahoo! (YHOO), losing $0.15 a share.
IPG Photonics (IPGP), this is a laser manufacturer, nine million share initial public offering at $16.50, opened at $25, the high of the day $26.06.
And then over on the American Exchange, more merger activity, Air Trans, whose stock rose $0.50 to $12.85 offered $11.25 per share cash to acquire Midwest Express Holdings (MEH) which was up $2.02, but that offer was as you heard, rejected.
