Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, December 22, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks headed broadly lower this morning under pressure from tax loss selling and year-end portfolio reshuffling. So by noon, the Dow had posted a 77 point loss and the NASDAQ Composite was off 13. As trading slowed to a crawl ahead of the long holiday weekend, the market remained mired in lower ground and it closed there. The Dow Industrial Average lost 78.03 points at 12,343.22 today. This week, it rose only once, falling 102.30 points overall. The NASDAQ Composite closed down 14.67 at 2,401.18 today. And it fell every day this week for an overall loss of 56.02 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 7.54 ending at 1,410.76 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 20/32 to par even and that put the yield at 4.63 percent.
Once again topping the active list Ford Motor Co (F) today on 22.3 million shares, the stock edging $0.11 higher.
Then Micron Tech (MU) up $0.45. Micron in with strong first quarter earnings, nearly triple last, $0.25, versus $0.09 then and sales were up a respectable 14 percent. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" on the stock today.
Red Hat (RHT) big winner, up $4.50 today. Third quarter earnings came out at $0.14, $0.02 above the Street estimate and well above last year's $0.11 and revenues soared 45 percent. The First Albany brokerage upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy."
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.12 gainer.
General Electric (GE) $0.20 loss. That was fifth in volume.
Then we see Pfizer (PFE) dropping a dime.
EMC Corp (EMC) $0.14 loss.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.46, although a U.S. appeals court has cut the punitive damage against the company in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, those damages cut in half to $2.5 billion now.
AT&T (T) lost $0.19.
And Motorola (MOT) $0.06 loss, tenth in volume.
Walgreen Co (WAG) up $0.72. First quarter earnings came in strongly, $0.43, up from $0.34 a year ago, $0.02 above the Street estimate. Sales were up 17 percent.
Then we see the car auctioneer Adesa (KAR) rising $2.38. Kelso and several other private equity groups have combined to acquire the company for $27.85 a share in cash.
Bentley Pharmaceuticals (BNT) up $1.11. The company's U.S. marketing partner Perrigo got FDA approval to market a generic form of Zocor in the U.S.
Nelnet (NNI) down $2.39. The story here, Canadian government has awarded a student loan contract to a competitor of Nelnet's.
And then we see Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) up $2.74. That's on speculation of a takeover. Possible suitors mentioned, Starwood Hotels and a Dubai-based consortium.
Research in Motion (RIMM) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $3.70, traded as high as $1.04, $140 today. Preliminary earnings came out after the close yesterday, $0.95, $0.02 above the Street estimate. Stock still down today.
Google (GOOG) dropped $0.62.
Apple Computer (AAPL) $0.70 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.34.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.73. Yesterday the company cut its earnings outlook. Today, JPMorgan downgraded Qualcomm from "neutral" to "under weight." That was fifth in dollar volume.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.36 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.29 drop there.
Ebay (EBAY) fell $0.66.
But Liberty Media (LCAPA) jumping $4.23. The company will swap its $11 billion worth of Newscorp shares for Newscorp's stake in DirecTV. That will give Liberty control of DirecTV.
Yahoo! (YHOO) was up $0.07 and tenth in NASDAQ volume.
Pinnacle Airline (PNCL) did well, up $6.05 there. I'm not quite sure but yes, there's a 56 percent rise. The story here is a positive reaction to the company's new pact with Northwest Air.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
