Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The Federal Reserve is growing concerned about balancing inflation and growth. This afternoon, the Fed released the minutes of its December 12 open market committee meeting, saying inflation is its number one concern. But the panel also believed the subdued tone of some recent readings on the economy could mean risks to growth are increasing. At that meeting last month, you'll recall the FOMC decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 5 1/4 percent. Analysts say today's minutes show no real indication the Fed will cut rates anytime soon.
So that news knocked the wind out of what could have been another record close on Wall Street. The stock market took off like a rocket at the outset in the first trading session of the year, fueled by a sharp drop in oil prices and heavy buying in semiconductor, telecom and healthcare stocks. At noon, the Dow was sporting a 110-point gain, while the NASDAQ Composite was up 35 points. Just after 2:00 p.m., when those Fed minutes came out, the blue chips tumbled to a 50-point loss and then made a late comeback. So the Dow Industrial Average managed to close up 11.37 at 12,474.52. The NASDAQ Composite gained 7.87 at 2,423.16. Standard & Poor's 500 fell 1.70 ending at 1,416.60. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note rose 6/32 to 99 23/32, putting the yield at 4.66 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 24.8 million shares, Ford Motor (F) no change on the day. It traded as low as $7.44 after the company said December sales fell 13 percent, mainly due to weak demand for its trucks.
GE (GE) managed to gain $0.76 on the day.
And then AT&T (T) down $0.80. This is the first day of trading for the company, which now includes BellSouth.
Then came ExxonMobil (XOM) down $2.52 on the very, very weak oil market today.
Let's have a look at some other major oils in the sector. Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Marathon Oil (MRO), all down significantly.
And the oil service stocks also hurt, Halliburton (HAL) and Schlumberger ltd (SLB), well on the downside.
Getting back to the active list, we see Home Depot (HD), fifth in volume, up $0.91. As you heard, Robert Nardelli is out as CEO, but today, Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong buy" recommendation on HD stock.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.39 gainer.
EMC Corp (EMC) showed no change on the day.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) up $1.37. The company estimates its December same store sales were a better than expected 1.6 percent on the upside. And Standard & Poor's today repeated a "buy" recommendation on Wal-Mart stock.
Ensco Intl (ESV) down $1.61, even though it is replacing BellSouth in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Tenth in volume was Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) with a $0.97 gain.
General Motors (GM) had a rough day, down $1.27 after Bank America downgraded it from "neutral" to "sell" and also cut its price target on GM stock from $30 down to $25 a share.
Then came the airlines, reacting very positively to the sharp drop in oil, up $2.63 on American AMR Corp (AMR).
Let's have a look at some of the other major carriers, Continental Airlines (CAL) up $2.72.
$2.36 gain in UAL Corp (UAUA).
And US Airways Group (LCC) rising $2.45, very strong group.
Brilliance China (CBA) auto limited up $4.44 on rumors that BMW wants to take a significant stake, perhaps about 20 percent. However, BMW spokesman denied that.
Then we see Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) down $5.24 and that's because of a continuing drop in the price of copper today.
Terex Corp (TEX) off $5.52. Citigroup downgraded it from "buy" to a "sell" recommendation.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber (GT) doing well, up $1.81. That's a positive reaction to the company's new labor pact and of course the end of the strike. Deutsche Bank securities upgraded the stock today from "hold" to a "buy."
Then Unifirst Corp (UNF) doing well, up $4.34. This is a company that's in the workplace uniform business and it had good first quarter earnings, $0.71, up from $0.59 last year and that was $0.06 better than the Street was expecting.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) up $7.82. The company said its December average daily volume was up 128 percent over last year. Average daily OTC commissions up 78 percent from a year ago.
Apple Computer (APPL) topped the NASDAQ active list down $1.04.
But Google (GOOG) up $7.11. Piper Jaffray brokerage boosted its price target for Google stock from $600 to $630 a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) showed no change.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.40 rise.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.77. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) gained a dime.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.33 loss there.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.37.
Followed by Amgen (AMGN) with a $0.09 gain.
Nvidia (NVDA), tenth in NASDAQ dollar volume, was down $0.93.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $9.72. CIBC World Markets made bullish comments about the upswing in Internet advertising in China.
And finally, shares of Egl (EAGL) soared nearly $8 after receiving a $36 per share cash buyout bid from a team including its CEO and a private equity firm.
