Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Thursday, January 04, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Also falling early today were stocks on the prospect of OPEC cutting production and of course those mixed retail sales which raised concerns about consumer spending. An hour into trading, the Dow was off 53 points; NASDAQ down four. Despite the weakness, Intel led an impressive rally in the tech stocks which helped the blue chips eventually end on a positive note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 6.17 at 12,480.69. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 30.27 points to 2453.43 and the Standard & Poor's 500 up 1.74 at 1418.34. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 14/32 to par and 4/32, putting the yield at 4.61 percent.
Big board volume leader on 20.7 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) moving up $0.19.
Followed by ExxonMobil (XOM), representing a very weak energy group, down $1.39, traded as low as $72.21 today.
AT&T (T) off $0.45.
General Electric (GE) down $0.22.
ConocoPhillips (COP), another weak oil stock also into natural gas big time, down $2.12.
Pfizer (PFE) managed to gain $0.09.
And EMC Corp (EMC) a $0.33 advance.
Time Warner (TWX) rose $0.39.
Halliburton Co (HAL), oil service got hit today too, down $0.64.
Tenth in volume Corning (GLW) with a gain of $0.69.
More weakness in the oil-related stocks. These are the oil service sector. BJ Services Co (BJS), Ensco Intl (ESV) and Weatherford Intl (WFT) all on the downside, especially after Wachovia downgraded all three of these from "out perform" to just "market perform."
Monsanto Co (MON) lost $0.89, although it did trade as high as $51.21 this morning after reporting first quarter earnings of $0.16, up from $0.11 last year and $0.06 above the Street estimate, but the company did not boost full year earnings estimates, remained at $1.57 at best and the Street estimate is for $1.61, so a little disappointment there.
Texas Industries (TXI) up $2.03. The building materials company had a sharp jump in second quarter earnings to $1.09, up from $0.26 last year and the Street estimate was only $0.55, but keep in mind $0.47 of that $1.09 in earnings was due to a non-recurring item, tax related.
Constellation Brands (STZ), the wine and spirits distributor, third quarter earnings excluding items, $0.58, up from $0.52 last year, but $0.02 below the Street estimate and the company cut its fiscal 2007 earnings estimate from $1.76 at best, down to $1.70 at best.
The Limited Brands (LTD), one of the apparel retailers, down $2.23. The December same store sales were up a lower than expected 4 percent. The company itself forecast a high single digit rise in sales, didn't make it.
New York & Co (NWY), another apparel retailer, up $2.07. Its December same store sales up 3.2 percent and most of the Street was expecting a small decline, so better than expected.
Aeropostale (ARO) another apparel retailer, up $2.21. December same store sales up 1.7 percent and the company boosted its fourth quarter earnings estimate by about $0.02.
Then Cooper Cos (COO), which makes contact lens, up $1.82. There's a continuing takeover speculation, but no suitors as yet named.
And then RPM Intl (RPM), original name was Republic Powdered Metals, so we know what business they're in. Second quarter earnings tripled to $0.45 versus $0.15 a year ago, $0.09 better than the Street consensus.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $15.67. The company bought a stake in a Chinese file savings (ph) firm.
And then Apple Computer (AAPL) up $1.86.
Research in Motion (RIMM) did well, up just over $10.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.73 gain there. This company is buying Iron Port (ph) Systems for $830 million. Iron Port is a privately based web security provider.
Intel (INTC) $0.82 gain there. Intel got a boost from Bank of America, which repeated a "buy" and boosted fourth quarter earnings.
Microsoft (MSFT) a nickel drop.
And then Amgen (AMGN) up $2.39. Bear Stearns upgraded Amgen to "outperform."
Then we see Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.69.
Yahoo! (YHOO) up $1.24.
And Dell (DELL) rose $0.75 a share.
Elsewhere, Hot Topic (HOTT) down $2.31. The novelty retailer had a 5.1 percent drop in its December same store sales.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
