Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, January 08, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: No sign of fresh steam on Wall Street this morning as stocks headed lower, undermined by the same concerns about inflation and interest rates which sent them down last week. An hour into trading, the Dow was off 50 points and the NASDAQ down 11. The market improved after IBM got a brokerage upgrade and oil prices eased. So the major averages were higher at the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 25.48 at 12,423.49. The NASDAQ Composite was up 3.95 ending at 2438.20. Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.13 to 1412.84. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note fell 3/32 to 99 24/32, putting the yield at 4.66 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 29.7 million shares, EMC Corp (EMC) rising $0.47. UBS financial brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its price target from $13 to $16 a share in the belief there will be growing demand for EMC's storage products.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.14 loss.
Motorola (MOT) down $0.34. The company got European approval to acquire Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion and Motorola also unveiled a slew of new products at the Las Vegas consumer electronics show.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.59.
AT&T (T), fifth in volume, rose $0.21.
Ford Motor Co (F) an $0.11 gain there.
And then the Gap (GPS) up $1.37. Takeover speculation after the company reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives, although the company denied that report.
General Electric (GE) lost a penny. The company will acquire Vetco Gray. It's an oil field equipment company, price, $1.9 billion in cash.
Corning (GLW) was down $0.40. And Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) fell $0.39. Goldman Sachs downgraded Wal- Mart from "buy" to "neutral," did the same with Home Depot, whose stock fell $0.30 a share.
IBM (IBM) up $1.48, leading that tech rally. UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its price target from $100 to $118 a share for big blue.
General Dynamics (GD) up $3.41. The Cowan and Company brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform."
Radioshack (RSH) did well, rising $1.95. The company sees fourth quarter earnings higher than a year ago and that's despite its estimate of a 7.8 percent drop in same store sales. Cost cutting is the reason.
Nautilus Group (NLS) up $1.82. The company is in a partnership with the National Academy of Sports Medicine to provide research and training support for fitness products.
Then we see Houston Exploration (THX) rising $2. Forest Oil will acquire the firm for about $51.50 a share, $26.25 of that will be cash and the rest Forest stock.
NCR Corp (NCR) up $1.39. The company will separate into two publicly traded companies through a 100 percent spin off its Teradata data warehousing business, positive reaction.
And then Herbalife Ltd (HLF), which tumbled $9.56 Friday on the company's lower sales forecast for this year, today got a "buy" recommendation from the Wentbush Morgan brokerage and the stock rebounded a bit.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ up $0.42. JPMorgan boosted first quarter earnings estimates for Apple by a penny to $0.82 a share.
Google (GOOG) down $3.61.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.86.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.29 rise.
Cisco Systems (CSCO), fifth in volume, was up $0.16.
Intel (INTC) a $0.09 drop. EBay (EBAY) fell $1.08. Piper Jaffray brokerage said that eBay's going to have a weak fourth quarter and it repeated an "under perform" rating.
Yahoo! (YHOO) up $0.18.
Sandisk (SNDK) gained $1.
Applied Materials (AMAT) edged up $0.22.
United Surgical Partners Intl (USPI) up $3.19. It'll be acquired by UNCN Acquisition Corp. for just over $31 a share in cash.
And Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) tumbling $2.58 or 30 percent. That's on a disappointing result from its ragweed allergy treatment.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
