Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, January 18, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: An opening rally attempt by Wall Street's blue chips was undermined by that inflation news, which dashed hopes for lower interest rates. Negative sentiment gained ground on word of an unexpected surge in new housing starts and another drop in weekly jobless claims. Ninety minutes into trading the Dow was off 11 points but the tech-laden NASDAQ was off 25 points. The sharp sell off in tech stocks was a drag on the blue chips this afternoon, but tumbling oil prices prevented steep losses there. So the Dow Industrial Average closed off only 9.22 at 12,567.93. But the NASDAQ lost a hefty 36.21 ending at 2443.21. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 4 1/4 points to 1426.37. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 9/32 to 99 1/32, putting the yield at 4.75 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on nearly 25 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) moving up $0.14.
Followed by Motorola (MOT) with a $0.24 gain. Motorola due to report quarterly results tomorrow.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.02. Reportedly, the company plans to acquire most of Abbott Laboratories diagnostic business for about $8 billion and after the market closed, GE did confirm that.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.28 gain.
Sprint Nextel (S) moved up $0.21, fifth in big board volume.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.15 gain there.
But ExxonMobil (XOM) down a half dollar on the sharp drop in oil.
EMC Corp (EMC) $0.29 loss there.
AT&T (T) up $0.53.
Texas Instruments (TXN) in a very weak semiconductor group, down $0.81, tenth in volume.
Abbott Labs (ABT) moved up $1.24. Positive reaction that it's going to sell most of its diagnostic business to GE for some $8 billion.
And then Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL) gaining $1.98. The company received tentative approval from the FDA for its generic version of Roche's Kitril (ph) nausea treatment.
Then SLM Corp (SLM), used to be called Sallie Mae, up - down $2.53. Fourth quarter earnings just a touch higher than last year, $0.74 versus $0.73, but that was a penny below the Street estimate and the Friedman Billings brokerage downgraded it to just a "market perform" rating.
Merrill Lynch (MER) down $1.41 despite a lot of good news today. Fourth quarter earnings jumped 68 percent over last year to $2.41 versus $1.41 and that was $0.49 above the Street consensus. Merrill's also boosting its quarterly dividend 40 percent from $0.25 to $0.35 a share.
Oxford Industries (OXM) up $2.50. The Suntrust Robinson Humphrey brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
And then Harley-Davidson (HOG) down $1.89 despite higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.97 versus $0.84 last year and a penny above the Street estimate.
Jones Apparel Group (JNY) did well, up $1.23. There's speculation the company may be planning to break up.
CACI International (CAI) down $7.88. The company cut its second quarter and 2007 earnings outlook on slower demand for its services from the Department of Defense.
And then another IT company, SRA International (SRX) down $2.17. It was downgraded by JPMorgan from "over weight" to "neutral."
PPG Industries (PPG) losing $1.82 and despite fourth quarter earnings higher, $0.94 versus $0.68 last year, but that was $0.08 below the Street estimate.
JCPenney (JCP) however, hitting a 52-week high with that gain of $3.97. JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight" on the strong earnings outlook for JCPenney.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, down $5.88 on the company's rather guarded outlook as stated yesterday.
Google (GOOG) in the weak high tech sector down $9.45.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.53 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.39 drop there.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down a dime. That was fifth in volume.
Research in Motion (RIMM) losing over $6.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.40 drop.
Applied Materials (AMAT) off $1.15. That's down on Lam Research's profit warning. That whole semiconductor sector was weak on that.
And Lam Research (LRCX) itself down nearly $8.
Nvidia (NVDA) yet another sweet (ph) semiconductor, down $2.86 a share.
But look at this gainer, Hoku Scientific (HOKU). Hoku means star in Hawaiian I'm told and it was the star of the day with that gain, 122 1/2 percent on news the company received a seven-year, $370 million contract to supply Sanyo Electric with poly silicone. What a move.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
