Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, January 22, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Sellers took command on Wall Street this morning, as last week's tech stock sell off continued, while a rise in oil prices was another negative. Brokerage downgrades on Boeing and Cisco stocks also brought the bears out. By noon, the Dow was down 105 points and the NASDAQ off 25. This afternoon, oil lost ground, which helped stocks trim their losses, but the market still ended broadly lower on balance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 88.37 at 12,477.16. The NASDAQ Composite fell 20.24 ending at 2431.07. Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 7.55 to 1422.95. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 5/32 to 98 30/32, putting the yield at 4.76 percent. Most active New York exchange issue today on 20.8 million shares, Motorola (MOT) down $0.55, still under pressure from concern about the company's profit margins.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) down $0.27, slightly negative reaction to the company's restructuring you just heard about.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.11.
General Electric (GE) a $0.20.
And Sprint Nextel (S) gained $0.07, fifth in volume.
Then we see ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.63 as oil prices faded toward the end of the day.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.12.
Citigroup (C) edged up $0.18. You just heard about the management change there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was up $0.90, but just as the market was closing, the company announced a dispute with software company Actuate (ph) which could disrupt many customers' access to their banking statement.
AT&T (T), tenth in volume, showed no change, although Merrill Lynch upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its 2007 earnings estimate by a nickel to $2.65 a share.
Boeing Co (BA) was down $3.03. That hurt the Dow by over 20 points. Wachovia Securities downgraded the jet maker from "out perform" to "market perform" in the belief the commercial aircraft order cycle has peaked out.
Then came American Express (AXP) with a loss of just $0.03, not much of a reaction. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.76, up from $0.60 last year. That was just in line with estimates.
Eaton (ETN) down $3.85 despite fourth quarter earnings rising to $1.59 from $1.38 last year. That's what the Street expected, but the company said 2007 revenue growth will be flat. That's what hurt the stock I believe. The company did boost its dividend quarterly by 10 percent however to $0.39 a share and it's going to buy back up to 10 million shares.
AO Smith (AOS), which makes electric motors and water heating equipment, had fourth quarter earnings up 18 percent to $0.61 versus $0.52 a year ago and sales up a very enviable 25 percent.
Cooper Cos (COO), which makes health care products, plans a $1 billion financing and analysts say that could cause some earnings dilution. The stock's down on that news.
Under Armour (UA) down $3.99. This week's "Barron's" financial notes that this hot apparel maker's stock may be in for a kind of a cool down, at least according to an analyst.
Johnson Controls (JCI) moved up $2.72. Bank America boosted its price target from $91 to $110 a share, a big boost.
And this is the national telephone company of Venezuela, Nacional Telefonos/venez (VNT). The Venezuelan President Chavez said yesterday that his government will not pay market price in its move to nationalize this company, not exactly a surprise apparently.
Apple (AAPL) down $1.71.
Then Google (GOOG) losing nearly $9.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) off $0.17. JMP Securities downgraded Cisco from "out perform" to "market perform."
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.39 loss.
Amgen (AMGN) moved up $1.60. There's optimism the company may win a patent dispute that it's having with Roche Holdings.
Intel (INTC) $0.03 loss there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $3.15.
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.27.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $0.36.
And Dell (DELL), tenth in volume, was down $0.53 after UBS cut fourth quarter earnings estimates from $0.30 down to $0.28 a share.
Swift Transportation (SWFT) did well, up $2.52. The founder, Jerry Moyes and its family members have sweetened their buyout bid from $29 to $31.55 a share. The company has accepted the bid.
Over on the American Exchange, look at that percent move, Analex (NLX), a British defense contractor by the name of Cineck (ph) with a strange spelling, is going to acquire it for $3.70 a share in cash.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
