Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, January 29, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: After moving lower for the last two sessions, stocks opened higher with the help of some bargain buying and a decline in oil prices. The Dow rose 38 points at the outset of trading and the NASDAQ gained three points. Then over $7 billion worth of merger activity helped to lift the Dow to a 55-point gain and the NASDAQ up 16 points by around 1:00 p.m. But the market then turned mixed on caution ahead of the Fed meetings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up just 3.76 at 12,490.78. NASDAQ Composite rose 5.60 ending at 2441.09. Standard & Poor's 500 down 1.56 at 1420.62. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 5/32 to 97 29/32, putting the yield at 4.90 percent.
Big board volume leader on 15.7 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving up $0.12.
And then we see Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) up $1.22. It traded as high as $28.26 on that merger news you just heard about. Sanofi stock incidentally was down $0.77 at $44.57.
Ford Motor Co (F) in there with a nickel loss.
Followed by Motorola (MOT) which dropped $0.07.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.23 loss, was fifth in volume.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.58. Friday, the "Financial Times" of London reported that the bank has held merger talks with Countrywide Financial. Countrywide was up $1.171 Friday and gained another $1.38 today.
AT&T (T) an $0.11 gainer.
EMC Corp (EMC) up $0.22.
Texas Instruments (TXN) fell $0.04.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) another semiconductor firm, down $0.27.
Bowater, Inc (BOW), the big paper company, up $5.29. It's going to merge with Abitibi. It's an all-stock deal and after the merger, then Bowater shareholders will hold 52 percent of the new company, Abbot TD shareholders, 48 percent and the new company will be named logically enough Abbott TD Bowater. Abbott TD stock was up $0.69 at $3.33 a share today.
First Republic Bank (FRC) look at that gain, 40, up $15.33. Merrill Lynch is going to acquire this company for cash and stock worth $55 a share. It'll be half stock and half cash.
Par Pharmaceutical (PRX) up $2.77. The company received final FDA approval to market its generic version of Wyeth's hypertension drug called Inderal.
Then Tesoro Corp (TSO) up $4.73, big fourth quarter earnings, $2.28, up from $0.97 a year ago, $0.37 better than the Street estimated. Also the company is buying certain assets of Shell Oil in California, including a refinery and 250 service stations out there.
Ampco-Pittsburgh (AP), the steel company, off $1.88. Company had a fourth quarter loss of $0.22 a share, versus $0.84 in earnings a year ago.
USG Corp (USG) down $2.90. Fourth quarter earnings of $1.11 versus a loss of nearly $31 a share last year, but that was due to a one-time huge asbestos claim. The company is however bracing for a rough 2007 because of the housing slump.
Jacobs Engineering Group (JEC) up $2.01 on news the company has approved a two for one stock split.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, up $0.56.
Followed by Google (GOOG) down $3.37.
Intel (INTC) $0.36 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.07 drop.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) lost $0.14. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Amgen (AMGN) fell $1.53.
EBay (EBAY) moving up $0.35.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.73.
Qualcomm (QCOM) lost $0.36.
Nvidia (NVDA), tenth in dollar volume, off $1.29.
Then we see Altiris (ATRS), look at that move, up $5.41. Symantec Corp will acquire this software firm for $33 a share in cash.
Then Molecular Devices (MDCC) up $11.19. MDS Incorporated going to acquire this firm for $35.50.
And then over on the American exchange, Amcon Distributing Co (DT) up $11.12. It's a wholesale distributor of consumer goods and first quarter earnings of $1.49, versus a loss of $2.39 last year. Sales up over 5 1/2 percent.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
