Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, February 12, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street spent the morning in a slow, downward spiral despite the decline in oil prices and a number of mergers and takeovers. At noon, the Dow was down 12 points, NASDAQ off 10. The market edged still lower this afternoon amid growing caution ahead of Fed chief Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress which begins Wednesday. So all the major averages ended in the red. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 28.28 at 12,552.55. The NASDAQ Composite fell 9.44 ending at 2450.38. Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 4.69 to 1433.37. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note slid 6/32 to 98 18/32, putting the yield at 4.81 percent. The most active big board issue trading 13 million shares was Motorola (MOT) down $0.43. Followed by Ford Motor Co (F) with an $0.08 loss.
Then came Novelis (NVL) with a big gain of $5.13. The aluminum producer is going to be acquired by an Indian firm called Hindalco Industries. The deal's worth $44.93 a share to Novelis shareholders.
Pfizer (PFE) lost $0.16.
And then ExxonMobil (XOM) on those lower oil prices, down $0.62, fifth in volume.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) was down $0.93. The London "Financial Times" reports the company and Sanofi have scuttled their merger talks. Sanofi stock moved up $0.51 incidentally.
EMC Corp (EMC) a $0.06.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down $0.21.
General Electric (GE) was an $0.11 gainer.
And then came Home Depot (HD), tenth in volume, up $0.44 after trading as high as $42.01 today. As you heard, it may sell its wholesale business to focus on retailing which is more profitable.
Boston Scientific (BSX) up $0.74. UBS financial upgraded it from "reduce" to "neutral."
Then came a huge gainer on the day and that's Brush Engineered Materials (BW), a metal products maker. Fourth quarter earnings excluding a one-time gain came in at $0.44 a share, $0.03 better than the Street was expecting and the company also gave an upbeat guidance for the future. That helped the stock as well.
Medifast (MED) up $1.55. The nutrition products marketer reported unaudited full year 2006 revenues of $73.5 million. That's up 83 percent over the previous year.
Lamson & Sessions (LMS), the thermoplastics firm has hired Perella Weinberg partners to explore strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company.
And WCI Communities (WCI) up $1.37. It hired Goldman Sachs to find ways to increase shareholder value.
Then we see the big loser of the day, Administaff (ASF) plunging $9.43, even though fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.47 versus $0.39 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street estimate. But the company cut its 2007 unit growth forecast from about 16 percent growth to as low as 10 percent, although the company does plan to increase its stock buyback program by a million shares.
Then came RH Donnelley (RHD) up $1.41 after JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Google (GOOG) down $3.60.
And then came Apple (AAPL) with a gain of $1.61. Citigroup upgraded Apple from "hold" to "buy" with a 12-month target of $105 a share in the belief that Apple would benefit from lower flash memory chip prices.
Microsoft (MSFT) dropped $0.04.
But Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) up $11.89. Late stage trials of the company's liver cancer treatment has prolonged the life of patients.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.17 drop. That was fifth in volume.
Intel (INTC) $0.23 loss.
Followed by Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.28.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) lost $0.84.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.26.
But then came Hydril (HYDL), an oil services company, up $12.20. Teneras (ph) SA will acquire this company for $97 a share in cash.
NASDAQ stock market (NDAQ) down $2.10, disappointment that the London Stock Exchange rejected its $5.3 billion buyout bid.
And Adeza Biomedical (ADZA) up $8.25. Cytyc Corp. will acquire this company for $24 a share in cash.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
