Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened higher on carryover momentum from yesterday's big rally, along with solid earnings from Deere and Co. The gains widened in favorable reaction to Fed chief Bernanke's comments on economic growth. So by noon, the Dow was up 80 points and the NASDAQ higher by 28. The rally accelerated into the afternoon as oil prices fell and bonds rose, helping the major stock indices post solid closing gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 87.01 points at 12,741.86, a new cord high. The NASDAQ Composite was up exactly 28.50 points, ending at 2,488.38, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11.04 to 1,455.30. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 18/32 to 99 3/32, putting the yield at 4.74 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on just over 16 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving up $0.60.
Followed by Ford Motor Co (F) edging up $0.06. Yesterday, Merrill Lynch issued a "sell" on Ford.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.19 gain there.
Motorola (MOT) lost $0.13.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) a $0.35 gain, fifth in volume.
Micron Tech (MU) gained $0.35.
AT&T (T) held steady.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $0.15 despite the drop in oil.
Nokia (NOK) $0.72 gain.
Tenth in volume, EMC Corp (EMC) moving up $0.21 a share.
Deere & Co (DE) up $9.24. First quarter earnings out this morning, $1.04 a share. The Street estimate was only $0.79 and the company on top of that is upbeat on 2007 overall.
CSX Corp (CSX) the big rail, up $2.73. It was up $1.43 yesterday when Bear Stearns made positive comments on the rail sector and today, CSX says it's going to buy back up to $2 billion of its own stock and it'll boost the quarterly dividend from $0.10 to $0.12 a share.
DaimlercChrysler AG (DCX) up $5.33. For the full year, the company did have earnings for 2006, $4.17 versus $3.70, but the company made no bones about being interested in divesting its money-losing Chrysler division as you heard earlier.
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG) a $5.22 gain there. The "New York Times" reported it's in merger talks with the privately held Vanguard car rental, which owns National and Alamo.
Then we see Carter's (CRI) an apparel company, down $4.22. Fourth quarter earnings $0.45, a penny below the Street. The company gave a rather negative sales outlook.
Watts Water Technologies (WTS) losing $4.94. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.51, up from last year's $0.45, but the Street was looking not for $0.51, but $0.61 a share. Down went the stock.
Choice Hotels International (CHH) down $3.49. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings, $0.36, a penny above the Street estimate, but the company sees first quarter earnings falling to only $0.23 a share and that is $0.05 below the Street estimate. Bear Stearns downgraded it from "peer perform" to "under perform" and speaking of Bear Stearns, that stock up $5.71. Credit Suisse upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform" and boosted its price target for the stock from $172 to $190 a share.
Google (GOOG) topped the NASDAQ's active with a gain of $6.83.
Then Microsoft (MSFT) $0.37 rise.
Apple (AAPL) up $0.67.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.27.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.59. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Intel (INTC) gained $0.24.
Garmin Ltd (GRMN), the maker of navigation products, up $4.29. Fourth quarter earnings excluding items, $0.87, $0.29 above the Street consensus. Revenue soared 90 percent over last year.
Applied Materials (AMAT) a $0.70 gain there. First quarter earnings out, $0.29 versus only $0.09 last year. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy."
Yahoo! (YHOO) was up $1.10.
And then Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) down or I should say up $0.21.
And finally, shares in Corillian (CQRI) surged $1.55 or 45 percent on news the company will be acquired by Checkfree Corp for $5.15 per share in cash.
