Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 23, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street headed lower this morning as oil and gold prices moved higher, suggesting investor concern about inflation. Microsoft shares fell as investors reacted to its big patent loss to Alcatel Lucent who told you about last night and that undermined the tech sector. Ninety minutes into trading, the Dow was down 52 points, the NASDAQ off 15.
Rising tensions in the Mideast, a lower dollar and pre-weekend caution kept stocks broadly lower throughout the close. The Dow Industrial Average dropped 38.54 points ending at 12,647.48. In this shortened trading week, the Dow rose only once, fell three times, had a net loss of 120.09 points. The NASDAQ Composite was down 9.84 today at 2515.10. It fell only once and rose three times this week, gaining 18.79 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 5.19 points ending at 1451.19 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 15/32 to 99 19/32, putting the yield at 4.68 percent. For the second day running, General Electric (GE) topped the active list today on 16.3 million shares, down $0.30.
Bearingpoint (BC), this is a management consulting firm, no specific news I saw, but three large blocks up to 5 and 6 million shares traded during the day.
Pfizer (PFE) was down $0.25.
Qwest Comm (Q) moved up $0.06.
Ford Motor Co (F) a nickel loss. That was fifth in volume.
Lowes Companies (LOW) there you see it, up $1.30. Those fourth quarter earnings of $0.40 were $0.03 better than the Street expected.
Time Warner (TWX) down a dime.
ExxonMobil (XOM) a $0.14 gain.
Texas Instruments (TXN) up $0.12.
And then Bank of America (BAC), tenth in volume, down $0.84.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) edged up $0.89. The oil and gas exploration company had fourth quarter earnings excluding items, $0.90 a share and that was $0.14 better than the Street consensus.
Then Semco Energy (SEN), a gas distribution company, up $1.79. Cap Rock Holdings will acquire this firm for $8.15 a share in cash.
Another gas distribution company, Nicor (GAS) up $0.59 today. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $1.29, down from $1.40 last year, but $0.31 above the Street consensus and the company gave an upbeat outlook on top of that.
Great American Financial Resources (GFR) up $3.38. American Financial Group makes a $23.50 per share unsolicited bid for all the 19 percent of the shares it doesn't already own. American Financial Group was down $0.07 on that news.
American Reprographics (ARP), this company is involved in document management. Fourth quarter earnings almost double $0.28 versus $0.19 last year on an 18 percent rise in revenues. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" recommendation.
Roper Industries (ROP) up $3.72. Fourth quarter earnings nicely higher at $0.62 versus $0.57 last year. Revenues up a respectable 18 percent.
And then Commscope (CTV) up $1.97. The company's involved in fiber optics and it had fourth quarter earnings of $0.40, up from $0.30 last year on a 14 percent rise in revenues. Those earnings of $0.40 were $0.04 above the Street estimate incidentally.
And then Viasys Healthcare (VAS) up $1.92. Fourth quarter earnings $0.49, up from $0.39 a year ago and a penny above the Street estimate. The company sees 2000 fiscal earnings, 2008 fiscal earnings rising by 20 to 25 percent.
On the downside, Chiquita Brands (CQS) slipped $1.77. Fourth quarter loss of $0.99. That's more than double last year's loss of $0.45 a share.
And also on the downside, L-3 Communications (LLL) got a downgrade from Bank of America from "buy" to "neutral." Bank America sees little upside in the stock. The stock did trade as low as $85.81 during the day.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down $5.23.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.49 loss.
Apple (AAPL) down $0.44.
Intel (INTC) fell $0.21.
And Amgen (AMGN) was off $0.51, fifth in volume.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) managed to gain $0.11.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) up $0.57.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.45 drop.
And Bea Systems (BEAS) losing $1.25. The business software company sees 2007 first quarter revenues below its previous estimate.
Research in Motion (RIMM), tenth in volume, was down $0.30.
Kla Tencor (KLAC) up $1.91. The company is going to buy back $750 million of its own stock in an accelerated program.
And then Verigy (VRGY) which is involved in semiconductor test systems, first quarter earnings excluding items, $0.28, $0.03 above the Wall Street consensus and predicting second quarter earnings will rise to $0.32 to $0.37, way above the $0.24 Wall Street estimate.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
