Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, March 01, 2007
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: That opening 200 point plunge in the Dow was due to mostly to another steep overnight sell-off in the Chinese markets, followed by renewed selling in Europe. Wall Street recovered nicely however, as today's data reassured investors the economy was slowing but still healthy. Just before noon, the Dow was off only 14 points, NASDAQ down seven. Stocks had a very choppy afternoon, helped by some bargain buying, but hurt by fears the correction isn't over yet. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 34.29 at 12,234.34. The NASDAQ Composite was down 11.94 at 2404.21. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 3.65 ending at 1403.17. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 6/32 to par and 18/32, putting the yield at 4.55 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 27.5 million shares, Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.08. As did General Electric (GE). Then Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.15. As you heard, February sales down 13.5 percent. Motorola (MOT) moved up $0.31. Certain entities of Carl Icahn, that's the billionaire investor, he - well, they filed to buy up to $1.5 million in Motorola stock, but no more than 25 percent. That would be the maximum. Sprint Nextel (S) $0.67 gain, fifth in volume. Then Citigroup (C) $0.68 rise there.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.69. Health Management (HMA) of $0.09. That stock is being dropped from the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and it'll go into the Standard & Poor's madcap 400.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.21 loss.
Bank of America (BAC), tenth in volume, fell $0.49.
Nortel Networks (NT) losing $0.55. The company will delay filing of its 2006 annual report and it also needs to restate results from 2004, 2005 and the first nine months of 2006.
Big percentage gain, Sun Times Media (SVN), owner of the Chicago Sun- Times, up $1.42 on a favorable tax ruling from a foreign tax authority said the company, didn't identify the country, but since the firm has been in negotiations over tax liabilities regarding the sale of some of its newspapers in Canada, we assume the tax authorities there made that positive ruling for the company.
Valhi (VHI) up $9.01. The company declared a special dividend of .48 shares of Titanium Metals for each share of Valhi owned. Today, that's a value of $16.24 for each share of Valhi owned.
Goodyear Tire (GT) up $1.53. The company is freezing its pension plan for salaried workers and cutting other costs. Deutsche Bank Securities upgraded its price target from $27 to $38 a share, nice move there.
Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB) up $2.31. Its fourth quarter earnings were bigger than - their loss I should say, bigger than last year, minus $0.45 versus minus $0.11, but the company says its business is stabilizing and today, Standard & Poor's upgraded it from "sell" to "buy."
Martha Stewart (MSO) $0.42 gain. Morgan Stanley upgraded it from "under weight" to "equal weight."
And Constellation Brands (STZ) lost $3.40. The company sees 2008 earnings at $1.21 to $1.31, well below the Street estimate of $1.83.
Laboratory Corp of America (LH) losing $9.58. The company sees 2007 earnings hurt by $0.04 to $0.12 a share after Aetna canceled its contract with the company. That'll be coming up on July 1st, the cancellation.
NCI Building (NCS) dropping $6.13. First quarter earnings lower, $0.49 versus $0.62 and it sees a flat second quarter, but it will buy back up to a million of its own shares.
Input/Output (IO) down $1.03. The (INAUDIBLE) equipment maker, fourth quarter earnings lower, $0.15 versus $0.17 a year ago.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $2.45. Lehman Brothers upgraded it from "equal weight" to "over weight" on valuation.
Google (GOOG) down $1.22. Amgen (AMGN) off $2.56 on concern about the safety of its anemia drug, but the company says it's safe if used as directed.
Microsoft (MSFT) an $0.08 loss.
$0.27 drop in Intel (INTC). That was fifth in dollar volume.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.09 loss.
Research in Motion (RIMM) moved up $0.30.
CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) up a penny. It went into the Standard & Poor's 500 Index today.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.34 gain there. And Oracle is buying Hyperion Solutions (HYSL) in a cash tender offer priced at $52. Hyperion certainly showed a reaction with that gain of $8.73.
And finally Ciena (CIEN) down $3.19. Turnaround first quarter earnings of $0.12 versus a loss of $0.08 last year, but the company says its second quarter will be $0.23 to $0.26 at the low end of Street estimates, also said profit margins will be a bit low.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
