Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, March 02, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The bears were in command from the outset on Wall Street today, as the Dow dipped 52 points and the NASDAQ lost 14 points early on following declines in most foreign markets overnight. A good gain in AIG stock helped the Dow trim its loss to just four points by mid-day when the NASDAQ was off six points. But a weak dollar against the yen and heavy pre-weekend selling sent stocks sharply lower this afternoon as all the major averages plummeted again. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 120.24 points at 12,114.10. This week it fell in four of the five sessions for a net loss of 533.38, that's points not dollars. The NASDAQ lost 36.21 ending at 2368 even today. It also dropped in four of this week's five days for an overall loss of 147.10 points. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell exactly 16 points, closing at 1387.17 today. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 13/32 to par and 31/32, putting the yield at 4.50 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue trading 24.1 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving down $0.13.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.25 loss.
Domtar (DTC), the Canadian paper company, up a nickel. The story here, the company is merging with a unit of Weyerhauser, so this is a last day of trading for the old Domtar stock.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.98.
Sprint Nextel (S) managed to gain a penny, fifth in big board volume.
Advanced Micro (AMD) down $0.61.
Citigroup (C) $1.11 loss.
And then the star of the Dow today, American Intl Group (AIG) rising $2.13, traded as high as $70.04. Fourth quarter earnings out at $1.31, way up from $0.17 last year and the company says it's going to buy back up to $5 billion of its own stock this year. Bank of America repeated a "buy" on the stock and named it its top pick of the insurance industry, replacing Met Life.
Ford Motor Co (F) an $0.18 loss.
EMC Corp (EMC), tenth in volume, was down $0.28.
Unitedhealth Group (UNH) rose $1.44, although the company requested a two week extension for filing form 10K, but it said once the filings are completed, it will resume its stock buyback program.
Avnet (AVT) down $2.54. It's planning a $250 million senior note offering.
And then Fluor Corp (FLR) up $0.06. Big fourth quarter earnings though, $0.90, up from $0.74 a year ago. Revenues were up 8 percent in the period.
Texas Industries (TXI) down $2.25. BB&T Capital brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold."
Then a big gainer,Bristol West Holdings (BRW), this is an auto insurer. It was up $5.87 on news that a unit of Zurich financial will acquire it for $22.50 a share in cash.
Furniture Brands (FBN) gained $1.96. Sun Capital acquired a 5 percent stake in that company.
And Pall Corp (PLL) up $1.86. Second quarter earnings, $0.43, $0.10 above the Street estimate, well above $0.28 last year and revenues shot up 72 percent.
Kohl's (KSS), the department store chain, up $3.73. Fourth quarter earnings $1.48, well above last year's $1.08, $0.05 above the Street estimate. The Jefferies brokerage repeated a "buy."
And Dean Foods (DF) was down, up $1.64. The company plans a special one-time cash dividend of $15 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Google (GOOG) down $9.55. The company says it's still under SEC scrutiny regarding its income taxes.
Apple Computer (AAPL) or just Apple now, $1.65 loss.
Intel (INTC) down $0.37.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.33 drop.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.55.
Dell (DELL) up $0.17 despite yesterday's disappointing earnings.
Amgen (AMGN) a nickel gainer.
And then Research in Motion (RIMM) up $4, down $4.94.
Qualcomm (QCOM) off $0.62.
Sandisk (SNDK) it was $0.83 and tenth in volume.
Palm (PALM) rose $1.81, nice percent move. That's takeover speculation there and suitors named have been Nokia and Motorola so far.
And Dendrite Intl (DRTE) up $2.74. This company is being acquired by a French software firm for a price of $16 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
