Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 12, 2007
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JEFF YASTINE: Stocks managed to spurt higher in spite of the worries over the sub-prime mortgage market. Sideways trading dominated the morning but with little selling pressure evident, the bias was to the upside. The Dow had a 20-point lead by midday. Oil prices, down by another dollar, to below $59 a barrel, gave the bulls more room to run in the afternoon with the NASDAQ up 15 and the Dow up 70 until selling in the final hour trimmed the closing gains. So the Dow closing up 42.3 at 12,318.62 and the NASDAQ gaining to 14.74 points to 2402.29 and the S&P 500 climbing 3 3/4 points to 1406.6 and the sub-prime woes giving a slight boost to bonds. The benchmark 10-year note rising 8/32 to 100 17/32 and the yield at 4.56 percent.
Dollar General (DG) gaining more than $4 on the $22 a share buyout offer to be taken private by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. That's nearly a two-year high for Dollar General by the way.
And that news had investors seeing dollar signs for a couple other discount retailers. Family Dollar (FDO) gaining $1.75.
And Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR) up what else, $1.
And then we have CVS Corp (CVS) falling $0.62. Shareholders of their acquisition target, Caremark Rx are meeting Friday to decide whether to accept CVS' offer or not. Express Scripts said their offer made last week was their best and final buyout price.
Then there's Caremark Rx (CMX) which ended off $1.20. In a statement late Friday, Caremark's board said they remain committed to a merger with CVS and said the deal with Express Scripts, the other rival, would not be possible because of antitrust concerns.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropping $0.11. The auto maker selling its British Aston Martin unit to a group led by the auto racing magnate David Richards.
And then General Electric (GE) gaining $0.12.
AT&T (T) rising $0.65. Published reports Friday said AT&T was reconsidering its alliance with Yahoo!, but AT&T's COO called the deal a great partnership and Yahoo!s Terry Semel making similar noises.
Motorola (MOT) gaining $0.07.
Pfizer (PFE) slipping $0.03.
ExxonMobil (XOM) dropping a quarter.
Altria Group (MO) off $0.20.
And then Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) falling $0.35. Federal prosecutors in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco issuing subpoenas seeking information on the sales and marketing of Risperdal, Topamax and Naturcor, all of which J&J makes. The company's cooperating with the investigation.
Countrywide Financial (CFC) falling nearly $1. It warned that turmoil in the sub-prime market will hurt upcoming results and if the cred - rather the lender stopped writing sub-prime loans, an analyst at Credit Suisse said that could whack up to $0.60 a share out of Countrywide's profits. It's the fourth largest writer of sub-prime loans.
Then on to DR Horton (DHI) which also got a lack (ph) from the fallout in the sub-prime market today.
And some others in that same sector, Beazer Homes (BZH), Centex (CTX), Pulte Homes (PHM), Lennar (LEN) all down at least 20 percent from their December highs and all down for today.
Sierra Health Services (SIE) surging over $5. United Health says it wants to buy the company for $2.6 billion. That offer is mostly in cash, $43.50 a share.
And then on to Santa Fe Energy (SFF) sliding over $5. The oil trust may have been over paid on royalty payments by its parent, Devon Energy.
Now onto the NASDAQ where Apple (AAPL) jumped nearly $2.
Amgen (AMGN) dropping $0.18. New FDA warning labels for Amgen's anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen could mean less use and fewer sales.
Google (GOOG) climbing $1.79.
Intel (INTC) up $0.38.
And there's Yahoo! (YHOO) gaining $0.87 on renewed thoughts that it will still have that deal with AT&T.
Microsoft (MSFT) gaining $0.15.
Express Scripts (ESRX) climbing $3.50. Investors perhaps relieved that it won't go through with its efforts to buy Caremark.
And then Research in Motion (RIMM) advancing more than $2.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) gaining a fraction.
Qualcomm (QCOM) losing a fraction.
And finally, Cimatron Ltd (CIMT) advanced $1.64. Investors applauding the turnaround of the company, which makes software for the tool making and manufacturing industries. Cimatron posting a net income of $0.07 a share for the quarter compared to a net loss of $0.22 in the year ago period. By the way, its China subsidiary grew revenues by 80 percent.
Then finally Tom Online (TOMO) surging more than $3. This is a Chinese Internet portal and it's being bought out and taken private by its parent company, Tom Group Ltd based in Hong Kong and the buyout values Tom Online for about $15.50 a share in cash.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
