Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, March 16, 2007
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JEFF YASTINE: Today's session marked a quiet end to a tumultuous week. The Dow fell about 60 points in the first half of the day in reaction to that CPI report and traders closing out their books as this week of options and futures expiration drew to an end. Oil prices fell $0.44 to $57.11 a barrel, but that did little to spur enthusiasm for stocks. So the Dow finished off 49.25 points lower at 12,110.41 and for the week, the index fell in two out of five sessions for a loss of 165.91 points or 1.4 percent. The NASDAQ fell just over 6 points to close at 2372.66 and like the Dow, the index rose twice and excuse me, fell twice and rose three times for a loss of 14.89. And the S&P 500 falling over 5 points to 1386.95. In the bond market, the 10-year note falling 1/32 to 100 19/32 and lifting the yield to 4.55 percent.
ExxonMobil (XOM) topping our list down maybe $0.03 and off 2 percent on the week. Oil prices pulling back to their lowest prices since late January. Pfizer (PFE) holding steady.
General Electric (GE) dropping $0.16.
Time Warner (TWX) up just a fraction. UBS thinks the media giant may spin off a 10 percent stake in its AOL unit.
CVS Corp. (CVS) down $0.40. It's a done deal. Caremark shareholders approving CVS $27 billion buyout. The companies say forging this kind of cross-sector alliance will dramatically change the pharmacy industry and save hundreds of millions of dollars.
Citigroup (C) dropped $0.60.
AT&T (T) picking up a fraction.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) losing $0.67.
EMC Corp (EMC) gaining $0.06.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) up $0.21. The computer maker's board approving another $8 billion stock buyback. It's half way through an earlier $6 billion buyback campaign.
Wells Fargo (WFC) off $0.15. The company agreeing to sell its Instant Cash services unit to First Data Corp for undisclosed terms. Instant Cash processes debit and ATM transactions for about 500,000 banks and credit unions in 20 states.
OMI Corp (OMM) hitting an all-time high, $26.26. The oil transport firm hiring Perella (ph) Wineberg (ph) Partners as it considers a sale of the business. Investors liking that news.
AnnTaylor Stores (ANN) rising nearly $3. The women's apparel retailer with stronger than expected quarterly profits, a $300 million stock buyback plan. Also AnnTaylor's loss stores had a turnaround in the latest quarter.
Manitowoc Co (MTW) surging over $4. Investors hoisting the stock after the crane maker boosted its first quarter and full year earnings guidance. Standard & Poor's repeating a "buy."
Imperial Tobacco (ITY) up over $5 on speculation that the UK-based company may be approached by Altria about a merger of some kind after Altria finishes its spin off of Kraft.
Pre-paid Legal (PPD) falling nearly $6, the stock reacting to a downgrade from Matrix Investment Research and also disappointment that the legal service provider cannot explain the stock's strength before today at least. It had been up about 30 percent just since the start of the month.
Now onto the NASDAQ where we have Google (GOOG) off more than $5. Some technology commentators worried about the legal headaches that might come with its purchase of youtube last year and especially after Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against the company this month for people posting unauthorized Viacom clips on the website.
Apple (AAPL) gaining a fraction.
Microsoft (MSFT) up a nickel.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.18.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.02.
Intel (INTC) then eking out a small gain, a penny.
Amgen (AMGN) losing $0.71.
Starbucks (SBUX) up nearly $1.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off about a half dollar.
Yahoo! (YHOO) losing $0.18.
Here's an IPO FCStone Group (FCSX) soaring $7 and change, a commodity services and risk management company.
Then we have Trimeris (TRMS) losing nearly $3. The co-founder, CEO and CFO all announcing their departure today.
Then finally Adams Respiratory (ARXT) tumbling $9.50 or 25 percent. Their chronic bronchitis drug failed in mid-stage trials.
And those are our stocks in the news tonight.
