Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, March 29, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street snapped back early today from yesterday's sharp sell off, bolstered by an upward revision in fourth quarter gross domestic production and a surprise drop in jobless benefit claims which eased concerns about a slowing economy. After an hour of trading, the Dow was up 66 points. NASDAQ rose 10. That surge in oil undermined stocks badly as both the Dow and the NASDAQ indices posted 20 point mid-afternoon losses, but some late bargain hunting lifted the market back up to a positive close. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a gain of 48.39, putting it at 12,348.75. The NASDAQ Composite was up .78 at 2417.88. Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 5.30 at 1422.53. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 4/32 to 99 28/32, putting the yield at 4.64 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue, trading 18 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.03. The only news I saw is the company is going to close a factory in Limington (ph), England because it's no longer a competitive producer.
General Electric (GE) second in volume, showed no change.
Halliburton Co (HAL) moving up $0.73.
Motorola (MOT) $0.02 drop.
United Health Group (UNH) fell $1.94. UBS financial downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" because of the company's diminished potential to outperform its stock group (ph) according to the brokerage.
Then we see Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.23.
Followed by Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) $0.02 drop.
Advanced Micro (AMD) fell $0.30.
CVS Caremark (CVS) up $0.21.
And EMC Corp (EMC) $0.17 gain, tenth in big board volume.
There we see the star of the day, Lone Star Technologies (LSS) up $17.66. The steel tubing maker is going to be acquired by U.S. Steel for $67.50 a share in cash and big steel says it expects that acquisition to be accretive to earnings this year and big steel stock was up $3.61. Incidentally, our regular street critique guest, Hilary Kramer, recommended buying Lone Star back in early October when it was in the mid-40s. That was a good call indeed.
BCE Inc (BCE), this is the owner of Bell Canada and according to some newspapers, it may be the target of a takeover by a private equity group led by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts. BCE says no ongoing such discussions are occurring, nor does it have any such plans for discussions.
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) up $1.14. JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "overweight" noting that the company's acquisition of Phelps Dodge will add to 2007 earnings.
AG Edwards (AGE), the national investment house, up $1.93. Fourth quarter earnings $1.44, way up from $0.99 last year, $0.38 above the Street estimate.
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) up $0.94. It almost doubled its second quarter earnings to $0.60 from $0.35 a year ago. Revenues up 12 percent.
Major casualty, KMG America (KMA) tumbling $3.80. AM Best is cutting the company's rating from "stable" to "negative."
And then the watch maker, Movado Group (MOV) off $5.84, really getting clocked today. Fourth quarter earnings adjusted basis, $0.42, up from $0.38, a nickel above the Street estimate and the company boosting its quarterly dividend by 33 percent to $0.08 a share. But the company sees fiscal 2008 earnings at $1.72 and that's $0.02 below the Wall Street estimate.
Then Carmax (KMX) off $2.36. Fourth quarter earnings a bit higher, $0.19 versus $0.17 a year ago, but $0.02 below the Street estimate, the stock down.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, $0.51 gain on NASDAQ.
Google (GOOG) down $0.96.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.27 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.23 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) was up $0.11.
Then we see Amgen (AMGN) gaining $0.11 as well.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.06.
$0.25 drop in Qualcomm (QCOM).
Sandisk (SNDK) off $0.88.
Tenth in volume Oracle (ORCL) lost a penny a share.
UTI Worldwide (UTIW) was up or I should say down $5.96. The logistics firm had higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.24, versus $0.10 a year ago, but $0.02 below the Street estimate and Bear Stearns brokerage made some critical comments over the company's cost structure.
Targeted Genetics (TGEN) had a good day, up $1.70, a 66 percent rise, a real turnaround. Fourth quarter earnings of $0.08 versus a loss of $0.41 a share a year ago.
And Insituform Technology (INSU) tumbling $5.90. The pipe technology and tunneling company issued an earnings warning.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
