Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, April 13, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened mostly lower as investors showed caution because of that inflation news and the drop in consumer sentiment. After falling just single digits, though the major indices, boosted by a big gain in Merck, shifted into rally mode. At 1:00 pm, the Dow was up 35 points and NASDAQ down only two points. The market’s rebound impressed investors and encouraged more buying this afternoon which led to solid closing gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 59.17 at 12,612. 13. This week it fell once and rose four times for a net gain of 51.93 points. The NASDAQ rose 11.62 to 2491.94 today. It fell twice and rose three times this week, gaining 20.60 points overall. The S&P 500 Index Rose 5.05 points to 1452.85 today.
Indeed the most active big board issue was Merck, trading 23 point 7 million shares that gain of 3.85 accounted for 32 points of the Dow’s almost 60 point gain today. But Merck had a good impact also on a lot of the other major drug stocks after boosting its annual earnings forecast for the second time since January on strong product sales. Goldman Sachs and Lazar brokerages both upgraded Merck.
Let’s have a look at some of the other major drug stocks . Abbott Labs (ABT), Astra Zeneca (AZN), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Schering-Plough (SGP), all in the plus column.
And so was Pfizer (PFE) up in the plus column up $.21.
General Electric (GE) gaining $.20 on those earnings you just heard about.
SLM (SLM) the old Sally Mae Corp. up $6.01 the New York Times reports the company is in talks with private equity firms regarding its acquisition. Mentioned as a possible suitor Blackstone Group.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down $.09, that was fifth in volume.
EMC (EMC) $.39 gain.
Kraft Foods (KFT) moved up $.35
Exxon Mobile (XOM) a $.02 rise.
Time Warner (TWX) up $.21
Citigroup © was down a nickel. After the close Citigroup announced it is acquiring Old Lane Partners which is a hedge fund, no price disclosed.
McDonald’s (MCD) did well up $1.01. March world wide sales up 8.2%. U.S. sales up 6.2%. And the company sees first quarter earnings coming in at $.62 a share. That’s $.05 better than the Wall Street average estimate.
Cott Corporation (COT) up $3.16 The Wall Street Journal reports the company is talking to private equity firms about joining operations with Cadbury Schwepps another beverage company.
Lubrizol Corp. (LZ) up $3.71. The company sees first quarter earnings up $1.00 a share versus $.22 a share a year ago a real turnaround story.
Brush Engineered Material (BW) up $4.31. First Albany brokerage started covering this stock as a buy today.
Piper Jaffray Cos (PJC) the brokerage up $1.64 positive reaction for the company’s plan to acquire Fiduciary Asset Management for $66M cash.
Keithley Instruments (KEI) tumbling $2.53 a big percentage drop there. The company lowered its second quarter sales forecast from around $44M to $33M. And the Green Murray Brokerage lowered the stock from a buy to a sell.
Varian Medical Systems (VAR) losing $3.56. Second quarter revenue lower than expected due to a slow oncology system’s business at the company.
Perini Corp. (PCR) The construction firm down $1.94. Morgan Joseph brokerage downgraded it from buy to hold on a valuation basis. It had quite a spike up.
Apple (AAPL) topped the actives list down $1.95 After the close yesterday the company said as we reported, it’s going to delay the launch of its Leopard operating system by 4 months to focus on the introduction of the I-phone. Today UBS Financial cut 2007 earnings estimates from $3.26 down to $3.20.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $.71 gain.
Google (GOOG) you heard the news down $1.10
Amgen (AMGN) was up $1.39 getting a boost from Merck.
Medimmune (MEDI) $.56 gain there.
Dell (DELL) was up $.71.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $.07 gainer
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $1.36 Intel (INTC) $.04 loss
Applied Materials (AMAT) down $.27 a share.
Dyax (DYAX) up $1.97. Huge percentage move. The biotech company late stage trial to treat a genetic disease called Angio Edema is showing promise and the stock is doing the same.
Cutter & Buck (CBUK) the upscale sportswear company is going to be acquired for $14.38 a share in cash by New Wave Group.
Medis Technologies (MDTL) up $2.03. The company began shipping its 24 hour power pack to Microsoft today. And that is a look at stocks today.
