Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, April 18, 2007PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened lower, undermined by disappointing results from IBM and Yahoo! The Dow fell 20 points at the outset of trading. The NASDAQ lost 11 points. The blue chips turned higher on earnings-driven strength in JPMorgan Chase and Intel stocks. And as Boeing, Caterpillar and United Technologies joined the rally, the Dow easily surged above its previous record closing high to a new record at the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 30.80 at 12,803.84. The NASDAQ Composite lost 6.45 ending at 2,510.50. Standard & Poor's 500 index rose just over a point to close at 1,472.50. In the bond market, the 10- year note rose 8/32 to 99 24/32, putting the yield at 4.66 percent.
Big board volume leader on 19.7 million shares, Motorola (MOT) moving up $0.27. First quarter results out, a loss of $0.09 versus earnings a year ago but excluding one-time items, Motorola earned $0.02 a share, a penny above the Street estimate. The company sees same results for the second quarter.
General Electric (GE) was down $0.07.
Then came JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $1.89. As you heard, better than expected earnings for the first quarter. In addition, the company will buy back $10 billion of its own stock and it's going to boost its quarterly dividend by 12 percent to $0.38 a share.
Seagate Tech (STX) losing $0.85. After the close yesterday, third quarter earnings excluding items $0.47 a share, $0.04 below the Street estimate and a host of broker downgrades also hurt the stock today.
Advanced Micro (AMD) was up $0.44.
$0.12 drop in Pfizer (PFE).
Clear Channel (CCU) down $0.49, although Bain Capital and its investment group boosted its buyout bid for Clear Channel from $37.50 to $39 a share and the company has accepted it.
Citigroup (C) up $0.46.
Ford Motor (F) $0.03 drop.
CSX Corp (CSX) up $1.23. A London-based hedge fund called TCI plans to buy over $500 million in CSX stock. Incidentally, the company did report first quarter earnings, $0.52. That was down a penny from last year.
Boeing (BA) up at an all-time high with that gain of $3.43. Reportedly the company has received an order for 30 of its 787 Dreamliner jets from an unnamed buyer. Also the company is the only bidder for a $2.5 billion contract to build fighter jets for South Korea.
Caterpillar (CAT), another Dow stock, up $1.71. Wachovia traded it from "market perform" to "out perform" on the positive earnings outlook for the company.
IBM (IMB) down $2.32. After the close yesterday, first quarter earnings were reported to be up 8 percent, but today Goldman Sachs downgraded big blue from "buy" to "neutral" citing a slowdown in U.S. technology spending.
United Technologies (UTX) up $0.74. The company in with first quarter results, $0.82, up from $0.76 in earnings last year, a penny above the Street consensus. Revenues up a very reasonable 16 percent.
AMR (AMR), parent of American Airlines up $1.15. A turnaround, first quarter earnings of $0.30 versus a loss of $0.49 last year.
Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) down $2.59. Citigroup downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
And then Omi Corp (OMM) up $1.46. TK Shipping has boosted its buyout bid to $29.25 a share. TK was up $4 itself.
And Crown Holdings (CCK), the packaging company, down $1.28. First quarter operating earnings $0.10, up from $0.07 a year ago, but $0.06 below the Street estimate.
Yahoo! (YHOO) topped the active list, down $3.78. After the close yesterday, first quarter earnings came in 11 percent lower. S&P reported a "sell" today.
And Google (GOOG) up $3.21.
Intel (INTC) $0.37 gain.
Medimmune (MEDI) up on takeover speculation, $1.61 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) closed up $3.10, traded as low as $128.80 early today on that overnight system failure, but it's been restored apparently.
Apple (AAPL) a nickel gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.25.
Ebay (EBAY) $0.75 drop there. EBay after the close today, first quarter earnings excluding items, $0.34 higher, 34 percent higher than last year at $0.33 a share and the stock was up about $1 from here in after hours trading.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.03 gain.
And Linear Technology (LLTC) up nearly $4 on news of its huge $3 billion stock buy back plan.
