Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, April 26, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The major stock indices on Wall Street opened with just single-digit losses after yesterday's huge, record-setting rally. Emboldened by that resilience and better-than-expected results from Aetna, ExxonMobil and 3M, buyers boosted the Dow to a 31-point gain at 11:00 a.m., with the NASDAQ Composite up six points. The market turned choppy for the rest of the day, losing some upward momentum but not enough to keep the blue chips from setting another record high. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 15.61 at a record 13,105.50. The NASDAQ Composite up 6.57 at 2554.46. But the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1.17, ending at 1494.25. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 10/32 to 99 13/32, putting the yield up to 4.70 percent.
The most active big board issue on 25.2 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.32 gain. As you heard, it posted a smaller than expected loss. General Electric (GE) moved up $0.43.
And there you see Pfizer (PFE) up $0.40 in that $1 billion drug development pact with Bristol Myers.
LSI Corp (LSI) down $0.98. That's a big percentage there. Webbush (ph) Morgan brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" and cut its price target from $12 down to $8, citing some problems with the merger with Aguirre Corporation.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.17.
Then ExxonMobil (XOM) moving up $0.63. Exxon's first quarter earnings came in at $1.62, well above last year's $137, $0.09 better than the Street was expecting.
Motorola (MOT) dropped a penny.
Micron Tech (MU) up $0.20.
AT&T (T) an $0.18 loss.
Halliburton Co (HAL) was a $0.09 gainer. First quarter earnings out today, $0.52, up from $0.42 a year ago. That was just in line with Wall Street estimates.
3M Co (MMM), a good gain of $3.48, helped the Dow a lot. First quarter earnings $1.85, way up from $1.17 and that does include the sale of the company's European drug business.
Then we see Aetna (AET), the big health insurer, up $2.22. First quarter earnings came in at $0.81, up from $0.68 a year ago, $0.04 above the Street consensus and the company gave an upbeat outlook.
Wendy's Intl (WEN), a big gain today of $5.31. The board has formed a committee of independent directors to explore strategic options including the possible sale of the company. Also today, Wendy's reported first quarter earnings of $0.15 a share. That was $0.02 better than the Street was looking for.
Harman Intl (HAR), the audio equipment manufacturer, up $19.94. Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Goldman Sachs made a $120 a share cash buyout bid, but interestingly, also gave Harmon shareholders an option to put 27 percent of their holdings in the new private company. We haven't seen that before that I know of.
Owens-Illinois (OI) up $4.20. The packaging products firm had big first quarter earnings of $0.30, well up from $0.12 a year ago.
Brush Engineered Materials (BW) plunging $10.79. First quarter earnings, excluding one-time items, $0.62, $0.08 below the Street estimate and the company sees second quarter earnings as low as $0.50 a share.
Another big percentage loser is Par Technology (PTC) off $1.51. The company had a first quarter loss of $0.09 versus earnings of $0.14 a year ago.
And the big specialty chemical company, Cabot Corp (CBT) down $3.52. After the close yesterday, second quarter earnings came in at $0.54, way up from $0.17 a year ago, but that was $0.10 below the Street estimate, hence the loss in the stock.
Apple (APPL) topped the active list, up $3.49 after those big earnings out yesterday.
Same story with Amazon.com (AMZN). It had great earnings out Tuesday after the close, up nearly $6.
Google (GOOG) up $3.19.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.11. You heard about the good earnings and the stock was about a little over $1 higher in after hours trading.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.23 drop there.
And then Intel (INTC) $0.17 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) dropped $0.04.
Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.43 gainer.
Comcast A (CMCSA) down nearly $1. First quarter earnings, $0.17 a share, in line. That did exclude certain one-time items.
Amgen (AMGN) $0.86 gain there.
Align Technology (ALGN) up $5.91. First quarter earnings of $0.10 versus a Wall Street estimate for a loss of a penny and the company boosted its 2007 guidance from $0.27 to as high as $0.55 in earnings per share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
