Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened narrowly higher and stayed that way throughout the morning. MGM Mirage shares led a rally in the gaming group after Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation said it wants to buy some of MGM's assets. At 2:00 p.m., the Dow was up 35 points and the NASDAQ posted a 10 point gain. That blue chip push into record high territory attracted profit-taking and stocks pulled back to close on a mixed note. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 2.93 at 13,539.95. The NASDAQ managed to gain 9.23 points, ending at 2,588.02. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell .98 to 1,524.12. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 10/32 to 97 13/32, lifting the yield to 4.83 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue on 13.9 million shares was General Electric (GE) moving up $0.24. Followed by Pfizer (PFE) with a nickel loss.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSN) up $0.15.
Time Warner (TWX) lost $0.15.
Dynegy (DYN) down $0.34 and very active after Chevron said it's selling its entire 96.9 million share holding of Dynegy in an underwritten public offering. Moving along on the active list, we see ExxonMobil (XOM) losing $0.82.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropped a dime a share.
Sprint Nextel (S) $0.06 gain.
And there the star of the day, the big winner so to speak, MGM Mirage (MGM) up $17.03 after trading as high as $82.25 today. Kirk Kerkorian and its Tracinda Corporation, which are MGM's controlling shareholders, want to buy MGM's Bellagio Hotel and Casino, as well as the $7 billion city center development which is now under construction. This interest in MGM's assets have many of the gaming stocks very strong today. Let's have a look at a sector, a few of them.
Boyd Gaming (BYD), Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) all doing well on the upside on that news.
Then Kraft Foods (KFT) down $0.15, tenth in big board volume.
Moving along we see Alcan Aluminum (AL), the $0.07 loser here but after the close, the company announced it rejected Alcoa's cash and stock takeover bid worth $74.57 a share as of today. In after hours trading, Alcan stock was around $83.25, moved up smartly. Alcoa gained $1.12 itself from its regular closing.
A big gainer today, Fremont General (FMT) up $2.89 on news it'll sell its commercial real estate lending business and outstanding loan portfolio to iStar Financial for $1.9 billion. IStar stock moved up $1.79. Also an investment company is going to take a minority stake in Fremont General.
Tsakos Energy Navigation (TNP), the Greek-based oil tanker company up $5.25. Higher earnings out today, first quarter, $2.28, up from $2.19 last year and revenues were up a very respectable 20 percent.
United Auto Group (UAG) gaining $1.46. Wachovia upgraded the stock from "market perform" to "out perform."
But Autozone (AZO) fell $1.88. Third quarter earnings were high, $2.17 and $0.02 above the Street estimate and well above $1.89 a year ago, but sales were up a lower than expected 4 percent.
Shaw Group (SGR) up $1.87. The engineering and construction firm got an upgrade from Merrill Lynch from "neutral" to a "buy" recommendation.
And then Lockheed Martin (LMT) down $4.57. Cowan Company brokerage downgraded it from "outperform" to "neutral."
Then we see American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) losing $1.27. First quarter earnings were a bit higher, $0.35 versus $0.28 but just in line and inventories were a bit high. The company sees second quarter earnings around $0.35 a share. That's $0.02 below the Street estimate.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $1.56.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gaining $7.06.
Google (GOOG) up $5.26, some nice moves there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.25 gain.
And then came Intel (INTC) with a $0.36 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT)
fell $0.36.
Amazon.com (AMZN) $0.58 rise.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) dropped $0.03.
Broadcom (BRCM) $0.07 gainer.
And then finally Sandisk (SNDK) down $0.73.
Monro Muffler and Brake (MNRO) made some noise on the Street today, up $3.23. It set a three for two stock split. It's boosting the quarterly dividend to $0.09. That's a 29 percent increase. It also reported higher fourth quarter earnings of $0.28, $0.02 above the Street estimate.
And finally, United Natural Foods (UNFI) fell $3.24 after reporting third quarter earnings of $0.32 per share versus $0.29 per share year ago, but that was $0.03 below analysts estimates.
