Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: That drop in housing starts and lower earnings from Best Buy sent stocks on Wall Street to a lower opening. The Dow fell 31 points at the outset and the NASDAQ lost 10 points. Analyst upgrades on stocks like Textron and Cigna helped the market rebound into the mid-session hours with the Dow posting a 27-point gain at 1:00 p.m. and the NASDAQ was up 2 points then. After another dip, stocks rallied on higher bond prices, so the market ended with a slightly positive bias. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 22.44 points at 13,635.42. The NASDAQ Composite edged up .16 to 2,626.76. Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.65 points ending at 1,533.70. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 12/32 to 95 15/32, lowering the yield to 5.09 percent.
Very active volume leader on 33 million shares, General Electric (GE) up $1.22, big move. It was an upside breakout in the stock to a five-year high.
Then came a new issue, Sterlite Industries (SLT), this is an Indian copper producer, 130 million American Depository shares offered at $13.44, opened at $14.10, the high $14.93, closed near the high on a pretty good debut.
Pfizer (PFE) dropped a nickel.
And then Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) up $1.27. The company and its partner Sanofi-Aventis both strong after a Federal court ruled that their patent on stroke drug Plavix is valid and enforceable. Sanofi stock edged up $0.24 a share.
Time Warner (TWX) gained $0.35.
Then we look at Ford Motor Co (F) losing $0.20.
Bank of America (BAC)
up $0.64.
EMC Corp (EMC) $0.20 rise there.
Tyco Intl (TYC) down $0.49.
And Co Vale do Rio Doce (RIO), this is a Brazilian mining company offering $1.8 billion in convertible securities which of course represents potential earnings dilution.
Best Buy Co (BBY) down $2.83, traded as low as $45.01 after reporting first quarter earnings, $0.39, down from $0.47 a year ago, $0.11 below the Street estimate and that's despite a 3 percent rise in same store sales, but that was because low profit margin items apparently sold the best.
Then we see another big company, Home Depot (HD) a $0.31 gain. The company confirmed as the market was closing it will sell its supply business for about $10 billion to three private equity firms, namely Bain Capital, Carlisle Group and Clayton Dubillier (ph). It'll use the proceeds to buy back up to $22 1/2 billion in its own stock. In after hours trading, I saw Home Depot up $2.43 from this price at $40.70 a share.
Cigna (CI) edged up $0.68. Bank America upgraded it "sell" to "neutral" and boosted its price target from $36 to $57 a share, quite a boost.
Factset Research (FDS), this company's involved in providing financial information. Third quarter earnings rose to $0.56 from $0.41 a year ago, a nickel above the Street estimate. Revenues up 23 percent.
And then Harris (HRS) up $2.43. The company won a contract worth up to $7 billion to provide the U.S. Navy with hand-held radios.
Textron (TXT) moved up $4.98. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
And then DirecTV (DTV) gaining $1.42. Morgan Stanley upgraded it from "equal weight" to "over weight."
On the downside, Leggett & Platt (LEG) which makes bedding and home furnishings, cut its second quarter earnings estimate by $0.11 down to the range of $0.31 to $0.36 a share. That's well below the $0.39 Wall Street consensus.
Then Cemex Sab (CX), this is the big Mexican cement producer, cut its second quarter earnings guidance. Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral."
NASDAQ topped the active list or Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list losing $1.43. That's the eighth time in the last nine sessions Apple has topped the active list.
Then came Google (GOOG) down $0.89. The company aims to cut or offset all of its greenhouse gases by the end of this year.
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.49 drop.
Intel (INTC) $0.07 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) dropped a nickel. Reuters news reports that Microsoft has agreed to modify its new Vista operating system in response to complaints that its desktop search function puts Google and other potential competitors at a disadvantage.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) rose $0.09.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $4.41.
Amazon.com (AMZN) lost $2.02.
Qualcomm (QCOM) moved up $0.36.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) topped the active list with a $0.12 gain.
UAL (UAUA) up $2.60. The company's upbeat on the second quarter outlook and it underscored that by saying it's going to hire 100 new pilots by the end of the year. That had a positive effect on the airline sector.
Let's have a look at some of those, AMR (AMR), parent of American, up $0.73.
Continental Air (CAL) up $0.90.
And US Airways Group (LCC) up $1.85, getting an additional boost from UBS financial brokerage which upgraded it from "reduce" to "neutral."
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
