Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, June 21, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Hedge fund worries took Wall Street lower at the opening, with the Dow falling 40 points and the NASDAQ off 11. As oil prices eased in late morning, stocks bounced back into positive territory, but the selling resumed as bond yields moved higher, taking the Dow down 45 points at midday. Then, stocks made a solid comeback on growing optimism the Bear Stearns hedge fund problem won't cause any major market damage. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 56.42 at 13,545.84. The NASDAQ Composite rose exactly 17 points to 2616.96. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 9.35 to close at 1522.19. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 12/32 to 94 24/32, putting the yield at 5.19 percent.
Big board volume leader for the third straight session, General Electric (GE) today trading 19.4 million shares, edging a penny higher. The company and Pearson PLC have decided not to pursue a joint acquisition of Dow Jones. DJ stock fell $0.94. Kraft Foods (KFT) moving up $2.28. The "Wall Street Journal" reported activist investor Nelson Peltz, who owns 3 percent of Kraft, may be targeting the company to sell of its Post cereals and Maxwell House coffee divisions.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) $0.21 gain.
Adv Micro Devices (AMD) moved up $1.08. The Stiefel Nicholas brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" with a $17 a share target.
And there you see the world's biggest oil company stock, ExxonMobil (XOM) up $1.48 on that news that a major tax on oil companies blocked by the Senate.
Micron Tech (MU) a $0.52 gainer.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.35 loss there.
Ford Motor (F) edged a nickel higher.
Motorola (MOT) $0.24 gain.
And then Home Depot (HD) losing $0.08. Home Depot kind of a contrasting thing here from two brokerages. Citigroup boosted its target from $37 to $45 a share for HP stock, but the Piper Jaffray brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform" on valuation.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) edging up $0.38. Keefe Bruyette upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform" boosted its price target from $55 to $57 a share.
Then Nokia (NOK) a $0.29 loss. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" after the stock's recent gains.
American Greetings "A" (AM) up $1.86, had good earnings. First quarter operating earnings, $0.55, more than doubled $0.26 a year ago. Those earnings $0.21 above the Wall Street consensus.
Equity Inns (ENN) moved up $3.32. Whitehall Street Global Real Estate will acquire this firm for $23 a share in cash.
Lindsay Corp (LNN), which makes irrigation systems, up $5.25. Yesterday the company had good earnings out third quarter, $0.62 versus $0.55 and revenues jumped 24 percent.
Oakley Inc (OO) up $3.22. The eyewear maker will be acquired by another eyewear maker, Luxottica and the price is $29.30 a share. Luxottica stock moved up $3.18 to $38.02 a share.
Ameron Intl (AMN) which makes oil and water pipes, things like that, had second quarter earnings lower, $1.74 versus $2.11 last year, but those year ago results included $9 million in one-time gains and without that, those earnings would have been lower so this year's would have been better.
And then Esco Technologies (ESE) tumbling $9.83. The company says its 2008 outlook could be impacted by its client PG&E's decision to evaluate Esco's electric meter technology. Baird brokerage downgraded Esco stock from "out perform" to just a "neutral" rating.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $2.35.
Followed by Google (GOOG)
with a $4.14 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.21 advance.
Intel (INTC) rose $0.35.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) was up $0.12 a share.
Starbucks (SBUX) down $1.06. The company said the top end of its 2007 earnings forecast will be challenging to meet. That's $0.89 and the company said that's largely because of rising dairy costs.
Nvidia (NVDA) down $3.11. Lehman Brothers downgraded it, upgraded it I should say from "equal weight" to "over weight."
Research in Motion (RIMM) $2.37 gain there.
Amgen (AMGN) was down $0.43.
And then came Qualcomm (QCOM) with a $0.49 gain.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
