Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, June 22, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The complexity of those Bear Stearns hedge fund problems sent Wall Street broadly lower at the opening. A rise in oil prices added to the selling. After an hour of trading, the Dow was down nearly 90 points and the NASDAQ off 17. The market trimmed its losses over the next two hours as investors were impressed by the success of the Blackstone IPO, which we'll detail next.
But rumors that another hedge fund might be in trouble brought sellers off the sidelines and sent stocks sharply lower right on to the close. The Dow ended down 185.58 points at 13,360.26. This week it rose twice and fell three times for a net loss of 279.22 points. The NASDAQ Composite lost 28 points exactly today at 2588.96 today. It also rose twice and fell three times this week, dropping 37 3/4 points exactly overall. Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 19.63 points ending at 1502.56 today. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 12/32 to 95 4/32, lowering the yield to 5.14 percent.
By far the most active big board issue, no surprise there, 76.3 million shares trading, The Blackstone Group (BX) closing up $4.06. It opened at $36.45, the high of the day $38 and then low was $34.25, so it nicely on its debut. Then Tyco Intl (TYC) up $0.94.
And Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) a gain of $3.44. Those two stocks were added to the Russell 3000 Index today. That index being rebalanced, some 277 stocks were added.
General Electric (GE) $0.56 loss.
And then Pfizer (PFE) dropped $0.54 a share.
Ford Motor (F) moving up $0.22.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $1.78.
Accenture Ltd (ACN) moved up $0.86.
And Seagate Tech (STN) down $0.04. Those two stocks were added to the Russell 3000 today.
And then finally we see AT&T (T) with a $0.74 loss.
Elsewhere, Macy's (M), now this chart indicates just since they changed their name from Federated and the symbol to M, that is the first of this month. But the stock did well today. The rumor is Kohlberg, Kravitz Roberts and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, along with Providence, might make a $52 a share buyout bid, just a rumor.
Now Jabil Circuit (JBL) doing well, up $1.93. After the close yesterday as we reported, third quarter (ph) operating earnings came in at $0.23 a share. That's down from $0.36 a year ago, but $0.02 better than the Street estimate.
VeraSun (VSE), ethanol producer, up $0.65. The Senate approved legislation requiring greater use of ethanol and that whole sector got a little boost from it.
Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings (AVR) up $0.81.
Fractional gains in Pacific Ethanol (PCIX) and US Bioenergy (USBE).
Greenhill (GHL) up $3.08. The investment banking firm was upgraded by Wachovia from "market perform" to "out perform."
Rockwood Holdings (ROC), it's a chemical company, up $2 a share. The story here, JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
Then old Harley Davidson (HOG) up $2.43. Rumors making the rounds in the option market about a possible Honda play for the company. The company had no comment, but most analysts said that the rumor was hogwash.
Regal Entertainment Group (RGC), the theater owner, down $0.81. Bank of America downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" because it says a lot of the summer blockbuster films are fading fast at the box office.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) down $3.87. JPMorgan downgraded it to "neutral" because it's trading at 36 times estimated earnings and higher commodity costs are hurting the bottom line.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) down $2.87. Lehman Brothers brokerage downgraded it from "over weight" to "equal weight" on concerns about the outlook for the second half of the year.
Then another new issue today, Care Investment Trust (CRE) in the real estate investment business, 15 million shares offered at 15, opened at 13. The high of the day, $13.84, not a very good debut.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list up $10.87. Sanford Bernstein brokerage said it's one of its favorite Internet stocks, set a price target of $635 a share and has an "out perform" rating.
Apple (AAPL) $0.90 loss there.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.73 drop.
Intel (INTC) fell $0.59.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.40 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $0.31.
But EBay (EBAY) up $0.63. The company plans to reenter the Chinese marketplace and Sanford Bernstein has an "outperform" rating on this one with a $39 a share target.
Starbucks (SBUX) down $0.72.
Amgen (AMGN) a $1.31 loss.
And then came Yahoo! (YHOO) down $0.29 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
