Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, July 02, 2007
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: All those mergers and a pickup in manufacturing activity triggered a bullish stampede on Wall Street as the third quarter began. The Institute of Supply Management says its index of manufacturing activity rose to a reading of 56 in June, its best level since the spring of 2006. By 11:00 a.m., the Dow was up 106 points and the NASDAQ posted a 25 point gain. The rally cooled down just a bit over the mid-session hours, but fresh third quarter investment money sent stocks surging again, especially after the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell below 5 percent. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 126.81 points at 13,535.43. The NASDAQ Composite jumped 29.07 points to 2632.30 while the Standard & Poor's Index gained 16.08 points at 1519.43. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 8/32 to 96 6/32, putting the yield below 5 percent, 4.99.
AT&T (T) was the most active big board issue trading 15.2 million shares. The company did have problems in activating about 2 percent of the iPhones over the weekend and the problems have been largely resolved now and we'll have more on AT&T later.
General Electric (GE) a $0.02 drop.
Pfizer (PFE) up $0.16.
EMC Corp (EMC) gained $0.45.
On those higher oil prices, ExxonMobil (XOM) rising $0.94 and very active.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.22.
Sprint Nextel (S) which has received a number of brokerage upgrades in the last week, up $0.87.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.47 rise.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) up $0.15.
And LSI Corp (LSI) bouncing back $0.07 after recent losses.
BCE (BCE), the big Canadian phone company, as you heard will be acquired by a private equity consortium. It works out to about $40.12 a share on the takeover.
Manor Care (HCR) down $1.19. With Carlyle Group, buyout bid is worth about $67 a share. The stock bouncing up near there and then backing off.
Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) gained $1.12. Bank America upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" with a $40 a share target, citing the strong biofuel demand that's going on and Archer's a major provider.
Volt Info Sciences (VOL) gained $1.56. The Sadoti brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
And then Maidenform Brands (MFB) moved up $1.29. The stock after the close today was added to the Standard & Poor's small cap 600 index, index fund buying helping the stock.
American Financial Realty (AFR), a $0.49 gain, traded as high as $11.02 today after UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" on a valuation basis, had quite a dip recently.
Reddy Ice Holdings (FRZ) up $1.96 as you heard, GSO Capital Partners will acquire the company for $31.25 a share and that obviously would be cold cash.
Angelica (AGL) was up $1.45. Pirate Capital, a hedge fund, which owns 9.8 percent, wants the company to explore alternatives, including its possible sale.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $0.78. Analysts estimate the company sold about 500,000 iPhones over the weekend, had a little problem with them, but apparently mostly resolved.
Research in Motion (RIMM) continues to surge higher, up $14.27 today. Last week it really had a sharp rally on big earnings and news of a three for one split. Today, JPMorgan boosted earnings estimates and repeated an "over weight" rating.
Google (GOOG) up $7.68.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.27 rise.
Baidu.com (BIDU) which recently has received some brokerage upgrades, up $18.43.
Intel (INTC) $0.53 gain.
$0.04 rise in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Dobson Communications (DCEL) rising $1.31. AT&T will acquire this company for $13 a share in cash.
Dell (DELL) moved up $0.38.
And Virgin Media (VMED) up $4.30. As you heard, the company reportedly has received a buyout bid that's somewhere between $30 and $35 from an unnamed private equity group which is rumored to be Carlyle Group. The company says it's not been in any talks.
Local.com (LOCM) up $2.04. The web search company received a patent on its mobile search tool.
And as we touched on earlier, Option Care (OPTN) up $3.84. Walgreen will acquire this company for $19.50 a share. This company provides home infusion pharmacy services.
And over on the American exchange, InterOil (IOC) which plunged sharply, almost $20 a share last week, rebounding $5.17. Raymond James financial brokerage said last week's sell out in the stock was over done and it upgraded it from "out perform" to a "strong buy."
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
