Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 05, 2007PAUL KANGAS: The Blackstone bid for Hilton prompted strong gains in the hotel stocks on Wall Street this morning as you heard. But the broader market headed lower as bond yields jumped after the Bank of England hiked interest rates a quarter point to 5.75 percent. At noon, the Dow posted a 51-point loss and the NASDAQ Composite was off five points. As oil prices eased from the day's high of $72.35 a barrel and optimism rose that tomorrow's employment report would please investors, stocks cut their losses to close narrowly mixed. The Dow Industrial Average ended down only 11.46 at 13,565.84. The NASDAQ Composite actually gained 11.70 ending at 2,656.65. And the Standard & Poor's 500 was up about 1/2 a point at 1,525.40. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 24/32 to 95 2/32, lifting the yield to 5.14 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue on 31 million shares as you might expect, Hilton Hotels (HLT) up $9.34 on that Blackstone $47.50 per share buyout bid.
Let's have a look at some other hotels and how they reacted to the news, all big gainers, Choice Hotels Intl (CHH), Gaylord Entertainment (GET), Host Hotel & Resorts (HST) and Marriott Intl (MAR), Starwood Hotels (HOT), all doing very well indeed.
Then back to the active list, Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.27.
Followed by General Electric (GE) $0.16 loss there.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.09.
And then Time Warner (TWX) with a $0.24 drop.
EMC Corp (EMC) edged a penny higher.
General Motors (GM) down $1.22. That hurt the Dow. Of course, Tuesday as we reported, GM had a 21 percent drop in June auto sales. Today Bear Stearns downgraded the stock from "out perform" to "peer perform" noting that GM stock has risen 31 percent just since May 10th.
AT&T (T) $0.54 drop.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $0.20.
No change in Taiwan Semi (TSM) topping out the actives.
Huntsman (HUN) the big chemical firm, up $3.06. The company's now received a $27.25 per share takeover bid from Apollo Management and that easily beats rival (INAUDIBLE) takeover offer of $25.25 a share.
Hanover Compressor (HC) up $1.90. The company and Universal Compressor have received antitrust clearance to complete their merger. Universal stock was up $6.60, closing at $81.76 a share.
Tele Norte Celular (TCN), this is the big Brazilian cellular phone company, up on takeover speculation pure and simple, big jump.
Under Armour (UA) up $5.21. The company's policy is not to comment on its stock activity, but it did say the results for the quarter are due out at the end of the month. Word has it on the Street there's a short squeeze going on her. Thirty percent of the company's stock has been in short position.
Tefron Ltd (TFR) down $1.36. The company sees a 19 percent drop in second quarter revenues because of lower than expected active wear and intimate apparel sales. The company also predicting lower third quarter revenues.
Guangshen Railway (GSH), American Depository shares down $2.57. Credit Suisse restarted coverage of this stock with an "under perform" rating because to Credit Suisse, it looks expensive.
NASDAQ topped by Apple (AAPL) stock again up $5.58. I believe that's a record high. Of course its iPhone sales are going well. Analysts say it may be 700,000 iPhones will be sold in this first week.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $8.25 gain. The company plans to start selling its Blackberry products in China.
Google (GOOG) hitting a record closing high, up $7.29.
Then we see Microsoft (MSFT) with a $0.03 drop. The company says it's going to take a billion dollar charge in the current quarter for extended warranties on its Xbox 360, but that that unit will still be profitable for the period.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.27 gain.
And then Intel (INTC) edged a penny higher.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.42, had good earnings out last week.
Amgen (AMGN) $0.33 drop.
Baidu.com (BIDU), this is the Chinese Internet firm, up $3.99.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.32.
Tecumsheh Products Co (TECUA) up $7.21. The company makes pumps and compressors and it's going to sell its residential and commercial Asia Pacific units for $220 million. The buyer Regal Beloit (ph) Corporation.
Then Penson Worldwide (PNSN) down $6.25. The company provides futures products and other financial services and it's saying that 2007 earnings will fall below the Wall Street consensus.
And then over on the American exchange, ACR Group (BRR), an air conditioning company, Watsco also in the air conditioning business, is seeking to acquire it for $6.75 a share and a cash tender offer. Watsco was up $2.32 to $57.84.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight
