Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips got an early boost not only from those solid earnings, but also from the drop in wholesale prices. June producer prices fell 0.2 percent after posting a 0.9 percent rise the previous month. By 11 a.m., the Dow was tickling the 14,000 level with nearly a 50 point gain and the NASDAQ was up 13 points. After a mid-day fade which cut the Dow's gain to only 20 points at 1 p.m., it snapped right back with a 65 point gain at 14,015 level just before 3:00 p.m. But then aggressive selling in the final hour cut the gains considerably. The Dow Industrial Average came in with a gain of 20.57 at a record nevertheless of 13,971.55. The NASDAQ Composite was up 15 00 or let's make it 14.96 at 2712.29. Standard & Poor's 500 was down .15, ending at 1549.37. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 2/32 to 95 24/32, putting the yield at 5.05 percent. Once again, General Electric (GE) topped the active list today on 25 1/2 million shares, the stock moving up $0.59 to a new five-year high.
Then came a big gainer, Lyondell Chemical (LYO) up $6.93. Basel Corporation is going to acquire it for $48 a share. Basel you'll recall, lost out on its bid to acquire Huntsman Chemical to Apollo Management last week.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.12 loss there.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropped $0.13.
Time Warner (TWX) bucked the trend and was up $0.19 a share.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $0.61.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) off $1.06. As you heard, second quarter earnings higher, $1.05 versus $0.95 and $0.05 above the Street estimate. But the stock down because the company did cut its 2007 sales forecast.
Citigroup (C) was up $0.27.
Bank of America (BAC) an $0.18 rise there.
And then LSI Corporation (LSI) up $0.49 a share.
Bear Stearns (BSC) closed down just $0.40, but it fell almost 4 percent to the $135 a share level after hours. Dow Jones newswire says the brokerage firm is telling investors that its two troubled hedge funds that bet heavily on the sub-prime mortgage market are now almost worthless. A formal statement is expected later tonight.
Then we have a look at American Express (AXP) which did well, up $2.86. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its price target for AXP from $66 to $77 a share.
Pogo Producing (PPP) up $7.02. Plains Petroleum will acquire the firm for about 0.7 of one of its shares and $24.88 a share cash for each share of Pogo. That's a value today of about $57.50 and that's right where the stock closed.
Modine Manufacturing (MOD), which is involved in thermal management products, not only boosted its earnings outlook, but it came in with first quarter earnings, $0.39, down from $0.51 last year, but that was $0.25 better than Wall Street was expecting.
Rohm & Haas (ROH), chemical company, up $5.54. Rohm & Haas plans to buy back $2 billion of its own stock. Citigroup upgraded the stock from "hold to a "buy" today.
And then the shoe company Skechers USA (SKX) up $2.20. The Wedbush Morgan brokerage upgraded it from "buy" to a "strong buy."
State Street (STT) up $1.48. Second quarter earnings jumped 61 percent over last year, $1.07 versus $0.68. Revenues were up 16 percent and those earnings were $0.06 ahead of the Wall Street estimate.
On the downside, Nautilus Group (NLS) off $2.04. Second quarter results excluding one time items a loss of $0.30 versus earnings of a nickel last year. The Street was looking for $0.04 in earnings this year. Sales actually dropped 15 percent.
Another major loser, Assurant (AIZ) tumbling $5.85. The company's president and some top executives received notices that the SEC is considering enforcement action against them related to a probe into the insurance products that the company sells.
NASDAQ's most active once again Apple (AAPL) moving up $0.81.
Intel (INTC) $0.38 gain, but as you heard after the close, $0.22 in earnings second quarter, up from $0.15, but lower than expected profit margins sent the stock off a little over $1 in after hours trading.
Google (GOOG) up $2.01.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.75 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $3.53.
Applied Materials (AMAT) was up $1.18. That's in sympathy with Novelus and we'll get to that in just a moment.
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.83 gain. After the close, Yahoo! reported second quarter earnings $0.11. That was versus $0.11 last year and in line with expectations, but after hours, the stock did drop $0.93 to $26.60 a share.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC) up $5.08. Optimism of improving chip equipment orders for the second half.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.16.
And Sandisk (SNDK) was up $2.52.
There's Novelus Systems (NVLS) up $3.34. The chip maker in with second quarter earnings $0.45 up from $0.42 a year ago, $0.02 better than the Street expected.
And then if you want to see a big gainer, Q.E.P. Co (QEPC) gaining 62.8 percent. It's a specialty tool maker and it had big first quarter earnings of $0.23 versus only $0.08 last year.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight,
