Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 19, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened sharply higher, buoyed by IBM's solid earnings out last night and strong results this morning from Honeywell and Textron. After an hour of trading, the Dow was up 81 points, right at the 14,000 mark and the NASDAQ was up 18 points. The market encountered selling resistance during the mid- session hours and pulled back a bit, but optimism over those earnings after- the-bell from Microsoft and Google triggered a late comeback. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 82.19 at a record 14,000.41. The NASDAQ up 20.55 ending at 2720.04 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 6.91. That was to a record 1553.08. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 4/32 to 96 even. That put the yield at 5.02 percent.
The most active big board issue was a new issue. This is MF Global Ltd (MF). It's the brokerage arm of a hedge fund called the Man (ph) Group, 97 million shares offered to the public at 30, didn't have a very good debut, opened at $27.30 and had a high of $28.53 and ended well below its offering price of $30.
Then came Alcoa (AA) with a loss of $1.83. The Australian newspaper reports BHP Billiton will not make a buyout bid for Alcoa.
Pfizer (PFE) on disappointing earnings out yesterday, down $0.14.
And EMC Corp (EMC) up $0.47.
General Electric (GE) a $0.26 gain there.
Ford Motor Co (F) showed no change today. The company said it had contact with parties interested in its Land Rover and Jaguar brands and is evaluating the level of interest.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.17 loss there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $0.12.
Citigroup (C) fell $0.47.
ExxonMobil (XOM) was up $1.14. IBM (IBM), the star of the day, up $4.78. That accounted for about 37 points of the Dow's 82 point gain right there and of course it had better than expected earnings out yesterday as we reported and today, Citigroup boosted its 2007 and '8 earnings both for IBM and boosted its price target from $122 to $135 a share.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) up $1.26. Two research companies, Gartner and IDC Forecasting are forecasting very strong worldwide computer sales, very good for Hewlett of course.
And then Honeywell Intl (HON) a $0.44 gain. Second quarter earnings higher, $0.78, up from $0.63 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street estimate and the company boosted its full year guidance as well.
Textron (TXT) had nothing but good news today. The stock up $6.77. First of all, second quarter earnings $1.69, up from last year's $1.34. Revenues up 15 percent. The company declared a two for one stock split, a 19 percent boost in the dividend and on top of that says it's going to buy 24 million shares of its own stock back.
Nucor (NUE), the steel company, down $1.19. Lower earnings there, $1.14 in the second quarter versus $1.44 a year ago, $0.03 below the Street estimate.
And Hershey Co (HSY) did not have a good day, off $1.49. Second quarter earnings fell to - let's make that $0.35, down from $0.42 a year ago. Standard & Poor's repeated a "sell" on Hershey stock and cut its price target from $50 to $46 a share.
Unitedhealth Group (UNH) down $1.69. Second quarter earnings higher, $0.87, up from $0.70 last year, $0.06 above the Street estimate. The problem was, the company cut its full year revenue guidance.
Sherwin-Williams (SHW) doing well, up $5.98. Second quarter earnings $1.52, up from last year's $1.33 and sees third quarter earnings as high as $1.55.
And then Foot Locker (FL) rose $1.80. The "New York Post" reports the company's considering its sale and the article said Apollo Management is mulling over a $29 a share bid.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list, down $0.91 in regular way (ph), but after hours plunged as low as $505 on those disappointing earnings.
Microsoft (MSFT) closed down or up $0.59. Fourth quarter earnings $0.39, just in line and after hours the drop in the stock was down to about $30.90, not too bad.
Apple (AAPL) up $1.88.
Research in Motion (RIMM) rose $3.92.
And then Qualcomm (QCOM) a loss of $1.75.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) gained a half a dollar.
And a $0.20 rise in Intel (INTC).
Ebay (EBAY) $0.55 loss there.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) up $3.33. Second quarter earnings for Juniper $0.20, up from $0.18 a year ago, in line with estimates and the company boosted its full year earnings guidance.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $1.71.
Starbucks (SBUX) up $1.21 on speculation PepsiCo wants to expand its partnership, but Starbucks says no such plan is afoot at the moment.
And then Sterling Financial (SLFI) up $7.11, Sterling indeed. The company is going to be acquired by PNC Financial for cash and stock worth $19 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
