Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, July 23, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street rebounded from Friday's plunge on those solid earnings from Merck and a big merger between offshore oil firms Transocean and Global Santa Fe. Strong results from Halliburton and a number of stock upgrades added to the rally. By noontime, the Dow was sporting a 110-point gain and the NASDAQ was up 14 points. Buyers backed away a bit in the afternoon, but a drop in oil futures helped stocks end nicely higher across the board. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 92.34 at 13,943.42. The NASDAQ Composite was up 2.98 ending at 2690.58, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 7.47 to 1541.57. In the bond market, the 10-year note held steady at 96 16/32, keeping the yield at 4.95 percent.
Most active big board issue on 18.4 million shares was Merck (MRK) and a nice gain of $3.31 on those nicely higher second quarter earnings, $0.82 versus $0.73 last year, $0.10 above the Street estimate and the company boosted 2007 earnings guidance from $2.94 a share to $3.10 at best. Incidentally, that gain of $3.31 accounted for 27 points of the Dow's 92- point gain today.
Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.13.
General Electric (GE) a $0.70 gain there. The stock had been advancing since reporting a 10 percent rise in its second quarter earnings on July 13th.
Ford Motor Co (F), there you see it, moving up $0.06.
And then Bank of America (BAC) with a loss of $0.16.
ExxonMobil (XOM)
gained $1.50. Second quarter earnings from Exxon due out this Thursday and the Street estimate is $1.94 a share.
AT&T (T) up $0.97.
Alcoa (AA) fell $0.63, although Friday, its chairman and CEO said he boosted his stake in Alcoa by 146,000 shares.
Time Warner (TWX) was up $0.09.
Then came Halliburton (HAL) up 1.17. Second quarter operating earnings came in at $0.63, up from $0.47 last year. That was $0.07 better than the Street was expecting.
Texas Instrument (TXN) closed up $0.17. After the close, second quarter earnings, $0.42, down from last year's $0.47. That was about in line with Street estimates, but the stock dropped to as low as $37 a share in after hours trading.
GlobalSantaFe (GSF) up $3.58. It's merging with Transocean and shareholders of GlobalSantaFe will get $22.46 a share cash plus .47 shares of a new company.
Now let's look at Transocean (RIG) up $5.99. In this merger with Global, this company will - shareholders will get $33.03 in cash and almost .7 of a share of the new company.
Navteq (NVT), which is in digital mapping services, got an upgrade from UBS today from "neutral" to an outright "buy."
Then Stoneridge (SRI), which is an electrical component up $1.43. Keybanc upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
And Donaldson co (DCI), which is in the filtration business, up $2.50 a share. Bear Stearns upgraded it from "peer perform" to "out perform."
On the downside, Hasbro (HAS) losing $1.76. Second quarter earnings dropped to $0.03 from $0.07 last year despite a 31 percent rise in sales.
And Eog Resources (EOG) off $2.94. Citigroup downgraded it from "hold" to "sell."
And then Arch Coal (ACI) a dime loss, traded as low as $31.31 this morning after reporting sharply lower second quarter earnings of $0.26, down from $0.48 last year and a penny below the Street estimate.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, losing a nickel.
And then Google (GOOG) down $7.61.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.67 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) edged up $0.03.
Intel (INTC) $0.17 rise in that stock.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.79.
Opsware (OPSW) up $3.72. Hewlett-Packard will acquire Opsware for $14.25 a share cash.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) up another $9.44. That stock jumped $48.50 last Friday on sharply higher second quarter earnings.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.25 loss.
And baidu.com (BIDU) fell $9.42.
Cumulus Media (CMLS), which owns a lot of radio stations, up $2.75. A group led by the company's CEO Lou Dickey (ph) will acquire and take the firm private for $11.75 a share in cash.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
