Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a 60-point run-up in the Dow despite weak foreign markets, but the gains were short-lived. Stocks headed lower at midday as oil futures spiked to record highs. Then, a turnaround in oil and bargain buying helped rev up stocks once more, but the market slumped again on renewed credit crunch concerns. The gyrations continued with a huge late rally prompted by programmed trades and the sharp drop in oil futures. So, the Dow Industrial Average closed up 150.38 points at 13,362.37. The NASDAQ Composite gained 7.60 to 2,553.87. Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 10.54 ending at 1465.81. In the bond market, the 10- year note fell 15/32 to 97 23/32, putting the yield at 4.79 percent.
Most active big board issue on 25 1/4 million shares was General Electric (GE) moving up $0.19.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE), a $0.12 gain there.
Time Warner (TWX) was down $0.62. Second quarter earnings excluding one-time items for Time Warner, $0.25, up from $0.20 a year ago and $0.04 above the Street estimate. But the company cut its outlook for its AOL unit and a number of analysts were disappointed regarding the company's plan to buy back $5 billion in stock because they were thinking more like $10 billion buyback.
Citigroup (C) moved up $0.28.
Motorola (MOT) a $0.30 drop.
And then we see JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $0.37.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.21, some small nice gains all throughout the financials today.
Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.08.
Then American Intl Group (AIG) with a $0.39 gain. But the stock traded as low as 60 this morning. That was due to the company's exposure no doubt to the sub-prime real estate market. It did recover nicely as you can see.
AT&T (T) topped out the active list with a gain of $1.07 a share.
Disney (DIS) closed up $0.83. After the close, third quarter earnings announced, $0.58, up from $0.51 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street estimate. The company will also acquire Club Penguin, which is a virtual online world for kids. The price there, $350 million. The stock didn't do much in after hours trading incidentally on those earnings.
Cigna (CI), big insurance firm, down $2.75 despite second quarter operating earnings of $0.96, up from $0.77 a year ago. That was $0.08 better than the Street was expecting.
Mastercard (MA) plunged $10.80 and traded as low as $139 today, even though the company had a second quarter turnaround with earnings of $1.85 versus a loss of over $2 last year. The stock down on profit taking. As you can see, it's had quite a run up and of course, worries about consumer credit hurt the stock as well.
Tupperware Brands (TUP) up $5.96. Second quarter earnings jumped to $0.56 from $0.41 a year ago. Sales were up 12 percent.
And then Navteq (NVT), which is into digital map making, up $9.16. Second quarter earnings up 72 percent over last year and $0.41 versus $0.25. Revenues shot up 49 percent.
Administaff (ASF) up $3.90, nice second quarter earnings of $0.50, up from $0.37 a year ago. Revenues rose 12 percent there.
Officemax (OMX) a gain of $2.23. Second quarter earnings, $0.35, up from $0.29 last year, $0.03 better than the Street consensus.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) up $10.85. Second quarter earnings were up 85 percent to $0.60 versus $0.33 a year ago. Revenues rose 34 percent.
On the downside, Novastar Financial (NFI) losing $2.65 or almost 28 percent of its value because of the sub-prime market problems.
And then we see General Cable (BGC) plunging $14.29. Second quarter earnings, $1.15 up from $0.80, but the company said a couple of its large transmission projects have been delayed from this year to next year, rather the middle of next year.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $3.24. Citigroup upgraded a "hold" to "buy," saying those rumors about cutbacks in production for iPods just normal before the introduction of new products.
Google (GOOG) $2.94 gain.
And then $0.31 rise in Microsoft (MSFT).
Intel (INTC) was up $0.18.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) an $0.86 rise.
Then we see Amgen (AMGN) losing $1.65.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $1.23.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.41. Qualcomm (QCOM) lost $0.26.
And then Oracle (ORCL) with a $0.67 gain.
Dawson Geophysical Co (DWSN) up nearly $13. Third quarter earnings jumped to $0.98 from $0.56 a year ago, $0.22 better than the Wall Street estimate.
And finally, shares in Houston Wire & Cable Co (HWCC) slid $6.55 on disappointing second quarter profits. Earnings fell to $0.40 from $0.48 per share. That was $0.04 below analysts' estimates.
