Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 06, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a technical rebound from Friday's drubbing. The Dow gained 55 points at the outset of trading and the NASDAQ rose eight points, but that failed to impress buyers so the market pulled back. Then, as word spread that Merrill Lynch got an analyst upgrade and Wells Fargo would repurchase 50 million of its shares, the financial sector led a brisk rally, which had the Dow up 122 points at 1:00 p.m. The strength in financials and that sharp drop in oil prices fueled a huge late rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to a closing gain of 286.87 points at 13,468.78. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 36.08 to 2547.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 34.61 ending at 1467.67. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 16/32 to 98 4/32, putting the yield at 4.74 percent
Big board volume leader on nearly 24 million shares was Pfizer (PFE) gaining $0.60. The company got FDA approval for its new AIDS drug called Selzentry.
General Electric (GE) in there with $1.04 gain.
Then Citigroup (C) in a strong financial sector, up $2.63.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.13 loss there.
Wells Fargo (WFC) up $1.95. As I touched on earlier, the board has approved an additional 50 million share stock buyback.
Moving along on the active list, Motorola (MOT) was up $0.18.
Countrywide Financial (CFC) gained $1.75. In an SEC filing, the company said it had $186 1/2 billion in liquidity resources at the end of June.
More strong financials, Bank of America (BAC) up $1.16.
And a $1.46 gain in JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
ExxonMobil (XOM), despite the drop in oil, up $1.46.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) certainly helped the Dow with that gain of $1.50. The company's in a 50 percent joint venture with Bartey Enterprises for a wholesale cash and carry supply chain in India, nice move in Wal-Mart stock.
Another Dow issue, Merck & Co (MRK) up $1.06. Cowan & Company brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform."
And then Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) ended the day with a gain of $5.46 after trading as low as $99.75. Warren Spector has resigned as co-president and co-chief executive officer.
Merrill Lynch (MER) moved up $4.50 in the financial sector, a nice gain there. UBS Financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and has an $86 a share target for Merrill stock.
Mercury General (MCY), the insurance holding company, up $3.10. Second quarter earnings jumped to $1.27 from only $0.69 last year. Those earnings $0.19 above the Wall Street consensus.
On the downside Luminent Mortgage Capital (LUM) losing 31 percent of its value with that loss of nearly $2. JPMorgan downgraded it from "neutral" to "under weight" because of its exposure to the troubled residential mortgage market.
Radian Group (RDN), the same reason there, but it ended up $0.58. The low of the day on Radian however was $17.44. The company has hired Blackstone Group to assist in getting more permanent capital to solve its liquidity problems.
And Griffon (GFF) down $2.94. The company's in the garage door business and third quarter earnings tumbled to $0.14 from $0.60 last year and sales were down just over 7 percent.
Harmony Gold Mining Co (HMY) down $2.45. The company's chief executive officer resigned and the company sees a June quarter loss.
On the upside, Acco Brands (ABD), which is in the office products business, second quarter earnings $0.21, way up from $0.06 last year, $0.07 better than the Street thought.
And Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB) up $1.07. A turnaround there, second quarter earnings of $0.28 versus a loss of $0.34 last year.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $3.40. Tomorrow the company will unveil the next generation of Macintosh computers.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.04 gain.
Google (GOOG) had a good day, up $7.00.
Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.58. A U.S. judge overturned a ruling which fined Microsoft $1.5 billion for patent infringement on an Alcatel- Lucent technology. Alcatel will appeal.
Intel (INTC) $0.22 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.19.
Applied Materials (AMAT) up $0.64.
Qualcomm (QCOM) was up $1.01. The company said it'll appeal a ruling by the U.S. international trade commission that bans imports of cellular phones equipped with Qualcomm chips and that'll start tomorrow.
eBay (EBAY) down $1.30.
And Amazon.com (AMZN) was up $2.20. The company introduced its online payment service today.
And finally, we already covered Cooper Tire & Rubber
