Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Volatility ruled the day on Wall Street both ahead of the Fed's decision and after. An hour into today's trading session, the Dow posted a 68 point loss while the NASDAQ Composite was off six points. Resilience to a steeper sell-off attracted buyers and helped the Dow rebound. At 2:15 this afternoon, when the Fed announced no rate change, Wall Street reacted with a knee-jerk 100-point sell-off. But after digesting the Fed's rather soothing statement, buyers took command and stocks made a nice comeback. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 35.52 points at 13,504.30. The NASDAQ Composite rose 14.27 to 2,561.60 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 9.04 to 1,476.71. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 10/32 to 97 27/32, putting the yield at 4.78 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 22 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving up $0.38.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) $0.24 gain there.
And same story with Citigroup (C).
Time Warner (TWX) up $0.13.
EMC Corp (EMC), fifth in volume, was down $0.34.
Countrywide Financial (CFC) moved up $0.60, traded as high as $28.59. The company plans to acquire part of Home bank's retail mortgage operations after they were shut down because of the funding dried up at Home bank.
Bank of America (BAC)
$0.51 gain.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $2.16. That stock higher on some buy disruptions at the U.S. operations of ConocoPhillips.
Ford Motor Co (F) was up $0.11.
And Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) in that firm financial group, up $0.13.
Monsanto Co (MON) gained $1.77. The company will boost its quarterly dividend by 40 percent. It'll go from $0.12 1/2 to $0.17 1/2 a share. Then we see Blackstone Group (BX) edging up $0.37, traded as high as $25.98. You can see by the chart that stock just went public in late June at $31. Today, Lehman Brothers started covering it with an "over weight" rating and a $32 a share target on the stock.
Fortress Investment Group (FIG) up $0.89, traded as high as $20.38 after the Keefe Bruyette house began covering it today with an "out perform" rating.
And Fannie Mae (FNM) did well, up $1.93. The company is asking Federal regulators to boost the amount of mortgage money it may hold, saying that that would improve the mortgage market liquidity.
Mentor Corp (MNT) up $6.88. The company makes breast implants, artificial limbs, things like that. First quarter earnings excluding one- time items, $0.48, up from $0.33 a year ago, $0.14 better than the Street was expecting.
Then TNS Inc (TNS) up $2.01, strong second quarter earnings, $0.24 versus $0.15 last year and the company boosted this year's outlook.
And then Luminent Mortgage Capital (LUM) plunging $3.30, but that is a composite quote. There was no trading on the New York exchange, but the company suspended its second quarter dividend, canceled the second quarter conference call with analysts and said it's exploring strategic options.
Another big loser, AMN Healthcare Services (AHS), this is the one that provides temporary health care staffing. Second quarter earnings a bit higher, $0.26 versus $0.21 last year, but predicted flat third quarter earnings and the CL King (ph) brokerage downgraded it from "strong buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, down $0.22. It did introduce its new line of iMac personal computers.
Google (GOOG) up $6.02.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) closed up $0.19. After the close, fourth quarter earnings excluding items, $0.36, up from $0.30 a year ago, a penny above the Street estimate. Revenues were better than expected. In after hours trading, Cisco I saw as high as $31.50 a share.
Intel (INTC) no change there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) off $1.28, very active.
Microsoft (MSFT) a penny gainer.
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) up $10.81. Second quarter earnings of $0.82 versus a loss of $0.20 last year and that was thanks largely to its new Macau resort.
Ebay (EBAY) up $1.27.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gained $3.91.
Applied Materials (AMAT) a $0.24 loss.
And finally, Shares of Hemosense (HEM) rose nearly $3 on news Inverness Medical will acquire the company with its stock worth $12.70 per share as of today.
