Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, August 10, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Despite the Fed's addition of liquidity to the money markets, financial stocks and the overall market showed little positive reaction this morning. So just before noon, the Dow was off over 200 points and the NASDAQ was down 44 points. After second and third infusions of funds by the Fed, stocks stabilized throughout most of the afternoon and that encouraged bargain buyers and they helped stocks trim their losses considerably. The Dow Industrial Average closed off just 31.14 at 13,239.54. This week the Dow fell twice, but rose three times, actually had a net gain of 57.63. The NASDAQ Composite was off 11.60 closing at 2544.89 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week and also gained a total of 33.64 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 was up .55 today at 1453.64. It posted a net weekly gain of 20.58 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 8/32 to 99 17/32, putting the yield at 4.81 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 38.7 million shares, General Electric (GE) losing $0.71. Then Schering-Plough (SCP) a $0.26 drop. Yesterday, Schering priced a 50 million share offering of its common stock at $27.50 a share.
Pfizer (PFE) was down $0.15.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.04 loss there.
Citigroup (C) moved up a dime, one of the few financials showing plus figures in front of it.
Then we get to EMC Corp (EMC) with a $0.02 loss.
$0.29 drop in Micron Tech (MU).1
Countrywide Financial (CFC) an $0.80 loss there, traded as low as $24.73 after the company said it faces unprecedented disruptions in the mortgage market that could hurt its earnings and financial condition. Standard & Poor's repeated a "sell" with a $20 a share target.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.15 loss there.
And JPMorgan Chase (JPM) managed to gain $0.08, topping the active list.
And then Fannie Mae (FNM) $0.53 closing loss. After hours, the office of Federal Housing Enterprise said that while it's monitoring the situation in the mortgage market, it will not allow Fannie Mae to increase its portfolio beyond the current $727 billion limit. In after hours trading, Fannie Mae stock dropped $1.50 per share.
Alcoa (AA) $0.75 drop after trading as low as $33.50 today. The basic metals were weak on world markets and that turmoil may have dampened that AA or Alcoa as a takeover target at all.
Wyeth (WYE) down $2.99. The company and Solvay pharmaceutical received an FDA letter saying their new drug application for its schizophrenia treatment is not approvable at this time.
Then Bradley Pharmaceuticals (BDY) up $1.84. It hired Deutsche Bank to advice it on some takeover bids it's received. Second quarter loss of $0.10 reported today versus earnings of $0.28 a year ago.
Buckeye Technologies (BKI) got a real boost from Citigroup, which upgraded it from "sell" to a "buy," quite a move there.
MGIC Investment (MTG) down $5.58. JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to "under weight."
And Gamco Investors (GBL), an investment advisory firm, big earnings, second quarter more than double last year, $0.63 versus $0.31, revenues up 11 percent.
And then Blyth (BTH) up $3.50. Stanford group upgraded it from a "sell" to a "hold."
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $1.39.
Google (GOOG) managed to gain $1.02.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a penny loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.59 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) tumbling $9 a share.
Intel (INTC) $0.06 gain there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.33 loss.
Nvidia (NVDA) down $2.14. It had sharply higher earnings and set a three for two stock split, but Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral" because of the big recent run up.
Sun Micro (SUNW) $0.06 loss.
And then Sandisk (SNDK) a $0.67 gain.
Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) up $2.78. The company received government approval to be acquired by Lone Star, a private equity fund and the price, $15.10 a share.
And finally an IPO today that did very well, Mercadolibre (MELI). This is a Latin America online trading company, 16 million shares offered at $18, opened at $22 and dropped - the high of the day was $29.
And those are our stocks in the news tonight.
