Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 13, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street began the week with a solid upturn as investors gained confidence after the Fed and other central banks injected more money into their banking systems. Just an hour into trading, the Dow was up 82 points and the NASDAQ rose 22. The rally lost some of the steam during this session amid lingering doubts that the worst of the sub-prime mortgaging crisis was over. The Dow was still up 50 points at 3:00 p.m., but the gains vanished in the final hour as nervous traders cut positions they didn't want to hold overnight. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 3.01 at 13,236,53. The NASDAQ Composite fell 2.65 ending at 2542.24. Standard & Poor's 500 off .72 at 1452.92. The bond market, the 10-year note gained 12/32 to 99 28/32, putting the yield down to 4.77 percent.
Big board volume leader on 19.8 million shares, EMC Corp (EMC) moving up nicely, $1.33 gain. That's 7 1/2 percent. There seems to be some excitement over an initial public offering of EM Software. That's the company's software unit and it's due out perhaps as early as tomorrow and expected to be one of this year's strongest and hottest IPOs. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's ranked EMC as its focus stock of the week and repeated a "strong buy." General Electric (GE) was a $0.06 loser.
And then that was followed by Pfizer (PFE) that dropped a dime.
Schering-Plough (SCP) moved up nearly $1. UBS Financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" on a valuation basis.
Time Warner (TWX) was up $0.18, even though the Sanford Bernstein brokerage cut its price target from $26 down to $21.50
Ford Motor (F) $0.14 gain there.
Citigroup (C) was down $0.46.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $1.59.
Bank of America (BAC) edging $0.09 lower.
And then Sprint Nextel (S) $0.64 gain.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) moved up $1.22, helping the Dow and also it led the whole tech group a bit higher today and Hewlett's earnings are due out this Thursday after the market closes as you see.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) did well, up $3.69. Bank of America upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
Alliant Tech (ATK) up $2.49. NASA has awarded the company a $1.8 billion contract to help develop NASA's next generation flight vehicle, which is called Ares number one.
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) up only $0.38, although UBS Financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" after the stock recently dropped 20 percent. UBS said that limits the downside risk.
Blackstone Group (BX), as you can see by the chart, it just went public in late June at $31 incidentally and today it had a nice move, edged up $0.43 but it traded as high as $27.25. Second quarter earnings out, excluding items $0.46, up from $0.11 last year, $0.06 above the Street estimate and of course this is the first earnings report as a public company.
Beazer Homes (BZH) down $2.85. The company has delayed filing its latest quarterly report due to questions about its accounting practices and methods.
Prepaid Legal (PPD) a good day, up nearly $7 a share on news the company is preparing to launch a national media sales campaign.
And Avnet Inc (AVT) up $2.66. Citigroup upgraded it from "hold" to "buy," did the same for Arrow Electronics, whose stock moved up $3.44.
Then Polo Ralph Lauren (PL) up $4.31. The company plans to buy back up to $250 million of its own stock.
Energizer (ENR) up $10.28. The ST Robinson Humphrey brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and has $125 a share target.
Apple (AAPL) topped NASDAQ's most active list with a gain of $2.79.
Followed by Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.56.
Then Google (GOOG) a $0.25 loss.
Research in Motion (RIMM) moved up $4.81.
Microsoft (MSFT) an $0.08 drop.
Intel (INTC) $0.04 gain there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) was up $1.03.
Amgen (AMGN) rising $1.18.
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.63 advance.
And Nvidia Corp (NVDA) was down $0.48.
There you see it, Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) plunging $3.09, huge percentage drop, almost 35 percent, suing Lone Star funds for backing out of their merger.
Then Top Tankers (TOPT) is expanding. It's buying three new ships. Meanwhile, the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to "buy." JPMorgan upgraded it from "under weight" to "neutral."
And then Sears Holdings (SHLD) up $7.45. The company narrowed its second quarter earnings outlook because of lower sales, but it plans to buy back up to $1.5 billion of its own stock.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
