Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: It was a narrowly mixed open on Wall Street today. The Dow spiked up some 86 points around 11:00 a.m. on what seemed like a delayed reaction to just a modest rise in July consumer inflation. That uptick quickly faded on the jump in oil prices. Stocks bounced around for the next several hours but couldn't overcome concerns about the credit market, especially considering that Merrill Lynch sell recommendation on the shares of Countrywide Financial. So the market again tanked in the final hour of trading. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 167.45 points now at 12,861.47. The NASDAQ Composite was down 40.29, ending at 2458.83. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 19.84 ending at 1406.70. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 1/32 to par and 6/32, putting the yield at 4.73 percent.
The most active big board issue on 32.2 million shares was Countrywide Financial (CFC) plunging $3.17, traded as low as $19.25 this morning after Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to "sell" on liquidity concerns in the mortgage sector. Then GE (GE) $0.78 drop.
A nickel loss in Pfizer (PFE).
Time Warner (TWX), bucked the trend with a $0.13 gain.
And then EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.20 a share.
Citigroup (C) dropped a nickel.
And a $0.07 loss and there you see Ford Motor (F), down $0.07 as they bargain with the UAW.
Bank of America (BAC) moved up $0.37. Shareholders of Sallie Mae have approved a $60 a share buyout from a private equity group and that does include Bank of America.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) was down $0.32.
And AT&T (T) $0.27 loss on that stock.
The star of the day, Deere & Co (DE) up $3.51, traded as high as $126.92 after reporting third quarter earnings up 23 percent, $2.37 a share, well above last year's $1.85. Sales were up nearly 6 percent and the company sees worldwide sales of its farm equipment up 16 percent this year.
We just saw Deere & Co, let's try another one just for kicks and see what comes up. That's better, HJ Heinz (HNZ) up $1.18. The company's forecasting first quarter sales will rise about 9 percent and it sees earnings in that period of $0.62 to $0.63 a share, well above the Wall Street estimate of $0.55 a share.
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA), one of the best percentage gainers of the day, up $2.95, traded as high as $12.11. The CEO says he hopes the company will be back to business as usual as early as next week.
KKR Financial Holding (KFN) tumbling $4.75. The company said it sold $5.1 billion of residential mortgages and took a $40 million loss. Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers downgraded the stock from "over weight" to "equal weight" and Friedman, Billings downgraded it from "out perform" to just "market perform."
Levitt Corp (LEV) losing $0.79 or 21 percent of its value on news BFC Financial has terminated its earlier merger pact with Levitt.
Agilent Tech (A) fell $3.94. Third quarter earnings dropped 19 percent to $0.45 a share, but on an adjusted basis, they were higher, $0.48, versus last year's $0.39, but that $0.48 was still a penny below the Street estimate.
Amrep Corp (AXR), a real estate company, down $3.79. The world is that Karabots foundation may sell over 447,000 shares in order to comply with an IRS code requirement. That could put some pressure on the stock.
Macy's Inc (M) down $0.63, traded as low as $30.70. Second quarter earnings tumbled 77 percent to $0.16 versus $0.57 last year.
And the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer Aircraft (ERJ) off $4.36. Second quarter earnings plunged 52 percent to only $0.36 a share from $0.75 a year ago and that was despite an 11 percent rise in sales.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $4.13.
They hit Google (GOOG) too, down $11.05.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.34 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $8.25.
Intel (INTC) off $0.58 a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.17.
Followed by Qualcomm (QCOM) with a loss of $1.69.
Finally a gainer, Verisign (VRSN) up $0.87.
Amgen (AMGN) was down $0.73. The company lowered its 2007 earnings outlook and it's going to cut about 14 percent of its workforce. That could be around 22 to 2300 jobs.
Applied Materials (AMAT) was down $0.88 a share.
Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) was off, I should say up $0.60, traded as high as $7.18. Lone Star Fund has extended its $400 million merger offer for two more weeks.
And finally, shares of Coleman Cable (CCIX) falling $8.36 or 43 percent as investors react to a big drop in second quarter earnings, $0.24 a share, well down from a $1.00 a share in the year ago period.
