Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 20, 2007
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with modest gains thanks to those lower oil prices and higher markets in Asia and Europe. The Dow posted a 26-point advance at 11:00 a.m. and the NASDAQ was up 6 points. The early upturn gave way to those lingering concerns over woes in the credit market. At 1:30 this afternoon, the Dow was off 85 points. Low volume on the sell-off and that drop in bond yields prompted a late rally resulting in a mixed close for stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 42.27 at 13,121.35. The NASDAQ Composite gained 3.56 to 2508.59 but the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost .39, ending at 1445.55. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 14/32 to par and 30/32, lowering the yield to only 4.63 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 21.1 million shares was Countrywide Financial (CFC) losing $1.62. Bank America upgraded it from "sell" to "neutral" but Keefe Bruyette & Woods downgraded it from "market perform" to "under perform." (INAUDIBLE) reportedly the Office of Thrift Supervision is closely monitoring the company's business practices.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.23 gain.
While General Electric (GE) lost that much.
Citigroup (C) in a weak financial sector, down $0.42.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lost $0.52 a share.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.41.
Time Warner (TWX) bucked the trend, up $0.13.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $0.14 drop.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.17.
And then EMC Corp (EMC) $0.36 gain.
American Express (AXP) was down $0.21. The "London Sunday Times" reported the company has put its private banking business up for sale and it could fetch as much as $400 to $500 million.
Consol Energy FMC Corp (CNX) edged up $0.45. The company is boosting its quarterly dividend by 43 percent. It will go from $0.07 to $0.10 a share quarterly.
FMC (FMC), this is the big chemical company, up $0.63. The company announced it's declaring a two for one stock split.
Then we see KKR Financial Holdings (KFN) up $1.24. The company is going to sell 16 million of its shares to institutional investors at a price of $14.40 a share. That'll raise $230 million. And then it's going to offer $270 million in stock to existing shareholders also at that price of $14.40 a share, all of this o improve company liquidity.
Freeport-McMoran C&G (FCX) up $3.06 on news Atticus Capital has boosted its stake in the firm from 6.4 to 7 1/2 percent. Then the big Danish pharmaceutical company up $5.31. Novo-Nordisk (NVO) said its phase three trials of its diabetes drug improved glucose control and also lowered body weight.
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) down $1.54. The company sold a substantial part of its AAA rated mortgage securities portfolio and also significantly cut its borrowing. It's going to take a third quarter capital loss of $930 million. Then McGraw Hill (MHP) down $1.41. JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to "neutral." Now McGraw owns Standard & Poor's, the rating service.
And at the same time, here's another rating service, Moody's (MCO) down $4.09. Both companies down apparently on news that on Friday, the Senate Banking Committee has called for an examination of credit rating agencies regarding the sub-prime mortgage security market.
Looking at the NASDAQ's most active, Research in Motion (RIMM) did rather well, up $15.47. Goldman Sachs made very positive comments about the company's subscriber growth. Goldman Sachs' price target on RIMM is $295 a share.
Apple (APPL) was up $0.16.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.23 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.41 gain there.
Google (GOOG) down $2.12 on NASDAQ.
Microsoft (MSFT) edged a penny higher.
Qualcomm (QCOM) a $0.12 loss.
baidu.com (BIDU) was up $11.04.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) down $0.62.
And then Crocs (CROX), the footwear maker, up $4.91. The Webush Morgan brokerage highlighted the company's strong growth abroad and this all appears in the latest issue of "Smart Money."
Elsewhere, First Solar (FSLR) up $8.80 a share. Deutsche Bank upgraded it from "hold" to "buy" on a valuation basis.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
