Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: That jump in the foreclosure rate put Wall Street on the defensive early today as the Dow fell 30 points an hour into trading, while the NASDAQ composite lost only 2 points. Stocks recovered nicely as oil futures dropped sharply, and investors were heartened by those reassurances that the Federal Reserve would do all it could to ease the credit crunch. At noon, the Dow posted a 30-point gain; NASDAQ was up 12 points.
The blue chips slumped this afternoon on growing doubts that a Fed funds rate cut was imminent. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 30.49 at 13,090.86. But the NASDAQ managed to gain 12.71 ending at 2521.30, while the Standard & Poor`s 500 index rose 1.57 ending at 1447.12. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 8/32 to 101 7/32, lowering the yield to 4.60 percent.
Big Board volume leader on 15.4 million shares, EMC (EMC), moving up $0.64. There were some positive comments about the company in this week`s Barens Financial. And then a week ago, as you might recall, the company sold 33 million shares of its VMware stock to the public at $29. That stock is now at $66, and EMC still owns 86 percent of VMware. So if you own or buy EMC, you`re getting VM at quite a discount.
Countrywide Financial (CFC) up $1.98. The story here, Wall Street Journal reported Warren Buffett`s Berkshire Hathaway may be a buyer for parts of Countrywide Financial.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.07. GE (GE), a $0.13 gain. Citigroup (C), down $0.33
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) up $0.27. Bank of America (BAC) dropped $0.05. Time Warner (TWX), a $0.22 gain. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was down $0.29.
And oil took a sharp drop today, and ExxonMobil (XOM) reflected that with a loss of $1.38. But it was good for airlines - that was very good for airlines, the sharp drop in oil, and AMR (AMR) did well, up $1.63.
Let`s have a look at some of the other major carriers. Continental (CAL) up $2.56. Delta (DAL) and United (UAUA) doing very well, as did US Airways Group (LCC), with a gain of $1.85. A very strong group.
Saks (SKS) down $1.11. Company ends with a second-quarter loss of $0.17. Not as big as last year`s $0.38 per share loss, but it was still a loss. Same-store sales were up 13 percent in the period.
BJ`s Wholesale Club (BJ), a $0.92 cent gain there. Second-quarter earnings were up 37 percent from last year, to $0.55 a share, and the company gave an upbeat outlook.
Dick`s Sporting Goods (DKS) up $4.85. Big second-quarter earnings. $0.83 cents, way above $0.47 a year ago and $0.07 above the street estimate. Meanwhile, Citigroup boosted its price target on Dick`s Sporting Goods to $62 a share.
Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) up $2.40. This stock will replace Ohio Casualty (OCAS) in the Standard & Poor`s midcap 400, so there was some index buying there today.
Darden Restaurants (DRI) gained $1.09. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from neutral to a buy recommendation.
On the downside, UST (UST), the smokeless tobacco company, down on word that Philip Morris will start selling chewing tobacco under the Marlboro name in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Tough competition there, possibly.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) down $2.21. This company provides ambulance services in 36 states, and Credit Suisse cut its 2007 earnings estimate and also its price target for the stock from $35 down to $28 a share.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, with a gain of $5.34. It`s in agreements with three mobile phone companies in Europe to sell Apple`s iPhones.
Research in Motion (RIMM), after a $15 gain yesterday, up another $3.26. This incidentally the first day of trading of RIMM`s 3-for-1 stock split.
Google (GOOG) up $8.69. Google accounted for 64.4 percent of U.S. July online searches on your computers.
Intel (INTC), $0.22 cent loss there. Microsoft (MSFT) was off $0.19. Cisco (CSCO), a $0.34 gain. Baidu.com (BIDU) up $9.91. Qualcomm (QCOM), $0.52 loss. Amazon.com (AMZN) will drop $2.79. And then Dell (DELL) down $0.36, tenth in volume.
Adams Respiratory Therapeutics (ARXT) down $4.62. The company had a fourth quarter loss of $0.03, versus earnings of $0.17 a share a year ago. Those disappointing results and concern about increasing competition hurt the stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
