Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 27, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street moved lower this morning, as profit takers cashed in after last week's sharp gains. The market was also undermined in the early going by that news of a fifth straight monthly decline in existing home sales. Just before noon, the Dow posted a 57 point loss and the NASDAQ was off 18. Persistent concerns that the problems in the housing and mortgage industries could bring on a recession kept stocks on the defensive for the rest of the session. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 56.74 points at 13,322.13. The NASDAQ Composite was down 15.44 at 2561.25. Standard & Poor's 500 off 12.58 ending at 1466.79. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 11/32 to 101 13/32, putting the yield down to 4.57 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 12.3 million shares which isn't really very active, down $1 was Countrywide Financial (CFC). Lehman Brothers cut its price target from $30 to $28 a share and expects the company to post a third quarter loss of $0.75 a share. Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.02 gain.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.33.
General Electric (GE) a $0.41 loss there.
And Bank of America (BAC) dropped exactly $1 a share.
Time Warner (TWX) edged $0.03 higher.
Tenet Healthcare (THC) gained a penny. Deutsche Bank securities upgraded it from "sell" to "hold."
Citigroup (C) lost $0.71.
And then Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) moving up $0.08. The company is gearing up to make small acquisitions in the grocery business to take on Tesco. That's the British grocer which is expanding its U.S. operations.
ExxonMobil (XOM) topped out the active list, tenth, with a $0.57 loss.
Altria Group (MO) a $0.89 gain there. The company told the "New York Times" it's considering spinning off its overseas division for its cigarette business in order to help boost its stock price.
United States Steel (X) edged up, I should say down $0.38 on news it will acquire the Canadian steel company called Stelco. They'll pay $38.50 a share Canadian for Stelco and that stock in Canadian funds jumped $10.70 today, a 40 percent rise. It closed at $37.63, big day for Stelco.
Alcan (AL), the big aluminum company, up $0.54. Rio Tinto has received U.S. antitrust approval for its $38 billion take over of Alcan.
Aluminum Corp of China (ACH) in sympathy with that Alcan news, up very nicely, $13.33 gain.
And China Life Insurance Co (LFC) up $10.93. The company's first half profit more than doubled from last year.
And still another strong Chinese stock, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical (SHI), the big petrochemical, the company posted sharply higher first half profits on a 14 percent jump in sales, all of those to record highs.
Then Tiffany & Co (TIF) moving up $2.20. The "Wall Street Journal" reported the company is planning to sell its flagship property in Tokyo to Goldman Sachs for $318 million.
Safeway (SWY), the big grocery chain, down $1.05. Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "neutral" to "sell" in the expectation that the stock will under perform the rest of the market this year and next year.
And then Marsh & McLennan Cos (MMC), the big insurance firm, up $0.27. The company plans to buy back up to $800 million of its own stock.
NASDAQ's most active Apple (AAPL) down $3.05, a little profit taking there.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.37 gain.
Google (GOOG) fell $1.74.
Intel (INTC) $0.34 drop.
But Baidu.com (BIDU) among those very strong Chinese stocks today, up $8.74.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down $0.32.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.35 gain.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $0.60.
Crocs (CROX) is expanding from footwear into the clothing line for Crocs and it's up nearly $1 on the news.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $0.75 drop.
Superconductor Technologies (SCON), look at that gain, over 78 percent, on news the company's in talks with another Chinese firm which makes push to talk handsets. This will be a joint venture apparently.
And then Carolina National (CNCP), this is a bank holding company, it's First National Bancorp will acquire it for $21.65 a share in either cash or stock of First National Bancorp.
And then ID Systems (IDSY) moving up $1.73. Wal-Mart will use the company's industrial equipment tracking systems in 13 more of its stores and that would bring the total to 21 stores where the system is being used.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
