Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened narrowly mixed, with the Dow losing 15 points at the outset of trading while the tech-laden NASDAQ market rose 20 points on positive analyst comments on Apple, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard and Advanced Micro Devices. That lifted the blue chips, as did growing sentiment the Fed would cut rates after weak reports came out today on manufacturing and construction spending. By mid-afternoon, the Dow was up about 128 points until some late selling trimmed that gain a bit. But the Dow still closed up 91.12 at 13,448.86. The NASDAQ Composite rose 33.88 points to 2,630.24. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 15.43 ending at 1,489.42. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to 101 18/32, putting the yield at 4.55 percent.
Most active big board issue on a hefty 49 million shares, Home Depot (HD) down $1.95. Preliminary result of the company's Dutch tender auction - the firm will buy back $299 million shares but at a price of $37. That's the very low end of its $37 to $42 proposed range, a little disappointment with that price. General Electric (GE) moved up $0.17. The company's buying Sondex, a British oil drilling inspection group, price $582 million.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.24 gain there.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.40.
And Citigroup (C) gained $0.33 a share.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.18 despite the lower August sales.
Time Warner (TWX) up $0.27.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) gained $0.79. This week's "Barron's" financial magazine has an article that's positive and makes comments on the company's consistent growth recently, positive comments.
National City (NCC) up $0.44.
And EMC Corp (EMC) was up $0.19 a share.
General Motors (GM), there you see it, up $1.18, best point gainer in the Dow on those August sales being up 6 percent, pleasant surprise.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) edged up $0.17. Credit Suisse upgraded it from "under perform" to "neutral," citing recent earnings reports from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Seagate Technology, all helping the high tech movement today.
Computer Sciences (CSC) gained $1.62. The company has been awarded a U.S. Air Force space command contract to provide technical services and that contract worth a potential $820 million.
China Eastern Airlines Ltd (CEA) up $31.56, keep in mind the stock hasn't traded since May 22nd while awaiting information as to whether Singapore Air took a stake in the company and Singapore Air disclosed today it's taken a 24 percent stake for a total of $918 million.
Manpower (MAN) down $2.84. Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral," making negative comments on several of the staffing companies like this because Merrill's economists see a 65 percent of a U.S. recession.
Exelon (EXC), that's the big Chicago-based electric power utility, up $2.84. The company boosted its full year earnings estimate by $0.15 to $4.30 a share at best, also plans to buy back $1.25 billion of its stock.
And the big percentage loser of the day, Novastar Financial (NFI) off $1.33. The company's auditor says it has doubts that the firm will be able to remain in business.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $5.68. Piper Jaffray brokerage repeated an "out perform" and of course tomorrow, Apple will unveil its new iPod.
Intel (INTC) moved up $0.43. Bank America boosted its price target from $29 to $31 a share, repeated a "buy."
Google (GOOG) was up $9.90.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.40 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.08, very active.
baidu.com (BIDU) up $8.75.
Research in Motion (RIMM) dropped $0.07. It was downgraded by Bear Stearns from "out perform" to just "peer perform."
But Yahoo! (YHOO) coming alive, up $1.24. Bear Stearns named Yahoo! as its top pick for the next 12 to 16 months.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.44.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.12 gain there.
Elsewhere, Leap Wireless Intl (LEAP), leap indeed, up nearly $11 a share. It'll be acquired by Metro PCS for 2 3/4 shares of Metro and that as of today is worth about $80.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
