Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, September 13, 2007
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips posted strong opening gains as buyers were impressed by McDonald's 50 percent boost in its annual dividend and Citigroup's "buy" recommendation on General Motors stock. A rally in the investment banking sector on positive comments from an analyst added to the bullish fervor. By noon the Dow was sporting a 147 point gain and the NASDAQ was up 13 points. Stubbornly high oil prices caused the market to ease a bit this afternoon, but not by much. The Dow Industrial Average still closed up 133.23 points at 13,424.88. The NASDAQ Composite rose 8.99 ending at 2601.06. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 12.39 to 1483.95. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 12/32 to 102 9/32, putting the yield at 4.46 percent. Big board volume leader on 17 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) moving up $0.42. Ford said it has extended its UAW labor talks beyond tomorrow's midnight deadline.
General Electric (GE) up $0.61.
Countrywide Financial (CFC), there you see it, a big gain of $2.31. The company did say its August mortgage loan funding dropped 17 percent from a year ago, but now it's arranged for an additional $12 billion in borrowing capacity.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.44 gain.
And then General Motors (GM) up $3.04. The Citigroup brokerage began coverage with a "buy" recommendation and a $41 a share target for GM. Also helping, growing optimism the company and the UAW may come to an agreement on health care and labor issues soon. If they don't the UAW has reportedly picked General Motors as its lead strike target.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.04.
And then Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) I'm getting my Ls mixed up here, Alcatel-Lucent down $0.88. You heard the company slash its sales and earnings forecast. It does see just a break even third quarter incidentally.
AT&T (T) $0.91 gain.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in a strong investment banking group up $1.13.
And then Citigroup (C) itself moved up $0.60 a share.
McDonald's (MCD) rising $3.10. McDonald's and General Motors $3 gains together accounted for about 50 points of the Dow's 133 point closing gain incidentally. And then we've heard McDonald's boosting its dividend by 50 percent to $1.50 a year, said more hikes may be in the offing.
Prudential Financial (PRU) up $2.94. Credit Suisse upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform" in the belief the company's sub-prime exposure will result in just modest losses.
And the investment banking group was very strong today, led by Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH). Bernstein Research noted that the investment bank stocks are at 10-year lows on a price to book basis. Let's have a look at some of the others in the group and they all did very well.
Bear Stearns (BSC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Merrill Lynch (MER), Morgan Stanley (MS) all multiple point gains.
Borg-Warner (BWA) up $1.02. Citigroup is positive on the auto parts makers on that optimism about a possible accord between General Motors and the UAW.
Target (TGT) up $1.70. The company may sell up to $7 billion in its credit card receivables.
And then we see Nucor (NUE) the steel company up $2.84. It's going to acquire Nelson Steel for $54 million in cash and it said the acquisition should boost earnings immediately.
Another steel maker, ArcelorMittal (MT) up $3.50. The company announced the start of a new 27 million share stock buyback program.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) edging up $0.35.
Followed by Intel (INTC) down $0.11 there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $1.30. A Federal circuit court has granted a stay allowing device makers like Motorola and Samsung to import phones containing Qualcomm chips.
Research in Motion (RIMM) edged up $0.29.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) lost $0.27 a share.
Then Amgen (AMGN) up $1.48.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.23 gain there.
Google (GOOG) rising $2.13.
Sandisk (SNDK) down $1.76.
And then came Ebay (EBAY) with a gain of $0.88 a share.
Cephalon (CEPH) tumbling nearly $4 a share. The company warned doctors about possible failed side effects from its cancer pain drug called Fentora.
And Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) down $2.12, huge percentage drop there. The company makes high definition televisions and it had a turnaround, fourth quarter earnings of $0.11 versus a loss of $0.11 a year ago, but that was still a penny below the Street estimate and the CFO's resigning and on top of that, the company sees first quarter sales outlook very disappointing.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
