Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street staged a solid rally this morning on news that the August producer price index fell 1.4 percent when just a 0.3 percent drop was expected. Better than expected results from Lehman Brothers also encouraged investors. By noon, the Dow was up almost 100 points and the NASDAQ posted a 16 point gain. The market held that level until 2:15 this afternoon when the Fed rate cuts were announced. After that stocks headed skyward. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed to a closing gain of 335.97 points at 13,739.39. The NASDAQ Composite shot up exactly 70 points to 2651.66. Standard & Poor's 500 vaulted 43.13 points, ending at 1519.78. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 2/32 to 102 6/32, putting the yield at 4.48 percent.
The most active big board issue on 19.1 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving up $1.50 at a five-year closing high, although the company will take a $1.4 billion third quarter charge related to divesture of its Japanese personal loan operations.
Then came one of the strong financial group, Citigroup (C) up $2.41.
Pfizer (PFE) rose $0.41.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.14.
Another strong financial, Bank of America (BAC) up $1.72.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) did well, up $1.12.
Then you see Lehman Brothers (LEH) up $5.87 on the smaller than expected third quarter drop in earnings, better than expected indeed.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $2.53 in the strong financial sector.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on those record oil prices, up $2.50.
And AT&T (T) moved up $0.83 a share.
American Express (AXP), one of the stronger Dow stocks, up $2.60. The company's going to sell its international banking subsidiary to Standard Charter Group for about $1.1 billion.
Let's have a look at some of the other big Dow gainers, Caterpillar (CAT), IBM (IBM), 3M Co (MMM) and United Technologies (UTX) all doing very well. Incidentally, there was only one of the Dow 30 that fell and that was Boeing (BA) and it dropped only $0.10 a share.
Best Buy Co (BBY) did well, up $2.92. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.55 a share, up from $0.47 a year ago, $0.11 better than the Street was expecting. Same store sales rose 3.6 percent.
McGraw Hill Companies (MHP) doing well, up $4.29. The company reaffirmed that it expects double digit earnings growth this year. Of course this company owns Standard & Poor's and in sympathy a similar company, Moody's investors, rose $4.33.
Gains all over the place, including Cummins Inc (CMI) up $12.76. This company reaffirmed its 2007 earnings will be in the range of $7.15 to $7.65 a share.
AutoZone (AZO) up $4.50. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $3.23, up from $2.92 a year ago. Revenues rose 3 percent during that period.
Then Gildan Activewear (GIL) up $4.25. The T-shirt manufacturer expects to achieve or exceed the high end of its 2007 earnings guidance which is $1.80 to $1.85 a share. The company is also going to acquire socks manufacturer VI Prewett and Son Incorporated for $125 million.
Kroger Co (KR), the big grocery chain doing well, up $2.07. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.38, up from last year's $0.29 and that was $0.04 above the Wall Street consensus.
Sonoco Products (SON) or Sonoco Products down $2.42. The company cut its third quarter earnings estimate of $0.62 to $0.65, all the way down to $0.55 to $0.58 when the Street was expecting $0.63 a share.
And then Furniture Brands Intl (FBN) losing nearly $1. The company sees third quarter sales dropping 12 percent and it expects to post a lost of $0.19 to $0.23 a share.
Let's have a look at some of the home building stocks, how well they did in reaction to those rate cuts today, big gains all the way from Beazer Homes (BZH) down to (Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV), NDC Holdings (MDC), Ryland Group (RYL)) Standard Pacific (SPF) today.
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) up $2.51.
Followed by Baidu.com (BIDU) up another nearly $16 after an $18 jump yesterday.
Nearly a $10 gain in Google (GOOG).
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.21.
Intel (INTC) gained $0.56 a share.
Then Cisco Systems (CSCO) rising $0.54.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $4.08.
Adobe Systems (ADBE) edged up $0.65.
$0.80 gain for Qualcomm (QCOM).
And then came Amazon.com (AMZN) rising $1.84 a share.
Finally Factory Card & Party Outlet (FCPO) up $8.15, nearly doubling or more than doubling. I think shareholders are having a party tonight on news that AAH Holdings will acquire this company for $16.50 a share in cash.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
