Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, September 21, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Buyers took command on Wall Street this morning as strong earnings from Nike and Oracle bolstered bullish confidence. A little rebound in the dollar also helped the Dow gain 102 points by mid-session when the NASDAQ Composite was up 22 points. The market faded this afternoon as the greenback slumped again and normal pre-weekend caution sent buyers to the sidelines, but the major averages still ended moderately higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 53.49 points at 13,820.19. This week, it fell twice, rose three times, had a net overall advance of 377.67 points. The NASDAQ Composite rose 16.93, ending at 2671.22 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week and it gained 69.04 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up exactly 7 points today at 1525.75 and it gained 41 1/2 points exactly for the week. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 18/32 to par 31/32, putting the yield to 4.63 percent.
The most active big board issue trading a very active 28.8 million shares, Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.07.
Followed by General Electric (GE) with a one penny gain.
Then ExxonMobil (XOM) moving up $0.22.
Followed by Time Warner (TWX) which fell $0.31.
Boston Scientific (BSX) was up a nickel a share.
AT&T (T) rose $0.50. The company plans to spend $750 million to upgrade its fiber network in the state of Florida.
Citigroup (C) rose $0.31.
And then Schering-Plough (SGP) up $0.30.
Bank of America (BAC) $0.45 advance.
And then came Ford Motor Co (F), tenth in volume, dropping $0.02.
Texas Instruments (TXN) moved up $0.85, traded as high as $37.10 today. The company's boosting its quarterly dividend by 25 percent, up to $0.10 a share and TXN also plans to buy back an additional $5 billion of its own stock. Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong buy" on Texas today.
Nike (NKE) down $1.06, although it traded as high as $61 today after reporting first quarter earnings late yesterday of $1.12, up from $0.74. Excluding one-time items, those earnings were $0.92, but that was still $0.05 better than the Wall Street consensus.
China Eastern Airlines (CEA) up another $10.36. Yesterday that stock jumped $26.24 on reports that along with a joint partner, it's going to start up a regional carrier in China and today there was a report out suggesting that a wave of mergers of Chinese airlines may be on the horizon.
IHS (IHS), this is an energy services firm, third quarter earnings $0.35, up from $0.28 last year. Revenues jumped 31 percent and the company's upbeat on the rest of the year, nice move in the stock.
Tektronix (TEK) however, down $2.69. It had higher first quarter earnings of $0.40 versus $0.35 last year, but the company said its orders in the period fell 5 percent from the previous year and Goldman Sachs cut earnings estimates.
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) losing $1.16. JPMorgan downgraded it from "neutral" to an "under weight" rating.
Then the big loser of the day, Harman Intl Industries (HAR), maker of audio equipment, plunging $27.25. Kohlberg, Kravitz Roberts and Goldman Sachs investors reportedly this morning were souring on an $8 billion leveraged buyout of the firm. That was equal to $120 a share and as the market was closing, Harman officials said that the private equity investors are indeed walking away from the deal. In after hours trading, Harman traded just above $82 a share, a big lose there.
Mosaic Co (MOS) up $2.83. Citigroup upgraded it from "sell" to "hold" and Citigroup put "buy" recommendations on three other fertilizer stocks.
Let's have a look how they fared. Agrium (AGU) up $3.10.
$4 gain in CF Industries (CF).
And Terra Industries (TRA) up $2.17, nice moves there.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ as usual these days, up $3.84.
Followed by Google (GOOG) up $7.27.
Microsoft (MSFT) rose $0.23.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.94 and it traded as high as $22.17. After the close yesterday, Oracle had first quarter earnings of $0.16 versus $0.13 the year before. Revenues jumped 26 percent. Standard & Poor's today repeated a "strong buy" on Oracle.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.09 gainer.
Intel (INTC) $0.06 rise there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.95.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $8.52.
Yahoo! (YHOO) rose $0.76.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) a $0.29 gain.
RTW Inc (RTW), this company is in the insurance business, up $3.90. Rockhill Holdings will acquire it for $12.45 a share in cash.
And Pool Corp (POOL), which is in the swimming pool business, down $3.29. The company cut its full year earnings guidance from a high of $1.85 to as low as $1.45 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
