Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The end of the GM strike far out shadowed that drop in durable goods orders on Wall Street this morning, as stocks moved steadily higher from the opening bell. At noon, the Dow was already sporting an 82 point gain and the NASDAQ was up 22 points. The market had a mid-afternoon mild fade and then it came on strong in the last hour, after speculation heated up that Bear Stearns was close to selling a minority stake to an outside investor and "The New York Times" reported Warren Buffett was looking at investing in the beleaguered investment bank. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a closing gain of 99 1/2 points exactly at 13,878.15. The NASDAQ Composite rose 15.58 to 2,699.03, while the Standard & Poor's 500 was up 8.21 ending at 1,525.42. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 2/32 to 101 even. That put the yield at 4.62 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue on nearly 25 million shares was Ford Motor Co (F) moving up $0.54. Standard & Poor's rating services put its long-term credit ratings on Ford and related entities on credit watch with positive implications.
Then General Motors (GM) of course with that nice gain of $3.22 on the end of the strike.
Tesoro (TSO) down $1.31. Credit Suisse brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to just a "neutral" rating.
General Electric (GE) up $0.17.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.34 advance.
Citigroup (C) up $0.24.
Newmont Mining (NEM), the big gold stock, down $2.79. The company says higher costs of its gold sales could top previous estimates of $375 to $400 an ounce. The company also said it may have trouble finding new reserves to make up for its older tapped out gold mines, not good news for that producer.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.25.
And then Merrill Lynch (MER) closed down only $0.37, but it traded as low as $69.91 in the morning after Goldman Sachs said Merrill is facing a $1.5 billion third quarter loss on its fixed income business. The analyst at Goldman cut third quarter earnings from $1.95 to only $0.15 a share. The Street was expecting at least $1.80.
Then Co Vale do Rio Doce (RIO) down or I should say up $0.94, tenth in big board volume.
Chevron (CVX) moved up $0.63. The company plans to buy back up to $15 billion in stock over the next three years.
Bear Stearns (BSC) itself up $8.76. There's speculation the company's close to selling a minority stake to another investment house or bank. Rumored suitors include Wachovia, HSBC or some big Chinese bank and the "New York Times" this afternoon reported Warren Buffett may want to take a 20 percent stake, just speculation.
Metlife (MET) moved up $1.13. The board has approved a $1 billion stock buyback there after an early $1 billion buyback plan is completed.
Emergent Biosolutions (EBS), one of the best percentage gainers, up $1.43. The company has signed a three-year, $448 million contract to sell its Biothrax anthrax vaccine to the Department of Health and Human Services, nice move there.
On the downside, Fremont General (FMT) tumbled nearly $1 and traded as low as $3.92 after the company said an investment group that agreed to buy $80 million of the company's stock or a 16 percent stake last spring is now backing out of the deal.
Timberland (TBL), the boot maker, down $1.63. Company sees third quarter sales falling significantly, is going to close most of its retail shops.
Under Armour (UA) down $3.95. The sportswear marketer is downgraded by UBS from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Then the big steel maker, Worthington Industries (WOR) moving up $1.62 despite sharply lower first quarter earnings of $0.24 versus $0.48 a year ago, but that was $0.02 better than the Street consensus.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $0.41.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.18. Citigroup started coverage of RMM (ph) with a "buy." Lehman boosted its 2000 (sic) earnings estimate from $2.76 to $3.04 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.55 gain there.
Google (GOOG) dropped $0.84.
And baidu.com (BIDU), profit taking, down $12 even.
Intel (INTC) a $0.02 gainer.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.06 drop there.
Maxim Integrated (MXIM) up $0.32.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.69 gain.
And then Oracle (ORCL) was down $0.17.
And finally, shares in Resources Connection (RECN) tumbled $6.69 after reporting lower than expected first quarter earnings of $0.23 per share, a nickel below Wall Street estimates.
