Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, October 04, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street had a mixed start, with the Dow rising some 20 points at the outset while the NASDAQ Composite fell 10 points. The market moved narrowly over the next few hours, with single digit gains and losses posted by the major indices as investors weighed the latest weekly jobless claims and a 3.3 percent drop in August factory orders. The market drifted around narrowly for the rest of the session on caution over tomorrow's September employment report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average did close up 6.26 at 13,974.31. The NASDAQ Composite was up 4.14 ending at 2,733.57 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained exactly 3.25 points to close at 1,542.84. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 11/32 to 101 27/32, putting the yield at 4.52 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 12 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) losing $0.17. Then followed by Co Vale do Rio (RIO), that's the Brazilian mining conglomerate, down $0.25. It was off over $3 yesterday on a JPMorgan downgrade from "over weight" to "neutral." The stock has had quite a run up.
Citigroup (C) $0.26 drop there.
Pfizer (PFE) moved up $0.22.
Followed by ExxonMobil (XOM) with a $0.41 loss.
Micron Tech (MU) which was out with a loss yesterday for its latest quarter, down $0.13 today.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.26 gain.
SprintNextel (S) was up $0.52. Activist investor Ralph Whitworth (ph) has been critical of the CEO Gary Forsee and the board of directors.
EMC Corp (EMC) an $0.08 drop.
And then General Electric (GE) $0.15 gainer today.
United States Steel (X) down $4.11. Morgan Stanley started coverage with an "under weight" rating, did the same with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices yesterday, interestingly.
Consol Energy (CNX) down $1.81. The company now sees third quarter coal production at 14 1/2 million tons versus its July forecast of up to 17.8 million. The company cited adverse conditions at its Macelry (ph) mine and an outage at its Buchanan mine.
CF Industries (CF), fertilizer stock, up $3.67. Credit Suisse rates the fertilizer sector as "over weight" because of growing demand, especially from China and India.
Marriott Intl (MAR) down $2.04. Third quarter earnings flat, $0.33, same as last year and there's also concern of slowing growth for the company as the U.S. economy weakens.
Bois d'Arc Energy Llc (BDE), that's an interesting name for an oil exploration company mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, but since its second quarter earnings report, Bois d'Arc has drilled two more successful oil wells. The stock is doing well also.
Dresser-Rand Group (DRC) down $4.48, hurt by lower than expected after market sales. It's an oil field equipment company and today, JPMorgan cut its 2007 and 2008 earnings estimates.
Then we came again to another loss in LDK Solar Co (LDK). It was as low as $44.98 today and yesterday it dropped over $16, but today the company denied yesterday's allegations of discrepancies in its financial statements or its inventory.
Benchmark Electronics (BHE) down $2.36. The company cut its third quarter earnings estimate of $0.38 to $0.42 previously, down to $0.29 to $0.35 a share.
NASDAQ's most active Apple (AAPL) down $1.68.
Then Research in Motion (RIMM) closed up $4.26. After the close, Research had a second quarter earnings report of $0.50, double last year's $0.25. That was just in line with estimates. Revenues also doubled. In after hours trading, the stock sank as low as $94 on profit taking, but when it gave third quarter guidance, it recovered most of the after the market loss.
Google (GOOG) down $4.99.
Baidu.com (BIDU) an $0.83 gain.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.30 a share.
Intel (INTC) down $0.21.
Microsoft (MSFT), there you see it, moving up $0.26.
Garmin Ltd (GRMN) finally a gain after dropping about 20 points in the last three days, but today, Deutsche Bank said concern over Nokia's proposed takeover of Navteq has been overdone as far as competition against Garmin.
NII Holdings (NIHO) down $4.34.
And then Nutrisystem (NTRI) off nearly $16 a share. The company cut its earnings guidance for the third quarter from $0.77 to $0.82, all the way down to $0.62 to $0.66 a share. The Street was looking for $0.82 in earnings.
And Sears Holdings (SHLD) up $3.12. Activist investor Bill Ackman disclosed that he owns a 3 1/2 percent stake in Sears.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
