Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, October 11, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a strong rally as those weak retail sales were overshadowed by Wal-Mart's boost in earnings guidance and rallies in Asian and European markets helped and so did a drop in the trade deficit. In a steady advance, the Dow was well into record territory by 1:30 this afternoon, posting a 113-point gain, while the NASDAQ was up 20 points. Then came a burst of selling in the high tech stocks, which sent the NASDAQ plummeting to a 52-point loss at 3:30 p.m. and the Dow off 120 points. Some late buying however trimmed the losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off a more moderate 63.57 at 14,015.12. The NASDAQ Composite was down 39.41 at 2,772.20. Standard & Poor's 500 fell 8.06 ending at 1,554.41. In the bond market, the 10-year note climbed 4/32 to par and 28/32, putting the yield at 4.64 percent.
Most active big board issue on nearly 27 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) moving up $0.53. As you heard, UAW has begun negotiations on a new labor contract with Ford. Citigroup (C) did well, up $1.18.
EMC Corp (EMC) an $0.18 rise.
Then a new issue, Virgin Mobil USA (VM), this is a joint venture between Sprint Nextel and Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which is privately owned, 27 1/2 million shares, initial public offering today priced at $15, opened at $15, the high of the day $16.63. Then it backed off a little, but still closed above its offering price.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), the star of the Dow, up $1.31. As you heard, the company boosted its third quarter earnings guidance. It was $0.62 to $0.65 and now it sees $0.66 to $0.69 will be the figure.
General Motors (GM) doing well, up $1.86. Sixty six percent of the UAW workers at GM ratified the new four-year labor pact there and today Citigroup repeated a "buy" on GM stock, boosted its price target from $41 to $46 a share.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.09 loss.
Co vale do Rio (RIO) down $0.15.
Then General Electric (GE) lost $0.21.
Qwest Communications (Q), tenth in volume, down $0.15.
Pepsico (PEP) fell $1.83 despite third quarter earnings rising 11 percent. Excluding items, they came in at $0.99 a share, $0.03 above the Street estimate. But the Gatorade sales for the company were disappointing and the company also sees operating costs rising because of higher commodity prices.
A very weak retail sector overall today, JC Penney Co (JCP) down $4.73. September same store sales dropped 4.6 percent and the company cut its third quarter earnings estimate from $1.28 down to as low as $1 a share.
Nordstrom (JWN) another retailer weak, down $3.64. The company cut its third quarter earnings forecast from about $0.62, down to only $0.51 a share.
And the Men's Wearhouse (MW) off $4.32 after cutting its third quarter guidance of $0.73, down to about $0.68 a share.
But finally, a retailer on the upside, Aeropostale (ARO) gaining $1.79. September same store sales rose 1.3 percent. The company repeated its third quarter earnings forecast of $0.43 to $0.45 a share. A year ago, they earned only $0.41.
Ruby Tuesday (RT), the restaurant chain, down $2.57. Lower first quarter earnings, $0.21 versus $0.37 last year. Same store sales dropped 4.8 percent.
Winnebago Industries (WGO), the RV manufacturer, closed up $0.28, but during the day, it was high as $32.35 after reporting higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.49, up from $0.30 last year and revenues rose 16 percent.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $4.56, even though Goldman Sachs boosted its price target on Apple stock from $165 to $190 a share.
Google (GOOG) under a little profit taking pressure, off $3.39.
Baidu.com (BIDU) tumbled $34.39. JPMorgan cut its third quarter revenue estimate for Baidu from $67.9 million to $65.7 million.
Research in Motion (RIMM) getting hit by some profit taking, off $5.88.
And then Intel (INTC) $0.45 loss.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.47.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.32 drop there.
Sandisk (SNDK) off $2.98.
Amazon.com (AMZN) hit for a $5.32 loss.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.83.
Cortex Pharmaceuticals (COR) down $1.07, losing over 59 percent of its value on word the FDA will not approve the company's new drug application for its attention deficit disorder treatment because of toxicity concerns.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
