Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, October 12, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Today's upbeat outlook from McDonald's and that mild uptick in September wholesale inflation put Wall Street into rally mode, giving the blue chips a steady boost. By mid-session, the Dow had an 80-point gain while the NASDAQ was up 34 points. The tech sector continued strong on Oracle's surprise offer to buy BEA Systems which we'll detail later and the market overall held up well this afternoon against those record high oil futures and the usual pre-weekend caution. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 77.96 points at 14,093.08. This week, it rose twice, fell three times, but still gained 27.07 points overall. The NASDAQ was up 33.48, ending at 2805.68 today. This week it fell only once, advancing 25.36 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 7.39 to 1561.80 today and it gained 4.21 points for the week. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note fell 11/32 to par and 16/32, putting the yield at 4.69 percent.
For the second straight day topping the active list today on 25 million shares was Ford Motor Co (F) edging up $0.44, possible optimism about those UAW negotiations continuing. General Electric (GE) down $0.57 on those earnings were just in line and that downgrade from the Standard & Poor's.
Citigroup (C) fell $0.45.
Annaly Capital (NLY) very active and up $0.51. Merrill Lynch upgraded that stock from "neutral" to "buy."
General Motors (GM) doing well, up $2.65. The company said it sold 329,000 vehicles in the Latin America, Africa and the Middle East in the third quarter. That's up 22 percent from a year ago.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.19.
EMC Corp (EMC) edging up $0.06.
And then Co Vale do Rio (RIO) up $1.82. The company has approved an $11 billion 2008 budget, which is the largest ever for a mining company.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) edged up $0.16.
And then came Nokia (NOK) with a loss of $0.20. An investment house called Enscilda (ph) downgraded Nokia from "buy" to "hold" in the belief that the company's strong third quarter results were already priced in the stock.
BP Plc (BP), the big petroleum company, up $3.61 after announcing a restructuring to reduce costs. Evolution securities added or I should say upgraded it from "add" to a "buy." I'm not clear on what that might mean.
W-H Energy Services (WHQ) plunging almost $11 a share after the company cut its third quarter forecast of $1.26 in earnings, down to about $1.08 because of a slowdown in Gulf of Mexico activity.
Centex (CTX), the home builder, off $1.38. The company sees second quarter charges of almost $1 billion as sales fall 13 percent. The company said this is all due to extremely difficult housing market conditions.
Acco Brands (ABO), which is into the office products business, sees third quarter earnings or I should say revenues of about $495 million. That's well below the Street estimate of $503 million and the Robinson Humphrey brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Allegheny Technologies (ATI), the steel company, down $6.61, sees lower than expected third quarter earnings of about $1.86 to $1.87 and that's well below the $1.96 Street estimate. The company blames low operating volume in flat rolled steel products.
Rogers Corp (ROG), which is a specialty metals firm, upped its previous third quarter earnings forecast of $0.33 up to $0.44 to $0.48 a share.
And then came the Chinese stocks, all these, of the 10 biggest percentage gainers on the big board today, all the big board stocks, six of them were Chinese related and here are five of them. They are really volatile these days.
China Digital TV (STV)
China East Air (CRA)
China South Air (ZNH)
China Telecom (CMA)
Petrochina (PTR)
Baidu.com (BIDU) another Chinese-related stock, up $14.20, leading the NASDAQ's most active list.
And then came Apple (AAPL) up $5.02. Morgan Stanley boosted Apple's price target from $150 to $180 a share today.
Google (GOOG) up over $15.
And there you see BEA Systems (BEAS) gaining $5.20 on that $17 bid which it rejected.
And then Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.91.
Lot of good gains here, $0.12 advances by Intel (INTC) and Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.26.
Oracle (ORCL) itself dropped $0.02 on that bid for BEA.
And Amazon.com (AMZN) rising $3.03 a share.
Coldwater Creek (CWTR) $3.05 drop. The company sees a third quarter loss of $0.11 to $0.13 a share. The Street was looking for earnings of $0.14.
And then Biogen Idec (BIIB) closed up $2.31. After the close, the company board authorized management to evaluate if third parties would be interested in acquiring the company or if shareholders would be better off if it continues as is. Carl Icahn has a stake in this company. In after hours trading, the stock jumped about $12 to $81.50 a share. And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
