Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Crude oil futures closed above $90 a barrel today in New York trading for the first time ever. Light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $90.46, up $3.36 on concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East. Traders are skittish about growing conflicts among Turkey, Kurdish rebels and Iraq. Today the speaker of Iraq`s parliament threatened to cut out oil exports to Turkey. Complicating pricing problems, U.S. crude stockpiles are now at a nine-month low. That surge in oil undermined stocks on Wall Street as the Dow fell 36 points at the outset while the NASDAQ Composite lost 16. The blue chips bounced back with a 40-
point gain an hour into trading on that news that September new home sales rose 4.8 percent, but an unexpected 1.7 percent drop in durable goods orders prompted renewed weakness in stocks, which pushed the Dow to a 104- point mid-afternoon loss. Then optimism about Microsoft`s earnings helped the market stage a late rally. The Dow Industrial Average closed off only 3.33 points at 13,671.92. The NASDAQ Composite down 23.90 ending at 2750.86. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index lost just 1.48 ending at 1514.40. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note dropped 10/32 to 102 29/32, putting the yield at 4.38 percent. The most active big board issue trading 26 million shares, EMC Corp (EMC) and a nice gain of $1.92. Third quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.23 versus $0.13 a year ago. Revenues up 17 percent. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "strong buy" on the stock.
Then came American Intl Group (AIG) closing down $2.05. Third quarter earnings due November 7th are possibly going to have a big security write down, but the stock recovered from a low today of $58.46 on reports there would be a big write down and the stock rebounded nicely and that certainly helped to cut Dow`s loss.
Citigroup (C) $0.59 drop there.
Pfizer (PFE) up $0.31.
General Electric (GE) was a $0.07 loser.
Wellcare Health (WCS) tumbling $72.73, 63 percent drop and it traded as low as $40. The CEO confirmed that Federal and state account agents raided the company`s headquarters in Tampa, Florida yesterday with search warrants for certain documents. The company is cooperating and its services for Medicare and Medicaid are uninterrupted and no comment interestingly from anyone involved in this.
Countrywide Finl (CFC) was down $0.76. The company`s being pressured by an investment group to hire former SEC chief accountant Lynn Turner (ph) to replace Henry Cizneros (ph).
Motorola (MOT) moved up $0.75 a share. Third quarter operating earnings tumbled to only $0.02 from $0.29 a year ago and sales were down 17 percent, but the company forecasting fourth quarter operating earnings will rise to $0.12 to $0.14 a share.
Then Merrill Lynch (MER) down $2.32 after that big loss that took $8 billion.
Bank of America (BAC) off $0.48, was tenth in volume.
MBIA (MBI), this company insures financial obligations. Third quarter earnings dropped to $1.52 from $1.55 a year ago, but that excludes $1.80 charge for a write down in the company`s derivatives portfolio.
Aetna (AET) up $3.09, good earnings third quarter, $0.95, up from $0.85 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor`s repeated a "strong buy" on the stock.
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH), this is an orthopedics products firm, third quarter earnings tumbled to only $0.19 from $0.76 a year ago and that does include a charge for a civil settlement. The company cut its fourth quarter guidance by $0.12 a share down to $1.04.
Then Vmware (VMN) up $10.48. Third quarter earnings tripled, $0.18 versus $0.06 a year ago, a penny above the Street estimate. Revenues soared 90 percent and remember that EMC, our volume leader on the big board today, still owns 86 percent of this firm, which went public just in August at $29, had one big rise.
Cummins (CM), the diesel engine maker, down $22.17. Third quarter earnings higher, $1.84, versus $1.69, but $0.11 below the Street estimate, no room for disappointment these days.
Sturm Ruger & Co (RGR), the fire arms manufacturer, tumbling $6.45, third quarter loss out today of $0.03 a share versus earnings of $0.04 a year ago.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down $3.15.
Followed by Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.74. And then after hours on those better than expected earnings I saw the stock as high as $35.60.
Google (GOOG) down $7.31.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off $4.96.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) down $2.57. Third quarter earnings dropped to $0.18 from $0.38 a year ago, hurt by disappointing subscriber growth.
Then we see Baidu.com (BIDU) losing $1.70.
Intel (INTC) fell $0.12.
Celgene (CELG) $5.96 drop.
NII Holdings (NIHO) tumbling $13.39, used to be called Nextel International. Third quarter earnings of $0.61 or $0.07 above the Street estimate, but subscriber growth here again disappointing.
Then we see Cisco Systems (CSCO) losing $0.08 and that was tenth in NASDAQ volume.
New issue, Ulta Salon Cosmetics (ULTA), which is in the cosmetics and fragrance business, went public today on 8.4 million shares offered at $18, opened at $33 and the high of the day, $35, very nice debut indeed.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
