Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened higher as the Dow rose 53 points at the outset of trading on carryover momentum from yesterday's huge rally, but those tepid retail sales numbers and the rise in oil futures put a damper on the upturn. By late morning, the Dow was off three points and the NASDAQ down eight. An afternoon rebound attempt failed as oil continued to surge, while worries about the credit crunch persisted. A late sell-off took the market to a broadly lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ending down 76.08 at 13,231.01. The NASDAQ Composite lost 29.33 points ending at 2644.32, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 10.47 ending at 1470.58. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 3/32 to 99 30/32 putting the yield at 4.26 percent. For the tenth consecutive trading session, Citigroup (C) topped the active list, today on 39.8 million shares, closed up $0.14, traded as high as $37.29 during the day. The company's in the midst of selling $4 billion in 10-year notes, no yield on them yet that we've seen.
Mylan (MYL) $0.23 loss. That company's in the midst of a 53.3 million share offering priced at $14 a share.
Then a new issue, Och-Ziff Capital (OZM) went public today on 36 million shares offered at $32, opened at $32.75, got as high as $32.80 and then backed down and ended below the offering price, not a great debut there.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.15.
And then General Electric (GE) closed down $0.20 a share. The CEO quashed speculation the company would sell its NBC Universal unit after the 2008 Olympics. And then after the market closed, the stock fell to $38.55 on a "Barron's" report that a short-term bond fund GE manages has suffered sub-prime losses and it's offering its investors $0.96 on the dollar to redeem their holdings.
Moving along we see Pfizer (PFE) a $0.06 gainer.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.02 drop.
Merrill Lynch (MER) up $1.03, positive reaction to the new management.
And United Rental (URI) down $10.51. The story here is that Cerberus Capital Management has withdrawn its $34.50 take over bid. Apparently the credit crunch is making fundraising difficult for big takeovers.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.66 loss there, tenth in big board volume.
Bear Stearns Cos (BS) gained $2.40. Then the chief operating officer says the company's leveraged finance business is improving, but the company will take a $1.2 billion fourth quarter sub-prime write down. Meanwhile, the state of Massachusetts filed a complaint against the company regarding alleged illegal trading by two of Bear Stearns failed hedge funds.
Pepsico (PEP) moved up $0.72 a share. The company reaffirmed its 2007 earnings guidance of at least $3.39 a share. That's a penny above the Wall Street consensus.
Then Hershey Co (HSY) down $1.86. Bear Stearns downgraded it from "peer perform" to "under perform" on the specter of the need for higher research and development costs.
McCormick & Co (MKC) up $1.61. It's in a pact to buy another spice company, Lawry's division of Unilever for $605 million in cash.
MetroPCS Communications (PCS) up $1.68. Third quarter earnings almost doubled to $0.15, versus $0.08 last year. The revenues up a hefty 41 percent and those earnings were $0.02 better than the Street was expecting.
Leggett & Platt (LEG), which is in the furnishings business, is going to sell a number of its less profitable operations and it will boost its quarterly dividend from $0.18 to $0.25 a share and buy back up to 10 million of its own shares.
Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd (EXM) down $5.75. Third quarter earnings came in sharply higher, $0.96 versus $0.50 last year, but that was $0.11 below the Street estimate.
And then McDermott Intl (MDR) up $3.38. Calyon Securities issued a "buy" recommendation. One of the company's units also got a nice contract as you see.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ down $3.85.
Google (GOOG) still under some pressure, off $18.87.
But baidu.com (BIDU) up $2.55. Citigroup repeated a "buy" on baidu.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.60.
Fred's Inc (FRED) $0.48 loss. That was fifth in NASDAQ volume.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.53.
$0.43 drop in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Intel (INTC) down $0.29.
Qualcomm (QCOM) edged up $0.88. A district court at The Hague ruled in favor of Qualcomm against Nokia in a patent case over there.
And then First Solar (FSLR) was down $2.68.
Greater Community Bancorp (GFLS) up $5.80. The story here, Oratani Financial will acquire the firm for cash and stock worth $21.40 a share.
And Daktronics (DAKT) plunging $8.68. Second quarter earnings dropped to $0.19 from $0.22 a year ago, $0.03 below the Street estimate and the company's future earnings guidance was a bit disappointing.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
