Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened sharply higher in a technical rebound from yesterday`s steep sell-off. The buying was also linked to Hewlett-Packard`s better than expected earnings we told you about last night. At 11:00 a.m., the Dow was sporting a 128-point gain and the NASDAQ was up 36 points. That bad news from Freddie Mac, along with the surge in oil and the Fed`s prediction of slowing growth, sent the Dow to a 100-point loss at 2:30 this afternoon. But a late rally resulted in a positive close. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 51.70 at 13,010.14. The NASDAQ was up 3.43 ending at 2596.81. Standard & Poor`s 500 rose 6.43 points to 1439.70. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to 101 8/32, putting the yield at 4.10 percent.
Back at the top of the active list, Citigroup (C) today on 39 million shares, down $0.60, traded as low as $30.80.
Then came Countrywide Financial (CFC) off only $0.29, but this morning it traded as low as $8.21 on bankruptcy rumors, but the company said no, it has ample liquidity.
Fannie Mae (FNM) plunging $9.33. Yesterday the Friedman Billings brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to just "market perform."
And then came Freddie Mac (FRE) with that huge loss of $10.76. As you heard, the company lost $2 billion in the third quarter. That`s $3.29 a share. The company said it`s considering a fourth quarter dividend cut of maybe up to 15 percent. Standard & Poor`s today downgraded the stock from "hold" to a "sell."
General Electric (GE) $0.12 loss. That was fifth in volume.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropped a dime.
Pfizer (PFE) managed to gain a penny.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) $0.11 loss there.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.34.
Bank of America (BAC) a nickel drop in its stock today.
Hewlett-Packard (HWP) closed up $0.12, traded as high as $50.69 this morning. After the close yesterday, as we reported, fourth quarter earnings were $0.04 above the Street estimate. The company plans to buy back an additional $8 billion in its own stock and also it said it`s not interested in acquiring BEA Systems.
Target (TGT) down $2.21. Third quarter earnings, $0.56, down from $0.59 a year ago, $0.06 below the Street estimate, even though 3.7 percent rise in same store sales. The company plans to buy back up to $10 billion of its own stock.
Nordstrom (JWN) up $3.69. Third quarter earnings rose to $0.59 from $0.52 a year ago, same store sales up 2 1/4 percent. The company sees fourth quarter jumping to $0.88 to $0.92 a share and it set a $1 billion stock buy back.
Medtronic (MDT) up $3.17. $0.58 in second quarter earnings, down from $0.59 last year, but that was $0.02 better than Wall Street was expecting.
Office Depot (ODP) down $1.31. The company third quarter earnings fell to $0.43 from $0.45 on a restated basis and the company`s outlook was rather disappointing, though problems with the home market are hurting.
Buckeye Technologies (BKI) moved up $1.02 after Citigroup upgraded it from "sell" to a "buy."
And Consol Energy (CNX) rising $4.37. Raymond James financial brokerage upgraded it from "out perform" to a "strong buy."
Barnes & Noble (BKS), the book seller, up $4.24, real turnaround, third quarter earnings of $0.07 versus a loss of $0.04 last year. The company boosted its fiscal 2008 earnings guidance from $1.87 at best to $2.09 at best.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, up $4.90.
And then Google (GOOG) had a rather good day, up $22.69. Credit Suisse upgraded it, boosted its price target on Google from $800 to $900 a share and said because of the company`s big strength in online advertising.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.79.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.62 gain.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $6.02.
Intel (INTC) $0.35 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) dropped $0.39.
First Solar (FSLR) dropping $8.43.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.41.
And then Amazon.com (AMZN) up $1.21 on optimism about its new e-book reader which downloads books and newspapers from the Internet.
Elsewhere we had a new issue, SuccessFactors (SFSF) an online management software provider, 10.8 million shares offered at $10, opened at $13, the high $14.14, backed off a little, but still a successful debut.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
