Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened higher in a technical rebound from two straight sessions of steep losses. Some of the buying was prompted by better than expected earnings from Goldman Sachs and relief that the firm's exposure to Morgan's losses was modest. Strong results from Best Buy added to the buying. The Dow jumped 85 points early on. NASDAQ rose 20. The gains evaporated as those declines in housing starts and permits took their toll. At noon, the Dow posted a 58-point loss. But the tech sector took the lead in the afternoon, helping the overall market to a nicely higher close. The Dow Industrial Average gained 65.27 points to 13,232.47. The NASDAQ Composite rose 21.57 ending at 2,596.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 9.08 putting it at 1,454.98. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note advanced 8/32 to 101 2/32, putting the yield at 4.12 percent.
Familiar name at the top of the big board active list and that was none other than Citigroup (C) trading 26 1/2 million shares, down $0.39.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) up $0.40.
General Electric (GE) gained $0.32. Deutsche Bank issued a "buy" on GE with a price target of $44 a share. DB thinks the company's energy unit will benefit from strong demand for wind turbines.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.01 gain there. Dow Jones news reports leading potential buyers for the company's Jaguar and Land Rover units are Tada (ph) Motors of India and One Equity Partners, which is a unit of JPMorgan Chase.
Bank of America (BAC) in there with a $0.20 loss.
Advanced Micro (AMD) down $0.27.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $0.63 loss.
Time Warner (TWX) moved up $0.15.
Washington Mutual (WM) $0.25 drop.
And then Qwest Communications (Q) with a $0.24 gain.
Goldman Sachs (GS) down $7.12 despite those strong fourth quarter earnings, $7.01, $0.40 better than expected and way up from $6.59 a year ago. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" on the stock, but also cut its earnings estimate in the belief that investment banking backlogs are in decline.
Let's have a look at some other big investment banks affected by all this news and they're all down. Bear Stearns (BSC), Merrill Lynch (MER), Morgan Stanley (MS) with modest losses.
Best Buy Co (BBY) moved up just $0.48 despite big third quarter earnings, $0.53, up from $0.31 a year ago, $0.12 above the Street consensus. Same store sales up 6.7 percent. But the company says fourth quarter earnings will be about $1.70 to $1.80 and that's below the Street consensus of $1.82 a share.
Spartech (SEH) up $1.83. It's in the plastics business and it had a sharp drop in fourth quarter earnings, only $0.08, versus $0.27 last year, but $0.07 above the Wall Street estimate and up went the stock.
Quicksilver Resources (KWK) up $8.24. The oil producer predicted 2008 oil production volume will rise 20 percent over this year and it sees a 70 percent jump in natural gas production next year. RBC boosted its price target from $56 to $62 a share and Citigroup holds a $68 a share price target on it.
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) up $2.14. The board has approved $150 million buyback of class A stock. Goldman Sachs repeated a "buy" on Dreamworks.
Factset Research (FDS) down $3.37. First quarter earnings $0.58, up from $0.47 but just in line with estimates. Standard & Poor's cut its price target from $77 to $71 a share.
Then Range Resources (RRC) up $2.44. It's going to be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after the close Thursday replacing Tribune Company which of course is going private.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $1.42.
But Google (GOOG) did well, up $4.12.
Baidu.com (BIDU) snapping back almost $17.
Then we see Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.20 gainer. I think we skipped a few in there.
First Solar (FSLR) up $15.13.
Intel (INTC) a $0.19 gain there.
And Oracle (ORCL) up $0.31.
And then tenth in value was Garmin Ltd (GRMN) and that was down $7.47. Morgan Stanley issued an "under weight" rating on Garmin, saying the company lost market share in November.
Elsewhere, Epix Pharmaceuticals (EPIX) a big gain, 35 percent, up $1.05. The company's new Alzheimer's drug is showing promise, but the study is so far quite small.
And on the downside big time was Tuesday Morning (TUES) which is in the home furnishings business. It cut its 2008 earnings estimate from $0.88, all the way down to $0.62 a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
