Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: After two straight days of solid gains, Wall Street came under some profit taking pressures early on, especially as investors grew cautious ahead of the Fed's rate decision. At noon, the Dow posted a 50 point loss while the NASDAQ was off eight points. Stocks held to their noontime levels until 2:15 this afternoon, when the rate cut news sparked a very strong rally which lifted the Dow to a 160-point gain at 3:00 p.m. But that surge attracted some aggressive last hour selling, sending stocks to a lower closing. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a loss of 37.47 at 12,442.83. The NASDAQ Composite was down 9.06 at 2349 even. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 6.49 to 1355.81. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 7/32 to 104 28/32, putting the yield at 3.65 percent.
Big board volume leader on 37.6 million shares, Citigroup (C) down $0.04 a share.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) up $0.27.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) dropped a dime.
General Electric (GE) a $0.23 gain.
And then Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) in there with a $0.16 advance.
Pfizer (PFE) lost $0.08.
Washington Mutual (WM) $0.65 rise.
EMC Corp (EMC) down a nickel.
Wachovia (Wall Street) off $1.06.
And then Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.06 gain.
Merck (MRK) down $1.32. Fourth quarter loss of $0.75 a share versus earnings of $0.22 last year, most of that loss of course due to big charges related to the company's buyout settlement.
Altria (MO) up $0.46 a share. Fourth quarter earnings of $1, $0.03 above the Street estimate and up from $0.95 a year ago. Those earnings are not including one-time items.
Boeing Co (BA) up $1.96. Fourth quarter earnings of $1.35, $0.03 above the Street estimate, up from $1.30 a year ago. The company boosted its 2008 earnings guidance by about $0.10 a share to $5.85 at best and the company said now its 787 aircraft production is on schedule. Once again we apologize for no charts today. We're getting close to solving our little computer problem I believe.
Baker Hughes (BHI) down $6.17. The oil service company, fourth quarter earnings of $1.26, $0.02 below the Street estimate, but up from $1.02 a year ago. But the company sees lower North American drilling activity this year.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) a $0.06 gain. The company will boost its quarterly dividend 13 percent from $0.15 to $0.17 and also the board has approved a 100 million share stock buyback.
United Parcel Service (UPS) up $1.10. Fourth quarter earnings excluding one-time items $1.13, up from $1.04 last year.
Allstate (ALL), the big insurance company, down $3.76. Fourth quarter operating earnings, $1.24, well down from $1.78 last year and revenues fell 1.14 percent.
Centex (CTX), the home builder, down $2.60. Third quarter operating loss of $7.94, versus a loss of $2.02 a year ago. UBS financial brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral."
Then FTD Group (FTD) a very nice gain of $2.02, one of the best percentage movers today on the upside. FTD had second quarter earnings of $0.30, up from $0.21 last year and boosted 2008 earnings estimates. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" recommendation.
And Municipal Mortgage & Equity (MMA) tumbling $2.06. New York Stock Exchange said today it's going to spend (ph) trading in the stock February 6th. The stock will then go to trade on the over the counter market.
Apple (AAPL) topped NASDAQ's most active list, moving up $0.64.
Then Google (GOOG) down $2.25. Earnings due out tomorrow as you heard.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.40 loss.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $11.32.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.64, bucking the trend there.
Then Yahoo! (YHOO) down $1.76. After the close yesterday as we reported, fourth quarter earnings fell to $0.15 from $0.19 a year ago and the company's going to lay off 1,000 employees.
Intel (INTC) $0.19 gainer.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.30 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) fell $7.55.
And then Amazon.com (AMZN) down $0.26 a share.
Flextronics (FLEX) up $1.29. Excluding charges for its acquisition of Solectron, the company had third quarter earnings of $0.30, up from $0.23 last year and that was $0.04 above the Wall Street estimate.
And finally, shares in Hutchinson Technology (HTCH) slid $8.04 on sharply lower first quarter profits of only $0.09 per share down from $0.22 per share a year ago. Results were $0.28 below analyst estimates.
