Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 01, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with solid gains as investors figured the weak jobs report suggested more rate cuts are in the cards, while the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! revived hopes for a lot more merger activity. An hour into trading, the Dow posted a 93-point gain with the NASDAQ up 12 points. Stocks pulled back during mid-session amid a pickup in recession concerns. But hopes that the troubled bond insurers would be rescued prompted some good buying, which gave the major indices decent closing gains. The Dow Industrial Average came in with an advance of 92.83 points at 12,743.19. It fell only one time this week, rising 536.02 points overall. The NASDAQ Composite closed up 23 1/2 points exactly at 2,413.36. That was today. It also fell only once this week and rose 87.16 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 was up 16.87 to 1,395.42 today and it rose 64.81 points for the week. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note was unchanged at 105 11/32, with a yield at 3.60 percent.
Once again topping the active list today on 35 3/4 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving up $1.47 in quite a firm financial sector.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.68.
Then came Motorola (MOT) up $1.16. After the close yesterday as we reported, the company said it may separate its mobile devices operation from its other businesses. Today millionaire investor Carl Icahn said he's very pleased with that move and Citigroup upgraded Motorola stock from "hold" to a "buy."
General Electric (GE) $0.75 gain there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a $0.70 advance.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.20 gain there.
Washington Mutual (WM) up $1.90.
Ford Motor Co (F) gained $0.21.
EMC Corp (EMC) up $0.26.
And Time Warner (TWX) rounding out the 10 most active with a $0.33 gain.
JC Penney Co (JCP) up $1.09. The "Wall Street Journal" reported that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has taken a considerable stake, no percentage mentioned yet.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.45 despite reporting the largest fourth quarter earnings in history. That turned out to be $2.13 a share, up from $1.76 last year and $0.15 above the Street estimate.
Chevron (CVX) had a good quarter too, the stock down $2.01 selling on the good news I guess. Fourth quarter earnings up 29 percent to $2.32 versus $1.74 last year and that was $0.02 above the consensus.
Another energy producing company, Arch Coal (ACI) up $5.33. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.56, up a penny from last year, but $0.09 above the Street estimate and the company sees 2008 earnings between $2 and $2.50 a share.
WH Energy Services (WHG), oil field services firm, up $7.71. Fourth quarter earnings $1.18, up from $1.05 last year.
Then Flowserve (FLS) up $14.28. The company sees better than expected 2007 revenues of $3 3/4 billion and better operating margins. Bear Stearns upgraded the stock from "peer perform" to "out perform."
CSK Auto Corp (CAO) up $3.01, one of the best percentage gainers. The story here, O'Reilly Automotive is offering $8 a share on a takeover.
CA Inc (CA) up $4.28. Third quarter earnings more than tripled, $0.31 versus a dime last year. RBC Capital upgraded the stock from "sector perform" to "out perform."
And then Millipore (MIL) falling $5.53. Higher earnings fourth quarter, $0.98 versus $0.86, but the company noted that its file process business is slowing down. Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold."
Oshkosh Truck (OSK) down $3.12. Fourth - first quarter earnings, $0.50, down from $0.55 a year ago as higher costs offset a 49 percent jump in sales.
Callaway Golf (ELY) down $0.73, traded as low as $15.70 today after reporting a fourth quarter loss of $0.25, $0.06 worse than the Street was expecting.
And UST Inc (UST), this is a smokeless tobacco company. There's speculation Altria is considering a takeover bid. Neither company had any comment.
Topping the active list on NASDAQ not surprisingly, Yahoo! (YHOO) up $9.20 on Microsoft $31 a share buyout bid.
And Google (GOOG) which plans or which faces maybe increased competition on the web, down $48.40.
Microsoft (MSFT) itself off $2.15.
Apple (AAPL) a $1.61 loss there.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $10.36 a share.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $1.64.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) bucked the trend up $0.44.
Intel (INTC) $0.67 advance.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), look at that gain, $51.61. The company more than doubled fourth quarter earnings to $1.24 and that was $0.20 above the Street estimate and revenues were up 68 percent.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $3.07.
Elsewhere, Altera (ALTH) up $2.53 despite lower fourth quarter earnings of $0.20 versus $0.27 a year ago, but that was $0.03 above the Wall Street consensus.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
