Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 08, 2008
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JEFF YASTINE: Technology shares provided an oasis of strength amid the malaise seen in the rest of the market today. Financial stocks continue to drag the Dow, which saw a 34 point gain in the morning session before heading lower. By early afternoon, the Dow was off more than 120 points. The NASDAQ though holding its own with Apple, Amazon, Google finding lots of interest from buyers. None of that rubbed off on the blue chips though, which remained stayed in the red. So the Dow settling for a loss of 64.87 at 12,182.13 and this week, the index sliding in four out of five sessions for an overall loss of 561.06 points or about 4.4 percent. The NASDAQ Composite climbing 11.82 to end at 2304.85 and like the Dow this week, it fell 108 points or about 4 1/2 percent and so did the S&P 500, falling 5.62 points to 1331.29. For the week, it rose only once for an overall loss of 64 and fraction or 4.6 percent. U.S. Treasuries saw flight to safety buying on mounting worries about recession and the 10-year note jumping one full point to 98 25/32 and the yield down to 3.65 percent.
Citigroup (C) once again topping our active list, losing $0.67.
Bank of America (BAC) dropping $1.21, these two part of that weak financial sector taking it on the chin. Also rumors out of Europe that a fund was liquidating those collateralized debt obligations or CDOs that have been causing so many problems in the credit market arena.
General Electric (GE) losing $0.39.
MBIA (MBI) gaining $0.40. The bond insurer's $1 billion offering to help shore up its balance sheet well received today.
And Time Warner (TWX) picking up a nickel.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) shedding $0.98.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), part of a strong tech sector, rising $1.38.
Pfizer (PFE) off $0.37.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) losing $1.29.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) dropping $1.08.
And then Coca-Cola Co (KO) shares getting a pop of $0.80, thanks to a Bear Stearns upgrade.
Also shares in McDonald's (MCD) rising $1.18. They posted a near 2 percent rebound in U.S. sales last month after being flat in January. Total sales rose more than 13 percent in January.
And Alliance Data (ADS) climbed over $3. Alliance decided to drop a lawsuit it filed last year against Blackstone Group. Blackstone was supposed to buy Alliance Data, then rethought that deal and Blackstone has since indicated that they want to proceed with some kind of buyout with Alliance Data.
Nucor (NUE) shares rising over $3. The steel firm will buy a steel scrap operation, SHB North America, for just under $1.5 billion.
Lubrizol (LZ) rising nearly $5. Earnings more than tripled to $0.86 a share on a 16 percent jump in sales.
And Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down a quarter. Dell said it is going to scale back using AMD's chips in its personal computer products.
MGM Mirage (MGM) skidding almost $4. The resort and casino operator issuing an earnings warning, thanks to - linking (ph) to rising expansion costs and also weakness in hotel revenues on the Las Vegas strip. That was interesting.
And then Idearc (IAB) sold off $1.86. The phone book publisher getting a "sell" rating from Deutsche Bank after the company reported a revenue shortfall yesterday and a weak outlook for the first half of the year.
And there's RH Donnelley (RHD), another online yellow pages publisher, down in sympathy with Idearc.
Health insurer Centene (CNC) sliding $3.25. It missed its fourth quarter earnings forecast by a wide margin.
And then Brush Engineered (BW) materials sinking almost $5, profits in the latest quarter plunging nearly 60 percent on cutbacks in orders from its largest customer, which is Motorola.
Over to the NASDAQ where Apple (AAPL) rose more than $4, breaking a week-long slide to the downside.
Microsoft (MSFT) gaining $0.44.
Google (GOOG) gaining $11.74.
Cisco Systems (CSCO)
up a fraction.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gaining more than $4 as well, pretty much all green there with a strong tech sector today.
Then Baidu.com (BIDU) advancing $1.61.
Yahoo! (YHOO) up a fraction.
Intel (INTC) gaining $0.22.
Amazon.com (AMZN) gaining $2.59. The online retailer will spend up to $1 billion to buy back its common stock over the next two years. Also, Amazon's board approving a buy in of about $900 million in outstanding debt. They've got about $3 billion in cash on hand to do that with.
Qualcomm (QCOM) advancing nearly $1.
Finally, Cognizant Tech (CTSH) rising $4.56. The software developer showing strong fourth quarter profits of $0.32 a share, a 41 percent jump in revenues. They also raised their forecast for their first quarter and fiscal 2008 revenues.
Then finally Aruba Networks (ARUN) dropping $2.84. They warned that their second quarter figures would be below forecast and blaming that on a shortfall in declines in revenues from governmental sources.
Those are our stocks in the news tonight.
