Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street headed lower early today with selling prompted by that bigger than expected rise in consumer inflation and just a mild pullback in oil futures after hitting $100 per barrel yesterday. An hour into trading, the Dow posted an 80 point loss while the NASDAQ was off only seven points. That resilience in NASDAQ helped the blue chips make a comeback as the day wore on resulting in a positive close. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 90.04 points at 12,427.26. The NASDAQ Composite rose 20.90 ending at 2327.10, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11.25 points exactly to 1360.03. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 3/32 to 96 24/32, putting the yield at 3.90 percent.
Big board volume leader today on 33 3/4 million shares, AT&T (T) losing $1.53. Credit Suisse brokerage downgraded the whole telecom group from "over weight" to "market weight" and individually downgraded AT&T from "out perform" to "neutral," did the same downgrade on Verizon Communications (VZ) because of this price war heating up for unlimited calls.
Citigroup (C) in there with a $0.17 gain.
Sprint Nextel (S) lost $0.52. As we mentioned, speculation that the company might offer unlimited calls for 40 percent less than AT&T and Verizon, so it might enter the fray.
General Electric (GE) fifth in volume was an $0.08 gainer today.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) up $3.49. That helped the Dow. After the close yesterday as we reported, Hewlett had first quarter earnings out of $0.86, $0.05 above the Street estimate.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) gained $0.32.
$0.30 advance in Bank of America (BAC) which is now a Dow stock.
And then came Co vale do Rio (RIO), the big Brazilian mining firm, up $1.55 after announcing several very lucrative iron ore sales deals yesterday.
And then came Prizer (PFE) with a $0.10 gain.
Suntech Power (STP) down $5.65, fourth quarter adjusted earnings, $0.34, $0.02 below the Street and the company's outlook for 2008 was rather disappointing and that affected a lot of the solar stocks like LDK Solar Co (LDK), Sunpower (SPWR) and Trina Solar (TSL) all on the downside on Suntech Power's earnings.
Transocean (RIG) did well, $9.08 gain. Fourth quarter earnings $4.17 way up from $2.92 last year and revenues soared 75 percent.
Oil States Intl (OIS) which supplies oil field services, fourth quarter earnings, $0.95 down from $0.98 last year but better than the Street was expecting.
And then CEC Entertainment (CEC) which owns those Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, up $5.36. The company had a fourth quarter loss of $0.02 but it sees 2008 at better than expected earnings of $2.25 per share.
Meritage Homes (MTH) up $2.40. UBS financial upgraded it to a "buy" recommendation, citing the company's significant improvement in liquidity.
TJX Co (TJX), the retailer, up $1.45. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings higher, $0.64 versus $0.52 last year. Same store sales up 4 percent in the period.
And Jack in Box (JBX) was up $2.03. First quarter earnings jumped to $0.60 versus $0.52 last year and sales, same store sales up 1 1/2 percent. Webush Morgan brokerage upgraded Jack in the Box from "buy" to a "strong buy."
Topping the active list on NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) up $1.64.
Followed by Google (GOOG) which gained a nickel.
And so did Microsoft (MSFT).
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $5.02.
Baidu.com (BIDU) $0.45 gain.
First Solar (FSLR) bucked the trend in the solar group, up $5.06.
Garmin Ltd (GRMN), which makes those global positioning systems, down $5.03 despite higher fourth quarter earnings of $1.39, up from $0.82. Revenues soared 99 percent, but Garmin's outlook was cautious because of very tough competition.
Intel (INTC) $0.22 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.32.
And then Yahoo! (YHOO) with an $0.18 loss, was tenth in volume on NASDAQ.
Crocs (CROX), the footwear maker, down $4.64. Fourth quarter earnings were high, $0.45 up from $0.26 a year ago, but the company sees a challenging outlook for this year.
And then Encysive Pharmaceuticals (ENCY), that a good percentage gain, up $1.19. Pfizer will acquire that company for $2.35 a share.
And then over on the American exchange, Inverness Medical (IMA) down $7.04. The company reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.19 versus earnings of $0.15 a year ago.
