Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 31, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips spent the morning bouncing between modest losses and modest gains reflecting a mixed news background. A sharp drop in oil futures however gave the Dow a 63-point gain by noon with the NASDAQ up 16 points. A stronger-than-expected Chicago purchasing managers' index added to the market's firm under-footing, as did buying linked to end of quarter window dressing, all of which resulted in a positive close. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 46.49 points at 12,262.89. The NASDAQ Composite was up 17.92 ending at 2279.10, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 7.48 to 1322.70. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 8/32 to par and 23/32, putting the yield at 3.41 percent.
The big board volume leader on 34.3 million shares was Schering-Plough (SGP) losing $5.06, traded as low as $14.10 on that cholesterol news. Then Citigroup (C) slipped in there with a $0.59 gain. Citigroup is reorganizing its consumer group into two global businesses and consolidating its U.S. and international credit card businesses into a single global business.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.43 gain.
And then Merck & Co (MRK) of course, the partner with Schering-Plough in those shortcomings of the cholesterol drugs down $6.56.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the lower oil futures, down $0.64.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.40.
Then Micron Tech (MU) pretty good percentage gain at $0.51 advance. Speculation that memory chip prices are in the process of bottoming out.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.13 gain there.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.16.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), tenth in volume, was down $0.25.
Caterpillar (CAT) moving up $1.20. The company will triple its investments in emerging markets, especially China over the next three years and said sales in China are expected to hit about $2 billion this year alone.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) closed down $0.23 after trading as high as $39.49 this morning after the company filed a lawsuit to recover $352 million from the Japanese trading house called Marubeni and that's in the wake of a finance scam involving forged documents. After the close, Lehman said it's issuing $3 billion worth of convertible preferred shares representing dilutions of course of earnings. In after hours, the stock dropped $1 from the price you see here.
Spin off, first day of trading, Philip Morris International (PM) down $0.48, traded as high as $54.21, a low of $50.44.
Abbott Labs (ABT) up $2.08. The failure of the Merck and Schering- Plough's Vytorin and Zetia cholesterol drugs could benefit Abbott's Simcor drug, that according to an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Bentley Pharmaceuticals (BNT) up $2.51. Teva Pharmaceutical will acquire this company for $15.02 in cash. That's about $360 million worth.
Fortune Brands (FO) up $5.64. The company plans a 15 million share buyback of its own stock in the wake of its failed buyout bid for the maker of Absolut vodka.
Another good gainer, Methode Electronics (MEI) rising $1.59. The Robert Baird brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" an "over weight" rating.
And Pall Corp (PLL) down $3.18. Second quarter earnings were higher than year, $0.46 versus $0.35, but a penny below the Street estimate and its gross profit margins were a bit lower.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $0.49.
And then Research in Motion (RIMM) down $3.11.
Google (GOOG) up $2.39 today, but for the first quarter, Google was down 36 percent and incidentally, Apple was down 27 percent for the first quarter.
baidu.com (BIDU) a loss of $7.48, $0.58.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.47 gain.
A penny rise in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Intel (INTC) $0.39 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) up $2.46.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $0.86.
And Oracle (ORCL) tenth in volume, up $0.19.
Ansoft (ANST) moved up $7.10. Ansys Incorporated will acquire it for cash and stock worth about $31 a share, $16.25 of that in cash.
And finally, we see Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) jumping $5.23 after Standard & Poor's repeated buy on the promising results from the company's hepatitis C treatment.
