Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, April 03, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened lower on news of higher weekly jobless benefit claims which we'll detail next. An hour into trading, the Dow posted a 52 point loss and the NASDAQ was off 16 points. Stocks began struggling back after the March service sector index from ISM showed a smaller than expected decline while oil futures edged lower. The market managed to end the day on a positive note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 20.20 at 12,626.03. The NASDAQ Composite gained 1.90 to 2363.30. Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.78, ending at 1369.31. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 5/32 to 99 9/32, putting the yield at 3.59 percent.
Big board volume leader once again, Citigroup (C) today on nearly 19 million shares, edging up $0.34. Micron Tech (MU) a $0.40 gain. After the close yesterday, as we reported, Micron had second quarter loss of $1.01 a share, versus a loss of only $0.07 the year before, but today Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from "sell" to "neutral."
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.33 advance.
Altria (MO) lost $0.07.
Schering-Plough (SGP) moving up $1.52. The company announced a program to increase productivity and save up to $1.5 billion annually starting in the year 2012. The company also plans to cut 5500 jobs. That's 10 percent of its workforce.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.17 loss.
KKR Financial (KFR) in the active list with a $0.03 loss. The company priced a 30 million share public offering of its stock at $11.85 a share.
General Electric (GE) down $0.18.
But Visa (V) very active and up $3.18. No specific news I saw, but if you remember, Visa went public back on March 19th at a price of $44, so it's done very well.
Motorola (MOT), tenth in volume was up $0.16. The company will cut 2600 jobs and take $104 million charge as a result.
Alcoa (AA) a big gainer in the Dow today, up $2.11. There's optimism about its first quarter earnings which are due out next Monday. The Street's consensus is about $0.48 a share.
Then we see USEC (USU) up $1.14, good percentage move. The uranium enrichment firm's stock is up in sympathy with strong results reported by its European rival Urenco. U.S. government also reported lower uranium stockpiles and that would be good for future business of the company.
MF Global Ltd (MF) up $1.45. The company's policy is not to comment on its stock activity, but there has been quite a bit of takeover speculation going around.
Patriot Coal (PCX) up $7.85. Positive reaction to the company's acquisition of Magnum Coal Company for $709 million in stock. That works out to about 11.9 million shares.
Then we see LDK Solar Co (LDK) up $1.53. The company signed a 10-year contract to supply solar wafers to a unit of Mosar Buyer (ph) India Limited.
On the downside, we see HNI (HNI) falling $2.94. The company sees first quarter revenue and operating profit in its office furniture unit down significantly from its previous forecast.
Then MEMC Electronic (WFR) down $2.63. The company cut its first quarter revenue forecast from $560 million down to $500 million and due to downtime at its Pasadena, Texas facility.
NASDAQ's most active, Research in Motion (RIMM) up $6.79. After the close yesterday, as we reported, fourth quarter earnings more than doubled, $0.72 versus $0.33 a year ago and today, JPMorgan boosted earnings estimates and repeated an "overweight" rating.
Apple (AAPL) up $4.12. As we touched on, its iTune online music store has overtaken Wal-Mart in retail sales.
Google (GOOG) down $10.58.
baidu.com (BIDU) up $5.16.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.73 loss.
First Solar (FSLR) up $2.05.
Garmin Ltd (GRMN) down $3.60. The company's chief financial officer warned its first quarter revenues could drop 40 to 50 percent from the fourth quarter level.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.16.
Intel (INTC) an $0.08 gain.
Followed by Oracle (ORCL), tenth in volume, with a $0.19 advance.
Amazon (AMZN) fell $2.43. Piper Jaffray brokerage cut earnings estimates, citing the sluggish 2008 consumer spending.
And then we see Dell (DELL) a $0.17 gain. The company will cut 8800 jobs and it'll buy back up to $1 billion of its own stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
