Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened on a mixed note, but stocks then rallied on upward revisions in first quarter earnings guidance by both Wal-Mart and Dupont. Buyers were also encouraged by a Bank of America upgrade of the semiconductor sector. At noon, the Dow was sporting a 113-point gain, with the NASDAQ up 39 points. With the help of a firm dollar and weaker oil futures, the market held its advance this afternoon until some late program selling trimmed the gains. The Dow Industrial Average still closed up 54.72 at 12,581.98. The NASDAQ Composite gained 29.58 to 2,351.70, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 6.06 points to 1,360.55. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 17/32 to 99 21/32, putting the yield at 3.54 percent.
Familiar name at the top of the active list, Citigroup (C) trading 21 1/4 million shares, edging $0.13 higher.
Followed by General Electric (GE) $0.31 gain there.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) down $0.93.
Ford Motor Co (F) edged up $0.02.
And then Washington Mutual (WM) with a $0.03 loss.
Motorola (MOT) was down $0.20.
SprintNextel (S) edged up a nickel a share.
And Bank of America (BAC) a $0.24 loss.
And Pfizer (PFE) $0.03 gain.
National City (NCC) up $0.39.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) gained $0.52, traded as high as $55.33 this morning. As you heard, March same store sales not much change, but up .7 percent and Wal-Mart also boosted its first quarter earnings guidance from the range of $0.70 to $0.74 up to $0.74 to $0.76 a share.
Another company boosting its first quarter earnings estimate was Dupont Co (DD) which boosted first quarter estimate from $1.14 to $1.19 up to as much as $1.29 a share and the Street was expecting only $1.17.
Halliburton Co (HAL) up $1.38. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" on a valuation basis. Goldman's top pick in the group is Schlumberger which moved up $2.42 a share today.
Ikon Office Solutions (IKN) up $2.10, big percentage move there. The company lifted its second quarter earnings guidance from the range of $0.16 to $0.19 up to $0.22 to $0.24. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "hold" to a "buy" recommendation.
Christopher & Banks (CBK) up $1.61. That's about 16 percent gain incidentally, but the stock, despite a fourth quarter loss of $0.23 a share versus earnings of a nickel a year ago. However, Christopher & Banks said first quarter earnings will jump to $0.25 to $0.27 a share.
Men's Wearhouse (MW) up $1.78. The company reaffirmed its adjusted first quarter earnings guidance of $0.20 to $0.24 a share. The Street estimate down there at $0.21.
BJ's Wholesale (BJ) up $1.43. March same store sales jumped 6 percent. The Street was expecting a rise of only about 3 percent.
Then a major casualty, Tween Brands (TWB) down $5.27. The company cut its first quarter guidance from the range of $0.35 to $0.40 to only about $0.12 to $0.17 a share and said same store sales would probably drop around 8 percent.
Lexmark Intl (LXK) the printer company, up $2.55. Lehman Brothers boosted first quarter earnings estimates from $0.82 to $0.96 a share.
And then ITT Education (ESI) up $4.93 on takeover speculation by Apollo Group.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list with a gain of $3.11. JPMorgan boosted second quarter and full year earnings estimates due to much better than expected sales of Apple's Macbooks laptops.
Millennium Pharmaceutical (MLNM) jumping nearly $8 a share. Takeda Pharmacy of Japan is going to acquire Millennium for $25 a share in cash.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.52.
Google (GOOG) a $4.89 gain there.
Microsoft (MSFT) edged up $0.22 a share.
Baidu.com (BIDU) rose $3.19.
Intel (INTC) a $0.66 rise. Bank of America upgraded the chip sector to "over weight."
And let's have a look at some of the others in the group that did well, Analog Devices (ADI), National Semiconductor (NSM) and Power Integrations (POWI) all nice gains on that upgrade from Bank of America.
And then we see Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.51 gain.
First Solar (FSLR) up $1.33.
And Oracle (ORCL), tenth in volume, edged up $0.23 a share.
Virgin Media (VMED) down $1.63. Jeffries brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" in the wake of the company's plan to offer $1 billion in convertible notes.
And FCStone Group (FCSX) up $6.31, better than expected second quarter earnings, $0.42, up from last year's $0.32. Revenues jumped 52 percent. The company's in the commodity risk management business.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
