Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street rallied sharply this morning as the surge in oil prices was offset by the mild rise in March consumer prices and better than expected earnings from JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Coca Cola. Those earnings bolstered bullish conviction, helping the Dow score a 202- point gain by noon with the NASDAQ up 56 points. The market lost a little of its upward momentum after the Federal Reserve's beige book report showed the economy has weakened, but stocks still ended sharply higher. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 256.80 points at 12,619.27. The NASDAQ Composite soared 64.07 ending at 2350.11. Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 30.28 to 1364.71. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 24/32 to 98 12/32, putting the yield at 3.70 percent.
Topping the big board's active list on 22.4 million shares, Washington Mutual (WM) up $0.24. After the close yesterday as we reported, the company had a first quarter loss of $1.40 a share. Today, Standard & Poor's cut its price target from $14 down to $12 a share. General Electric (GE) $0.25 gain.
Citigroup (C) moved up $0.64 in a firm financial group.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.31 gain.
And Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) did well, up $1.20. First quarter earnings, $0.60, $0.03 above the Street estimate, but down from last year's $0.66. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "hold" to "buy" however.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $2.84. First quarter earnings fell 50 percent from a year ago, but the $0.68 per share reported today was $0.04 above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" on JPMorgan.
Bank of America (BAC) up $1.40 in that firm group.
Wachovia (WS) down a penny.
Pfizer (PFE), I believe their earnings are due out tomorrow morning, a $0.39 gain.
AT&T (T) $0.28 advance, tenth in big board volume.
Coca-Cola Co (KO) up only $0.21. First quarter earnings higher, $0.64, a penny above the Street estimate and sales were up a respectable 21 percent.
Merck & Co (MRK) down $0.91, traded as low as $39.72. A research report out accuses the company of suppressing information about the risks of using Vioxx.
Another pharmaceutical company, Elan Plc (ELN) from Ireland, up $2.47. Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to a "buy" recommendation.
And then the big rail, CSX Corp (CSX) up $2.12. First quarter earnings, pretty big, $0.85, up from $0.52 last year. Revenues up 12 percent and the company also boosted its full year earnings estimate.
Excel Maritime (EXM) up $5.68. The company received a $400 million revolving line of credit in connection with its proposed merger with Quintana Maritime.
Then came the fertilizer stocks, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT) up $13.85. China has agreed to pay $400 per ton more for the company's fertilizer in a new contract. That sector for very firm on that news.
Let's have a look at Agrium (AGU) up $8.16.
Mosaic Company (MOS) up $9.22.
Elsewhere, Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) up $6.26. That stock will be added to the Standard & Poor's madcap 400 index after the close next Monday. It'll replace Grant Prideco Corp. which is being acquired.
Then Talbots (TLB), the department store chain, down $3.69. Two banks, namely HSBC and Bank of America canceled their letters of credit to the company, a major blow there.
SLM Corp (SLM), Sallie Mae, down $1.18. Morgan Stanley downgraded it from "equal weight" to "under weight."
Topping the NASDAQ actives, Apple (AAPL) up $5.32.
Google (GOOG) up $8.19.
Baidu.com (BIDU) did very well, up over $29.
Intel (INTC) a $1.22 gain.
And Research in Motion (RIMM) was up $4.47.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.70 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) rose $8.59.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.72 gain.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.59.
And Sunpower (SPWR) $5.16 advance there.
Ebay (EBAY) up $0.54 in regular way trading. After the close, first quarter earnings excluding items, $0.42, up from $0.33 last year, $0.03 above the Street estimate. In after hours, the stock moved up about $0.10.
And finally, shares in Badger Meter (BMI) soared $8.32 on healthy first quarter earnings, $0.41 per share, way up from the $0.17 per share a year ago on a 30 percent jump in sales. Results were helped by strong demand for the company's automatic meter reading equipment.
