Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened modestly lower on mild profit-taking after yesterday's hefty gains. Some selling was linked to disappointing results from outlooks, and outlooks from Merrill Lynch, Nokia (NOK), and Pfizer (PFE). A jump in new weekly jobless benefit claims also had a hand in sending the Dow down 44 points at mid-day, with the NASDAQ Composite off 21 points.
The market's relatively mild retreat attracted cautious buying this afternoon, which trimmed losses and resulted in a narrowly mixed close. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a gain of 1.22 at 12,620.49. The NASDAQ Composite fell 8.28 to 2,341.83, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.85, ending at 1,365.56. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to 98 2/32, putting the yield at 3.74 percent.
Pfizer (PFE) topped the active list on 21.3 million shares on the Big Board, down $0.70. Pfizer in with first-quarter earnings lower, $0.61 versus $0.68 a year ago, $0.05 below the Street consensus. Revenues actually fell 5 percent. And the company blamed the loss of U.S. exclusivity of its Norvasc and Zirtec drugs.
Nokia (NOK) in there with a big loss of $4.74. First-quarter earnings were up 28 percent on a 28 percent rise in sales. But the company gave a very cautious outlook. And according to analysts, it lost 1 percent of the industry market share, down to 39 percent as Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry product is really giving Nokia some tough competition.
You heard the news on Citigroup (C), maybe up to 25,000 job losses.
GE (GE) a $0.21 drop.
Ford Motor (F) a $0.07 gain.
Moving along on the active list, Merrill Lynch (MER) down -- or up a $1.82 as you heard, the company will have a first-quarter loss of nearly $2 billion. But it will be profitable for the year. And that helped the stock today.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a $0.16 gain.
Washington Mutual (WM) up $0.76.
Bank of America (BAC) a $0.49 advance.
And Procter & Gamble (PG), 10th in Big Board volume, down $1.71 after Deutsche Bank brokerage downgraded it from buy to just a hold rating.
IBM (IBM) up $2.61. And after the close yesterday, as we reported, Big Blue in with first-quarter earnings of $1.65. That was $0.20 above the Wall Street estimate.
United Technologies (UTX) down $1.84. First-quarter earnings nicely higher, $1.03 versus $0.82. But the company gave full-year guidance of $4.65 to $4.85 a share, that is below the Street estimate of $4.86 per share.
Nucor (NUE), the steel company, $1.23 gain there. First-quarter earnings, $1.41, up from 1.26 last year, $0.08 above the Wall Street consensus. The stock did nicely.
McMoRan Exploration (MMR) up $2.98. First-quarter turnaround, $0.46 versus a loss of $0.53 a share in the same period a year ago.
MGIC Investment (MTG) was up nearly $2 a share, even though it had a first- quarter loss of $0.41 versus earnings of $1.12 last year. But the Street was looking for a much bigger loss of $1.69. The company did also have a 50 percent rise in new insurance written. That helped the stock.
Leggett & Platt (LEG) up $2.10. Lower earnings first quarter, $0.23 versus $0.31. But Raymond James Financial brokerage upgraded it from market perform to outperform.
International Game Technology (IGT), which makes gaming machines, says second-quarter earnings dropped to $0.22 from $0.38 a year ago on a 6 percent drop in revenue, the stock down.
And then Briggs & Stratton (BGG), which makes the small engine for lawnmowers and things like that down $2.46, even though third-quarter earnings jumped to $0.75 versus $0.18 last year, but it sees 2008 earnings of only $0.60 to $0.71 a share. The Street estimate is up there at a $1.19.
And American Greetings (AM) gave good tidings to shareholders, up $1.74, fourth-quarter turnaround, $0.31 in earnings versus a loss of $0.22 last year. Those earnings $0.05 better than the Street was expecting.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL), was up $0.79.
Google (GOOG) closed down $5.49, but on those good earnings you heard about saw the stock as $527 in after hours trading.
Baidu.com (BIDU) $8 gain there.
An $8.55 gain (sic) in First Solar (FSLR). Research In Motion (RIMM) down $1 -- these are losses not gains, I should say.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.27 gain.
Intel (INTC) a $0.02 loss.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.06 advance.
SunPower (SPWR) down $12.78.
And eBay (EBAY) down $1.11 after the close yesterday. Higher earnings, but this day, the stock down a bit.
Altera Corp. (ALTR) up $1.66. First-quarter earnings rose to $0.27 from $0.21 last year. Sales up 10 percent. And the company is boosting its quarterly dividend from $0.04 to $0.05 a share.
Those are our "Stocks in the News" tonight.
