Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, April 24, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street moved lower in early trading partly on lower earnings from 3M Corp. and a loss from Motorola. The Dow posted a 38 point loss at 11 a.m. with the NASDAQ off 13 points. Then stocks reversed course as investors reconsidered a sharp drop in weekly jobless benefit claims and a surprise first quarter profit from Ford Motor, both out before the opening bell. By mid-day the Dow was up 106 points. NASDAQ gained 23 points. A firm dollar, along with falling oil and gold prices had the Dow up 160 points at 3:00 p.m. But some late selling trimmed the gain. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 85.73 points at 12,848.95. The NASDAQ was up 23.71 at 2428.92. Standard & Poor's 500 rose 8.89 points ending at 1388.82. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 24/32 to 97 10/32, putting the yield at 3.83 percent.
Big board volume leader on 54 million shares was Ford Motor Co (F), moving up $0.88, traded as high as $8.79 after posting a surprising first quarter profit of $0.05 a share. The Street was looking for a $0.16 loss, similar to last year's $0.15 loss in the period. Then Citigroup (C) up $1.13 in a strong financial group.
General Electric (GE) gained $0.45.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), another strong bank, up $1.82.
Pfizer (PFE) edged up $0.18 on big board trading.
Bank of America (BAC) gained $1.01.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $1.90 after some good gains recently.
Washington Mutual (WM) moved up $1.12.
American Intl Group (AIG) up $3.11.
And then General Motors (GM) up $1.17, riding on sympathy with the strength in Ford Motor stock.
American Express (AXP) $0.80 gain. After the close, the company reported first quarter earnings, $0.85, down from $0.87 a year ago, but $0.04 above the Street consensus. In after hours trading, I saw the stock just a little over $47 a share.
3M Company (MMM) down $1.50. First quarter earnings, net earnings, $1.38, down 28 percent from a year ago, but $0.03 above the Wall Street estimate.
Travelers Co (TRV) a $2.39 gain after reporting first quarter earnings, excluding one-time items of $1.61. That was $0.08 above the Street estimate. The stock did well.
Northrop Grumman (NOO) rising $3.07. First quarter earnings, $0.76. That was $0.13 above the Wall Street estimate, nice gain in the stock.
And then Celestica (CLS) up $2.04. That's a 30 percent advance. The company in with first quarter earnings of $0.13 versus a loss of $0.15 a year ago. The company sees second quarter at $0.13 to $0.19 a share.
LSI Corp (LSI) rising $1.02, a 20 1/2 percent gain there. First quarter earnings, $0.10, down from $0.11 a year ago, but that was $0.05 above the Wall Street estimate.
And then the footwear company, Sketchers USA (SKX) up $3.64. First quarter earnings, $0.70, well above last year's $0.52. Revenues up 12 percent and the Webush Morgan brokerage repeated a "strong buy" on Sketchers.
Newmarket (NEU) plunging $6.96. The company's in the chemical additives business and it had first quarter earnings of $1.27, well above $0.93 last year, but Oppenheimer downgraded the stock from "out perform" to "market perform." The 12-month low was $39 and the high was in the $90s, so it was vulnerable to some profit taking.
Whirlpool (WHR) down $8.32. First quarter earnings, $1.22. That's down from $1.55 last year. The company blamed higher materials costs.
Then we see CNH Global (CNH), the farm and construction equipment maker, down $9.44. First quarter earnings, $0.53 versus $0.44 last year, but $0.12 below the Wall Street consensus.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list moving up $6.05 after yesterday as we reported, second quarter earnings $0.07 above the Street estimate.
Microsoft (MSFT) closed up $0.35, but dropped to around $30.40 after hours because of that rather downbeat outlook.
Google (GOOG) down $3.45 a share.
Research in Motion (RIMM) moved up $2.83.
Amazon.com (AMZN) $3.31 loss there.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $7.66.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.59 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.13 rise.
Starbucks (SBUX) down $1.86.
And First Solar (FSLR), tenth in NASDAQ volume, down $2.42.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
