Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, April 28, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street moved sideways at the opening and then firmed up as investors were cheered by the Wrigley takeover and Kirk Kerkorian's plan to boost its holdings in Ford to over 5 percent. At midday, the Dow posted a 35-point gain, while the NASDAQ Composite was up seven points. Further upward progress was stymied by higher oil prices and pick up in caution ahead of a two-day Fed meeting which starts tomorrow. Those concerns had the financials leading a late-day slump. So the Dow Industrial Average closed down 20.11 at 12,871.75. The NASDAQ salvaged a gain of 1.47 to 2424.40. Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 1.47 ending at 1396.37. In the bond market, the 10-year note climbed 10/32 to 97 10/32, putting the yield at 3.83 percent.
Far and away the most active big board issue today on 32.7 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) nice move up, $0.71, traded as high as $8.42 on that news about Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. applying a cash tender at $8.50 a share.
Then came Citigroup (C) up $0.21.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.20 loss.
AT&T (T) $0.28 drop.
And General Electric (GE) was up, down $0.16 a share.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) fell $0.45.
Wachovia (WS) dropping $0.12.
National City (NCC) $0.18 rise.
Altria Group (MO) $0.41 drop.
Then Motorola (MOT) off, up $0.22 a share.
Wm Wrigley Jr. (WWY) up $14.46. As you heard, privately held Mars will acquire it for $80 a share. This news had quite a positive impact on other confectionary stocks like Cadbury-Schwepps Plc (CBG), Hershey Co (HSY) and Tootsie Roll Industries (TS). Those stocks all up over $1 a share today.
Verizon Communications (VZ) up $0.91, trading as high as $38.37 this morning after reporting first quarter earnings, $0.57, up from $0.51 last year and 5 1/2 percent jump in revenues. Lehman Brothers repeated an "over weight" rating on that stock.
Then Humana (HUM) up $1.50. First quarter earnings higher, $0.47, up from $0.42 a year ago. Revenues were up 12 percent.
On the downside, Goodyear Tire (GT) off $1.74. JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to just "neutral" after the company cut its 2008 earnings estimate by 12 percent.
Loews (LTR) off $2.35, first quarter, $1.05, down from last year's $1.20 and those results were hurt by its CNA (CNA) unit. We see that stock down $2.54 despite reporting quite a turnaround in earnings, $0.82 versus a loss of $1.13.
Radioshack (RSH) down $2.37. First quarter earnings just a touch lower than last year, $0.30 versus $0.31, but in line with Street estimates, but the thing that hurt the stock, same store sales fell 4 percent and gross profit margins also declined in that period.
Mosaic Company (MOS), the fertilizer firm, down $7.62. This week's "Barron's" financial magazine notes the strengthening U.S. dollar could hurt sales of a lot of companies who do much overseas business like Mosaic.
Alberto Culver (ACV) off $1.94. Second quarter earnings, higher, $0.28, versus $0.23 a year ago, but the rise of 7.7 percent in sales below the 10 percent Wall Street target for sales increases.
Cash America International (CSH), the pawn shop company, down $3.96. Jeffries brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold."
And Sysco Corp (SYY), the food distribution firm, up $2.38. Third quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.40, versus $0.35 a year ago and that stock was discussed you might recall in a positive light by last Wednesday's "Street Critique" guest on the program, Patrick O'Hare.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, up $2.51.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) $0.84 drop there. Yahoo!'s deadline to accept Microsoft's takeover bid is now past. Now there's speculation Microsoft might go hostile.
Google (GOOG) up $8.06.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $2.35.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $3.33.
Intel (INTC) $0.15 gain.
Amazon.com (AMZN) up $1.11.
Cisco Systems (CSCO), the other Cisco, down $0.25.
Sohu.com (SOHU) up $8.97. This is a Chinese media company and it reported first quarter earnings of $0.64, $0.27 above the Wall Street consensus and the company's bullish on the second quarter outlook because of rising Olympic-related advertising.
And Qualcomm (QCOM), tenth in volume, was up a nickel a share.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight
