Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street headed higher this morning on that stronger than expected 0.6 percent rise in first quarter GDP and a smaller than expected first quarter loss at General Motors. Also helping support stocks was over a $2 per barrel drop in oil futures on a bigger than expected jump in crude stockpiles. At noon the Dow was up 117 points. NASDAQ gained 21. That's about where the market was when the Fed's cut rate came at 2:15 this afternoon. The aggressive selling followed however and that resulted in a lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ended off 11.81 at 12,820.13. The NASDAQ Composite lost 13.30 ending at 2412.80, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 5.35 to 1385.59. Over in the bond market, the Treasury said today it will bring back the 52-week T-bill. Meanwhile, the 10-year note climbed 24/32 to 98 3/32, putting the yield at 3.73 percent.
Big board volume leader on 37 million shares, Citigroup (C) down $1.05. The company priced 178 million shares of its common stock at $25.27 in a big offering and that’s exactly where it closed. Standard & Poor’s repeated a "hold" on the stock. Oppenheimer still made negative comments.
Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.14.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) $0.13 drop.
Same story with National City (NCC).
And there you see General Motors (GM) with a nice $2 gain, as you heard, posted a much smaller than expected first quarter loss of $0.62 a share.
General Electric (GE) moving down $0.12.
$0.32 loss in Bank of America (BAC).
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $0.57 gain.
Wachovia (WB) down $0.25.
And ExxonMobil (XOM) gained $1.28. Exxon’s earnings due out tomorrow.
Procter & Gamble (PG) up $1.15. Third quarter earnings rose to $0.82 from $0.74 a year ago, a penny above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor’s repeated a "strong buy" on PG stock.
Intl Paper (IP) losing $1.14. First quarter earnings, $0.41 and that was well below the $0.50 Wall Street consensus. Sales were up 8.6 percent however.
Then Colgate-Palmolive (CL) losing $5.08. First quarter earnings, $0.86. That’s down from $0.89 a year ago and $0.03 below the Street consensus but the company sees 2008 earnings up double digits nonetheless.
Cummins (CMI), the big engine maker, up $5.16. First quarter earnings, $0.97, $0.08 above the Street and well above last year’s $0.71 per share earnings.
Timken Co (TKR) rolling right along with a gain of $2.72. First quarter earnings, $0.82, up from $0.66 last year. Revenues up a respectable 12 percent.
Commscope (CTV) up $5.94. The coaxial cable maker had first quarter earnings excluding items, $0.59 a share, $0.16 better than the Street was expecting. Nice move in the stock as a result.
Plantronics (PLT) which makes headsets, up $3.63. Its fourth quarter earnings rose to $0.36 from $0.21 a year ago. Revenues up 7.2 percent.
Then offshore oil driller Gulfmark (GLF) up $6.02. First quarter earnings jumped to $1.40, $0.30 above the Street estimate and way up from $1.06 a year ago. Standard & Poor’s repeated a "buy" on Gulfmark stock.
Headwaters (HW) losing $2.83. The construction products firm had a second quarter loss of $0.22 versus earnings of $6.59 last year. Revenues tumbled 37 percent. That’s the housing industry problem.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) down $8.47. First quarter earnings, $0.43 up from last year’s $0.38 but that was $0.11 below the Wall Street consensus.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, moving down $1.10.
Then Google (GOOG) a nice gain of $15.82.
First Solar (FSLR) was up $7.07. First quarter earnings out today, $0.57, way up from $0.07 a year ago, $0.09 better than the Street was expecting.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $4.66.
And Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.12 loss there.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $8.21 after some recent big gains.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.13 advance.
Intel (INTC) $0.36 closing loss and the news is after the close, Dow Jones said the company’s scrambling to meet early strong demand for a new low- end chip for low-cost lap top computers.
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.91.
And Garmin Ltd (GRMN) which makes navigational devices, tumbling $5.54. First quarter earnings a bit higher, $0.67 versus $0.64 a year ago. Revenues up 35 percent, but those earnings were $0.07 below the Wall Street consensus.
Then Double-Take Software (DBTK) up $2.66. First quarter earnings out today, $0.13 a share, $0.02 above the Street estimate and the company did give an upbeat forecast, helped the stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
