Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Those reports on the economy and the Fed's statement yesterday led to some budding optimism on Wall Street today. A solid early rally in the tech- laden NASDAQ spread into the blue chips and continuing weakness in oil futures and other commodities helped the Dow post a 91-point gain at midday, with the NASDAQ up 50 points. June crude futures have tumbled over 5 percent since Monday as the dollar has strengthened and the market's strength this afternoon attracted more buyers and with some added short covering, stocks ended at the day's best levels. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 189.87 points at 13,010 even. The NASDAQ soared 67.91 to end at 2480.71. Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 23.75 exactly to 1409.34. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 9/32 to 97 27/32, putting the yield at 3.77 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue, trading 20 million shares, Citigroup (C) up $1.04 on a very firm financial group. Followed by Ford Motor (F) $0.22 gain there.
Bank of America (BAC) rose $1.85.
Pfizer (PFE) edged up $0.33.
General Electric (GE) $0.42 gain there.
Wells Fargo (WFC) up $1.43.
ExxonMobil (XOM), there you see the stock, down $3.37 despite that nice 17 percent rise in first quarter earnings, but $0.11 below the Street estimate as you heard.
JPMorgan (JPM) gained $1.60 in a firm banking sector.
AT&T (T) up $1.23. Starting this Sunday, the company plans to offer mobile TV service in 58 markets with a unit of Qualcomm.
EMC Corp (EMC), tenth in volume, moved up $0.69 there.
Chevron (CVX) down $1.21. Earnings due out tomorrow, but today the company announced it's boosting its quarterly dividend by 12 percent to $0.65 a share.
Apache Corp (APA) $8.27 loss. First quarter earnings excluding one- time items, $2.99. That was $0.07 shy of Wall Street estimates, but up from $1.47 a year ago.
Cigna Corp (CI), the big insurance company, down $1.71. Its earnings sharply lower, first quarter, $0.21 versus $0.98 a year ago.
Cardinal Health (CAH) $3.16 gain. Third quarter earnings moved up to $1.08 from $0.96 last year. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" recommendation.
Regal-Beloit (RBC), which makes electric motors and controls, up $5.54. First quarter earnings jumped to $0.97 from $0.80 a year ago, $0.02 above the Street estimate. The company predicting second quarter earnings in the range of $1.14.
Administaff (ASF) up $4.98. First quarter earnings, $0.51, well above $0.30 last year. Revenues rose 12 percent.0
American Axle (AXL) gaining $2.57. Reportedly the company and the United Auto Workers Union are close to a contract deal.
Network Equipment (NWK) down $2.28, huge percentage drop. The company predicting flat or even lower first quarter revenue. The Green Murray (ph) brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" recommendation.
Westlake Chemical (WLK) off $1.51. First quarter earnings, $0.08, $0.11 below the Street estimate, way down from $0.30 a year ago.
And then Clorox (CLX) up $5.24 despite lower third quarter earnings of $0.71 versus $0.84 last year, $0.04 below the Street estimate, but the company is forecasting 2008 revenues to rise a very respectable 8 to 9 percent. That's what helped the stock.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, moving up $6.05.
Google (GOOG) in the strong NASDAQ, up $18.79.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $6.37.
First Solar (FSLR) plunging $28.64. Early in the week it had strong earnings. Today Oppenheimer brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to just "perform" due to its high valuation, according to Oppenheimer.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.88 gain there.
Moving along, Cisco Systems (CSCO) with a $1.03 advance.
Baidu.com (BIDU) gained $4.40.
Intel Corp (INTC) up $1.03.
And Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.60 loss.
Hologic (HOLX) had a rough day, down $5.44. Second quarter earnings, $0.22, up from $0.20 a year ago, but $0.06 below the Street consensus and Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "strong buy" to just a "buy" rating.
Finally, Net Manage (NETM), look at that percentage gain, 67 1/4 percent, up $2.79. The news is the United Kingdom firm Micro Focus International is going to acquire Net Manage for $7.20 a share in cash.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
