Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened in a broad sell-off on big losses from Fannie Mae and homebuilder DR Horton. Thirty minutes into trading, the Dow was down 105 points, NASDAQ off 15 points. A further spike in oil prices added to the early selling as crude topped $122 per barrel, with oil traders reacting to Goldman Sachs' prediction of $200 a barrel oil within two years. That however, rallied the oil stocks and the buying spread into the depressed financial sector this afternoon, so by the final bell, the market in general was nicely higher. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 51.29 at 13,020.83. The NASDAQ Composite rose 19.19 ending at 2483.31, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 10.77 at 1418.26. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 12/32 to 96 20/32, putting the yield at 3.92 percent. The most active big board issue on 21 1/2 million shares, Citigroup (C) rising $0.12 at the close, made a nice comeback from a low today of $25.05. SprintNextel (S) moved up $0.47. Cowan and Company brokerage upgraded it "neutral" to "outperform."
Then Fannie Mae (FNM) on that big loss, traded as low as $26.25, made a good comeback.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up $0.59. The company's alleging Intel paid computer companies not to buy its products.
Pfizer (PFE), fifth in volume was a $0.10 loser.
General Electric (GE) down $0.18.
Ford Motor (F) fell $0.06.
Qwest Communications (Q) down $0.32. First quarter earnings, $0.09, down from $0.12 last year. Revenues dropped about 1 1/2 percent.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) moved up $0.20 in that strong financials sector.
And then Countrywide Financial (CFC) a $0.02 loss. It was under fire from U.S. lawmakers and facing an investigation into whether it abused borrowers who had filed for bankruptcy. Countrywide admitted today it made errors and told a U.S. Senate panel it would make changes to avoid similar problems in the future.
Then came Disney (DIS), after the close with good earnings, second quarter, $0.58 versus $0.44 last year, $0.07 above the Street estimate. In after hours trading, it was up about $0.85 from this closing price.
Legg Mason (LM) down $6.46. Fourth quarter loss of $1.81 versus earnings of last year and the company is going to offer $1 billion in equity units earnings dilution.
NYSE Euronext (NYX) moved up $4.88. First quarter earnings, $0.91, $0.08 better than the Street expected. Revenues soared 84 percent.
Then McKesson (MCK) up $4.16. Fourth quarter earnings, $1.05, a nickel above the Street estimate and up from $0.85 last year. The company is doubling its dividend quarterly from $0.06 to $0.12. Nice move on McKesson today.
Idearc (IAR) up $1.52. The publisher of Yellow Pages had first quarter earnings of $0.76. That was $0.13 above the Street estimate.
Comstock Resources (CRK) gained $7.78. First quarter earnings jumped to $0.91 versus only $0.28 last year and the Street estimate was only $0.67. It did very well.
Interline Brands (IBI) losing $2.66. First quarter earnings dropped to $0.27 from $0.29 last year, $0.03 below the Street estimate.
And then the big home builder, DR Horton (DHI) managed to gain $0.88 today despite a huge second quarter loss of $4.14, but it traded as low as $15.43 this morning, made a nice comeback. It's cutting its quarterly dividend in half incidentally from $0.15 to $0.075
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, moving up $1.93.
Yahoo! (YHOO) up $1.35. The company says it's still available to potential suitors.
Google (GOOG) down $8.54.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.62 gain.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) closed up a nickel and as you heard, third quarter earnings were $0.02 better than the Street expected, but the stock didn't do much after hours.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $1.08.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $3.43.
First Solar (FSLR) up $9.75.
Intel (INTC) $0.33 gain.
Tenth in volume was Oracle (ORCL) with a nickel loss.
Those are our stocks in the news tonight.
