Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street were mixed in early trading as the blue chips fell modestly while the tech-laden NASDAQ edged a bit higher. Sellers then took the upper hand on that surge in oil futures to record heights. At noon, the Dow posted a 70 point loss and the NASDAQ was off eight. The sell off deepened on a weak housing report which we'll detail shortly and then the financial stocks began giving back recent gains and that prompted a steep downturn at the close. The Dow Industrial Average ended off 206.48 points at 12,814.35. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 44.82 to 2438.49. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 25.69 points, ending at 1392.57. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 18/32 to 97 5/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
Most active big board issue on 23.4 million shares Citigroup (C) down $1.39, giving back some of those recent gains. Then a new issue on the big board, Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS), this is a spin off from Cadbury Schwepps and first day of trading on the big board, opened at $25.20, the high of the day $25.80, backed off a little, but still a successful debut.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.18 loss there.
SprintNextel (S) edged $0.03 lower. The company and Clearwire Corp. will combine their next generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new company and it'll be called Clearwire.
Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.31, very active today.
General Electric (GE) $0.43 loss.
Disney (DIS) up $0.97. After the close yesterday as we reported, Disney had second quarter earnings of $0.58 a share, $0.07 above the Street estimate and today, Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong buy" on Disney stock.
Bank of America (BAC) giving back recent gain, $1.24 loss.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.37 drop.
And then another weak financial, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $1.63.
American Intl Group (AIG), the big insurance firm, down $3.32. First quarter results are due out tomorrow. Goldman Sachs is forecasting a loss of $7.5 billion for the quarter.
Fannie Mae (FNM) off $1.76. Yesterday as we reported, the company had a $2.2 billion first quarter loss. Today the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey brokerage said the company could loose up to another $2.5 billion in the next three quarters and Frieberg (ph) is repeating an "under perform" rating for Fannie Mae stock.
Syniverse Holdings (SVR) up $4.43. First quarter earnings more than doubled, $0.23 versus $0.11 last year. Revenues jumped 37 percent. JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
Then we see Checkpoint Systems (CKP) doing well, up $2.94. First quarter earnings, $0.12, $0.03 below the Street estimate, but the company predicting double digit revenue growth this year driven by acquisition.
Quanta Services (PWR), the big Houston power company, up $1.96. First quarter adjusted earnings $0.18, up from $0.14 a year ago, $0.06 better than the Street consensus.
And then Charles River Labs (CRL) up $6.08. First quarter earnings, $0.72, $0.03 above the Street estimate, up from $0.64 a year ago. Sales up 16 percent. The company reaffirmed its 2008 guidance for growth of 10 to 13 percent in revenues.
Georgia Gulf (GGC), major casualty, down $1.46. First quarter loss of $2.02, double the loss last year. Citigroup downgraded the stock from "hold" to "sell" and Standard & Poor's made the same downgrade today.
Kenneth Cole Productions (KCP) losing $3.96. First quarter earnings dropped to only $0.04 from $0.17 a year ago. Revenues fell 5.3 percent. The CL King brokerage downgraded it from "strong buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Greatbatch (GB) in the medical device business, down $2.63 on lower first quarter earnings of $0.16 versus $0.36 a year ago.
And then we see a nice gain in American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB), up $2.06. First quarter earnings moved up to $0.12 from $0.10 a year ago. Revenues shot up 51 percent.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, down $4.07.
Google (GOOG) losing $7.36.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.49 drop. Now that Yahoo! has rejected its buyout bid, Microsoft reportedly is looking at facebook as a possible acquisition.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.55.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $2.12. That was fifth in volume.
Yahoo! (YHOO) an $0.08 loss.
Baidu.com (BIDU) dropping $11.29.
Intel (INTC) $0.41 drop there.
First Solar (FSLR) off $1.72.
And then Oracle (ORCL) with a loss of $0.51.
And finally, shares in Crocs (CROX) fell $0.06 in regular trading, but soared $1.50 in after hours activity when the footwear maker posted a loss of $0.05 per share on better than expected revenues and forecast full year revenues to climb 15 to 20 percent.
