Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, May 19, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened higher with the tech-laden NASDAQ leading the way after Goldman Sachs upgraded the chip stocks. The blue chips joined the rally on a stronger dollar and an unexpected 0.1 percent rise in April's leading economic indicators. By early afternoon, the Dow was up nearly 150 points and the NASDAQ up 22 points. The market lost its luster this afternoon when heavy selling undermined that tech sector, while a surge in oil futures pressured the Dow. June crude futures closed at a record high, $127.05 a barrel and that helped send stocks to a mixed closing. The Dow Industrial Average ended up just 41.36 at 13,028.16. The NASDAQ actually 12 3/4 points to 2516.09, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.28 closing at 1426.63. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 5/32 to par and 11/32, putting the yield at 3.84 percent.
Big board volume leader on 18 1/4 million shares, Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.20. Followed by Citigroup (C) $0.13 drop.
GE (GE) $0.27 gain.
EMC (EMC) up $0.25.
And Wells Fargo (WFC) lost $0.47.
Ford Motor (F) a $0.09 drop.
Bank of America (BAC) lost $0.07.
SprintNextel (S) up a dime.
Then Motorola (MOT) a $0.13 gainer.
AT&T (T) was up $0.44 per share.
Three major investment firms had their earnings for the second quarter cut by Citigroup today. Goldman Sachs (GS), Lehman Bros (LEH) and Morgan Stanley MS) stocks all down on the news. And we must apologize for now charts tonight. We had some technical difficulties, but we'll move along nevertheless.
Texas Instruments (TXN) up $0.74. Goldman Sachs thinks the chip makers should outperform the market after underperforming it for years and also Citigroup did upgrade Texas Instruments from "hold" to a "buy."
Then Lowes Corp (LOW) down $0.64, traded as low as $23.88 after reporting first quarter earnings fell to $0.41 from $0.48 a year ago. Same store sales down 8.4 percent, all this due of course to the housing slump.
Amer Axle & Manufacturing (AXL) fell $1.13, although the company and its union workers are in a tentative contract which could well end an 11- week strike and General Motors (GM) moved up $0.19. It buys a lot of products from American Axle.
Mastec (MTZ) up $1.20. Management is confident about the company securing $50 million in wind system contracts this year.
Shaw Group (SGR) up $2.25. One of the company's units got a remedial action contract worth up $150 million from the naval command in Norfolk, Virginia.
And Giant Interactive (GA) falling $1.35. This Chinese online gaming company will suspend all games until this Thursday to express its deep condolences for the victims of the devastating earthquake in China.
Campbell Soup (CPB) fell $2.25. First quarter - or third quarter earnings excluding items $0.43, a penny below the Street estimate and down from $0.45 last year. All this despite a 7.4 percent rise in revenues.
And BCE Inc (BCE) down $2.19. "New York Times" reports the $34.8 billion buyout of the company is in trouble because the bankers want to change the financing terms.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ's most active list with a loss of $4.02.
Google (GOOG) down $2.55.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $6.41.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.73.
And Microsoft (MSFT), you heard the news, down $0.53.
Amazon.com (AMZN) fell $5 or gained $5.83. Goldman Sachs added the stock to its conviction "buy" list and boosted its price target from $75 to $98 a share, all on the belief the company will take market share away from eBay.
And then Yahoo! (YHOO) a $0.02 gain. I heard a joke today that if Yahoo! and Microsoft do get together, the new company could be called Micro-hoo.
Intel (INTC) was a $0.12 loser.
And then Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.45 gain.
First Solar (FSLR) plunged $15.24, some heavy profit taking there.
Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) up $1.94. First quarter earnings of $0.06. The Street was expecting an $0.08 per share loss. Sales for the company during the period up 63 percent.
And Pinnacle Gas Resources (PINN) down $1.19. Quest Resource Corporation terminated its stock buyout offer for Pinnacle, down went the stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
