Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, May 22, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street began the day with a technical rebound after two straight sessions of steep losses. An hour into trading, the Dow posted a 56 point gain and the NASDAQ Composite was up 18 points. The pullback in oil futures prompted some of the buying and an unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims by 9,000 claims, helped keep the market in modestly positive ground. But as the day wore on, many investors took to the sidelines ahead of the long holiday weekend coming up and that prevented any major rally. So the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up a modest 24.43 points at 12,625.62. The NASDAQ Composite was up 16.31 at 2464.58, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.64 points to 1394.35. In the bond market, the 10- year note fell 28/32 to 99 22/32, putting the yield up to 3.91 percent.
Big board volume leader on 23 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.64. As you heard, it's cutting back on production of the gas guzzlers and just sees a break even 2009.
Then came Citigroup (C) up $0.66.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.23. Apparently hundreds of people taking the company's anti-smoking product called Chantix are reporting heart problems, vision effects and depression among other things.
General Electric (GE) a $0.02 gain.
Rite Aid (RAD) $0.27 drop there.
Then we see Bank of America (BAC) rising a dime.
Followed by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $0.63.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on the drop of oil futures today, down $1.16.
Wells Fargo (WFC) fell or gained $0.21.
And Electronic Data Systems (EDS) up $0.06. Of course, it's being acquired by Hewlett-Packard.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) lost $1.06. Ladenburg analyst Richard Bove is recommending selling this one as well as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch and the other two had modest closing losses today.
Moody's (MOO) down another $2.40. The company hired law firm Sullivan and Cromwell to review its debt rating mistakes due to a computer error that overrated billions of dollars in debt obligations. Yesterday, the stock tumbled about $7 on news of that computer glitch.
BCE Inc (BCE), the big Canadian telecom, up $4, down $4.73. The Quebec court of appeals has rejected the company's buyout by a private equity group. It ruled in favor of bond holders who say they aren't being treated fairly in that buyout deal.
Longs Drug Store (LDG) up $3.48. Preliminary first quarter earnings, nicely higher, $0.63, up from $0.42 last year. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" recommendation today.
Zales (ZLC) the jewelry chain, up $2.53. Third quarter loss of $0.40 but the Street was expecting a $0.42 loss so a little bit better than expected. The stock reacted positively.
Salesforce.com (CRM) up $3.65. After the close yesterday, first quarter earnings out, $0.08 a share, way up from a penny the year before. Sales soared 52 percent and today, Jefferies brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
Flowers Foods (FLO), famous for its bakery products, up $1.61. First quarter earnings, $0.39, up from $0.31 last year on an 11 percent rise in sales and the company boosted its 2008 earnings forecast to as much as $1.23 a share.
Dicks Sporting (DKE) down $4.29. First quarter earnings dropped to $0.18 from $0.19 a year ago. Same store sales were down 3.8 percent and the company cut its 2008 earnings outlook.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $1.14.
Followed by Google (GOOG) $0.53 loss there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.40.
Baidu.com (BIDU) tumbling nearly $20 a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.22 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.22 gain as well.
First Solar (FSLR) was down $8.02.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) rose $0.21.
Dryships (DRYS) down $10.23.
Qualcomm (QCOM), tenth in NASDAQ volume, down $0.31.
Evergreen Solar (ESLR) sun rise today, up $1.82. The company got a long-term contract for $750 million of solar panels to be sold to a German firm.
And it was kind of a sun down for Solarfun Power Holdings (SOLF), off $5.85. Goldman Sachs issued a downgrade from "neutral" to "sell."
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
