Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street got an early boost from that productivity news with falling oil futures another positive. Buyers were also motivated by a private survey showing a moderate increase in jobs during May. Just before noon, the Dow posted an 86-point gain, with the NASDAQ up 34 points. Then, the blue chips took a hit on renewed credit concerns after Moody's said it may cut credit ratings on bond insurers Ambac and MBIA. All this resulted in a mixed closing on Wall Street. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 12.37 points at 12,390.48. The NASDAQ Composite gained 22.66 ending at 2503.14, but the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost a fraction, .45 down to 1377.20. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 23/32 to 99 4/32, putting the yield to 3.98 percent.
Most active big board issue, familiar name, Citigroup (C) trading 21 1/4 million shares today, stock down $0.34.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) down $0.68.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) moved up $0.79 and traded as high as $32.99. "Wall Street Journal" reported the company may seek foreign capital to bolster its balance sheet. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch upgraded it from "under perform" to a "buy" in the belief the stock, which is now below its $38.65 a share book value, has over corrected. It's in the value they say at this level.
Then came General Electric (GE) with a penny loss.
And Pfizer (PFE), tenth in volume, down $0.21 a share. That was fifth in volume I should say.
Ford Motor Co (F) was down $0.22.
State Street (STT) a $0.53 loss there. After the close yesterday, the company priced an offering of 35.7 million shares at $70. Standard & Poor's today cut its price target on State Street from $81 down to $79 a share.
Wachovia (WS) a $0.34 loss there.
ExxonMobil (XOM) edged up $0.04.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) $0.14 loss. That was tenth in volume.
American Express (AXP) moved up $1.33. The chief exec said the company's still on target for 2008 earnings growth of 4 to 6 percent as previously estimated. The stock had a nice move today.
Disney (DIS) up $1.17. The company's ABC unit will televise the NBA finals.
Verizon Communications (VZ) down $0.38. The company apparently is in advanced talks to acquire Alltel for about $27 billion, at least according to Reuters.
Procter & Gamble (PG) gained $1.04. The company will sell its Folgers coffee business to JM Smucker for about $3 billion in Smucker stock, which incidentally moved up $0.12 to $53.87 today.
Ambac Financial (ABK) and MBIA (MBI) both losers today. Moody's has placed their financial strength rating for both of these on review for a possible downgrade and down went the stocks on that news.
The oil refining stocks very weak today because of that unexpected build up in crude product inventories and a drop in oil futures. It sent these refining stocks all down significantly from Holly (HOC), Sunoco (SUN), Tesoro (TSO), Valero Energy (VLO) and Western Refining (WNR), major percentage losers there.
Guess (GES) the apparel retailer, doing well, up $5.24. First quarter earnings came in at $0.51, up from $0.38 a year ago and a nickel above the Street estimate. The company boosted its 2009 earnings guidance to as much as $2.48 a share.
Koppers Holdings (KOP) which is involved in carbon products, up nearly $5 today. UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to a "buy."
And then McGraw-Hill (MHP), which owns Standard & Poor's and Moody's (MCO), another rating service, both nice gainers. Reportedly the two firms are near a settlement with the New York Attorney General Cuomo as to how these rating agencies can collect fees.
Honda Motor Co (HMC) up $2.15 or 6 percent. The company's May sales were up 11.3 percent, while Ford, General Motors and Chrysler had significant sales declines as we reported yesterday.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) $0.18 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.23.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gained $0.78.
Google (GOOG) a $4.92 advance.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) was up $0.42 a share.
Intel (INTC) $0.54 gain.
But First Solar (FSLR) losing $14.44.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $1.46 gain there.
Baidu.com (BIDU) did well, up $2.43.
And then Dell (DELL) tenth in volume, a $0.42 advance.
Indevus Pharmaceuticals (IDEV) I believe it's pronounced, down $2.85 on concern the FDA will ask for additional safety study before approving the company's testosterone drug called Niebedo (ph).
And on the upside we see Bob Evans Farms (BOBB) rising $5 after posting stronger than expected fourth quarter profits of $0.52 a share, up from the Street estimates of $0.40 a share.
