Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, June 09, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips opened higher in a technical rebound from Friday's steep sell-off. Buyers were also encouraged by that drop in oil futures. An hour into trading, the Dow was up 111 points, but the NASDAQ was off seven points on weakness in Apple stock as investors showed caution over how its new iPhone would be received. The market remained mixed for the rest of the day as weak financials trimmed the blue chip's gains, while the tech sector partially recovered. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 70.51 points at 12,280.32. The NASDAQ ended off just 15 points and 10 points actually to 2459.46. Standard & Poor's 500 gained 1.08 ending at 1361.76. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 24/32 to 98 26/32, putting the yield at 4.02 percent.
Big board volume leader as you might expect, Lehman Brothers (LEH) trading 31.2 million shares, down $2.81 on the close. It traded as low as $28.01. As you heard, it's going to take a second quarter loss of $5.14 a share or thereabouts. Lehman analysts also cut ratings and price targets on a slew of large cap banks, many of which you'll see in the active list, including Citigroup (C) which lost $0.46.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.89.
Pfizer (PFE) bucked the trend up $0.06.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) one of the hardest hit of the big cap stocks in the banking area, down $2.58.
General Electric (GE) $0.04 gain there.
Wachovia (WS) another weak bank, down $1.24.
Washington Mutual (WM) fell $1.28. UBS financial sees the company taking $27 billion in losses through the year 2011.
Ford Motor Co (F) in there with a $0.32 gain.
Then Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) down $0.15 a share.
Alcoa (AA) did well, up $2.95. "Barron's" financial this week quotes a Citigroup mining analyst John Hill who sees the stock under valued and thinks $50 a share is a good price target for Alcoa, $60 on a takeover bid.
American Intl Group (AIG) down $0.44. Top management and the board are facing mounting dissent from some very large shareholders. Trouble ahead perhaps.
McDonald's (MCD) down $2.36. The company said its May global sales were up a handsome 7.7 percent. Lehman boosted earnings estimates, repeated an "over weight" rating on McDonalds and on a separate note, the food giant has also stopped putting tomatoes on sandwiches due to safety concerns stemming from an outbreak of salmonella.
Moving along in the big movers category, Honeywell Intl (HON) wasn't exactly a big mover, up $0.78, but it's going to sell its aerospace fastener business to BE Aerospace for $1, let's make it $1 billion and 50,000. BE stock was up $2.98.
Hilb Rogal Hobbs (HRH), this is an insurance holding company, big move, up $12.93. Another insurance company, Willis Group will acquire it for $46 a share, 50 percent cash, 50 percent stock. Willis stock itself was down $2.16.
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) gaining $1.63. The company's "Kung Fu Panda" animated movie brought in $60 million at the box office over the weekend. That's the company's best performance ever for a non-sequel. Jefferies brokerage upgraded the stock from $25 to $33 a share on a price target.
Mosaic Co (MOS), the fertilizer company, up $7.65. Fitch and Standard & Poor's rated both, upgraded the company's unsecured debt to "investment grade." Goldman Sachs added it to its conviction "buy" list.
Moving along we see Trina Solar Ltd (TSL) down $4.57. Friday the company did report higher earnings, first quarter, $0.51, up from $0.22 a year ago, but it warned that higher silicon costs could hurt profit margins, down went the stock today.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ most active, losing $4.03. As you heard, it introduced that new 3g iPhone today.
Google (GOOG) down $9.13.
Research in Motion (RIMM) moving up $2.71.
$0.22 gain in Microsoft (MSFT).
Intel (INTC) fell $0.14.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down just over $13.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.11.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) a $0.03 loss there.
Dell (DELL) moved up $0.41.
And First Solar (FSLR) down $6.93.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) down $3.09 on growing, the threat of growing competition for its diabetes drug called Byetta.
And then Rimage (RIMG), this is a company involved with DVD publishing systems. It cut its second quarter earnings guidance to $0.12 at best from a previous at best estimate of $0.27, quite a drop.
Those are the stocks in the news.
