Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Well investors didn't start the day on a positive note. Instead it was looking downright bearish. Stocks headed broader lower at the outset of trading with the Dow falling 56 points and the NASDAQ off 10 points on a further surge into record territory for oil prices. By midday, the Dow posted a 150-point deficit with the NASDAQ off 35 points. But buyers gradually and eventually came off the sidelines and lifted the market to a positive close. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a gain of 32 1/4 points exactly at 11,382.26. The NASDAQ Composite rose 11.99 at 2304.97, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.91, ending at 1284.91. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 8/32 to 98 30/32, putting the yield at 4.01 percent.
No stranger at the top of the active list, Citigroup (C) trading 30.7 million shares, up $0.37 today.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.06.
Ford Motor Co (F) on those poor sales, down a dime a share.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.43.
And JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a $0.09 gainer there.
Moving along in the active list, Lehman Brothers (LEH) up $1.15. Morgan Stanley started covering Lehman with a "over weight" rating and a $31 a share price target.
Wachovia (WB) a $0.60 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.26 advance there.
General Motors (GM) gained $0.25 on those better than expected sales, even though they were down.
Then Washington Mutual (WM), tenth in volume, was up $0.32.
Alcoa (AA) fell $1.18. Solei Bradford research notes that rising raw material costs could hurt profit margins at Alcoa, the stock down.
And then American Express (AXP) moved up $2.35. UBS financial upgraded it from "sell" to "neutral" and did the same thing for two other credit card issuers, namely - let's have a look at those, Capital One Financial (COF) which gained $2.13.
And Discover Financial (DFS) up $0.83.
Fortune Brands (FO) tumbling $8.28. After the close yesterday, as we reported, the company cut its second quarter and full year earnings outlook and today Wachovia downgraded it from "out perform" to just a "market perform" rating.
CIT Group (CIT) up $2.02, nice percentage gain. It's going to sell its home lending business to loan star funds for $1.5 billion in cash and the assumption of $4.4 billion in debt and liabilities. Standard & Poor's upgraded CIT from "hold" to a "buy."
Legg Mason (LM) down $2.32. The company will contribute $240 million to support three of one of its unit's money market funds.
Modine Manufacturing Co (MOD) up $1.03. Keybanc upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy" there.
On the downside, the car rental companies really had a rough day after Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG) fell $3.75 when it said it will not achieve its previous fiscal 2008 earnings guidance of $1 to $1.50.
Let's have a look at some other car rental stocks, Avis Budget (CAR) down $1.08.
$1.13 loss in Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ).
Resmed (RMD) up $2.57, up on rumors that Germany's Linde AG might make an offer to acquire the company, but Resmed had no comment on that.
VF Corp (VFC), apparel maker, up $4.07. Second quarter earnings the company says will exceed its previous earnings guidance of $0.80 a share by at least 10 to 12 percent.
And then Sherwin-Williams (SHW) had a good day, up $2.93. The Rhode Island supreme court reversed a 2006 verdict against the company, but now it cannot be held liable for the production of lead paint according to the court.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $7.24.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $6.37.
Then Microsoft (MSFT) $0.64 loss.
Google (GOOG) up $8.31.
Intel (INTC) a $0.09 gain there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.45.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.11.
Baidu.com (BIDU) $4.73 gain.
Celgene (CELG) up $5.39. Its rival SuperGen blood disorder drug did no better in trials than Celgene's comparable drug.
And then Oracle (ORCL) $0.31 gain.
Elsewhere, Starbucks (SBUX) closed down $0.12, but after the close, the company announced plans to close 600 under performing restaurants as we touched on earlier. In after hours, that stock moved up a little over $1 from the price you see here.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
