Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 03, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened on a mixed note as investors analyzed the jobs report and the European rate boost. Blue chip buyers were happy though that the employment numbers weren't worse and they helped send the Dow to a 117-point gain by 11:30 this morning. The NASDAQ was up nine. Oversold conditions had the bulls taking the upper hand in the latter part of today's shortened trading session, so the rally's momentum did fade a little bit however. The Dow Industrial Average managed to hold on to a decent gain nevertheless, rising 73.03 at 11,288.54. In this four trading session week, it rose three times but still fell 57.97 points overall. The NASDAQ closed off 6.08 today at 2245.38 and for the week, it rose once, fell three times, had a net loss of 70.25 points. Standard & Poor's 500 gained 1.38 ending at 1262.90 today and for the week, it lost 15.48 points overall. Over in the bond market the 10-year note lost 8/32 to 99 and 3/32, putting the yield at 4.54 percent.
Now let's see what was delivering on Wall Street, as we look at our stocks in the news tonight.
Big board volume leader as it so often is, Citigroup (C) today on 16 1/2 million shares, down $0.02.
Then Bank of America (BAC) losing $0.14.
General Electric (GE) bucked the overall trend there, up $0.40.
Wachovia (WB) lost a half dollar.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $0.71.
Ford Motor Co (F) was a $0.06 gainer.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) up another $0.49 after two previously good days.
Motorola (MOT) a $0.09 drop.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) down $0.35.
And then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.13 closing gain.
Aetna (AET) down $2.65. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "neutral" to "sell" and it affected the whole health-related sector.
Let's have a look at some of the other issues in that sector. Cigna (CI) down $1.31.
Health Net (HNT) off $3.09, got the same downgrade from Goldman Sachs, "neutral" to "sell."
Then Humana (HUM) off $1.43.
United Health (UNM) off $2.16. Yesterday the company cut its 2008 and 9 earnings guidance. Today UBS downgraded United Health from "buy" to "neutral."
And then came Wellpoint (WLP) with a loss of $2.17.
Here's one health managed care company that did well today, Amerigroup (AGP) rising $1.22. The company renewed its contract with the state of Tennessee for another year and got a rate increase in the deal.
Freddie Mac (FRE) down $1.42. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "hold" to "sell" on concerns about its capital situation.
Arch Coal (ACI) moved up $1.49. Citigroup said the coal group has been - its sell-off has been overdone in recent times and it upgraded Arch Coal from "hold" to a "buy." That helped the group generally.
AK Steel Holdings (AKS) down $3.86. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "hold" to an outright "sell."
Moving along we see Church and Dwight (CHD) down $3.07. BMO Capital Markets downgraded the stock from "market perform" to "under perform" because of rising material costs hurting the company's gross profit margin growth.
MetroPCS (PCS) down $2.07. The company sees second quarter net subscriber additions up 184,000. Standard & Poor's however said that's below its forecast for an increase of 300,000.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) down $2.97 a share. The company is seeking to raise $7 billion in loans for its Venetian resort and casino in Macau. NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $1.94.
Followed by Research in Motion (RIMM) down $1.16.
Google (GOOG) rose nearly $10 a share today.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.10 share raise.
Nvidia (NVDA) tumbling $5.54. The company warned second quarter results could be hurt by a big charge for a technical glitch and also due to softer demand for its chips.
Moving along in the active list on NASDAQ, Intel (INTC) was down $0.27.
First Solar (FSLR) moved up $5.81.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.28 gain there.
baidu.com (BIDU) up $3.96.
And Amgen (AMGN) gained $2. The company's once a day pill to treat thyroid cancer is showing promise.
Elsewhere, Penn National Gaming (PENN) moved up $1.06 even though Fortress Investment has terminated its $6.1 billion takeover bid.
And on the downside, big downside move, Acme Packet (APKT) off $3.16. The company gave a very disappointed second quarter earnings outlook.
And finally, TranS1 (TSON) down $4.01. The company cut its second quarter revenue forecast considerably.
And those are our stocks in the news tonight.
