Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 17, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Strong rallies in overseas financial markets had bullish confidence up on Wall Street, with stocks extending yesterday's gains at the opening. Investors were encouraged by those better-than-expected results from J.P. Morgan, as well as strong results from United Technologies (UTX), Coca-Cola (KO) and Nokia (NOK). Buyers grew more aggressive as the day wore on, especially after oil prices continued to fall. The market went on to close at the day's best level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 207.38 points to 11,446.66. The NASDAQ jumped 27.45 to 2,312.30. Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 14.96 ending at 1,260.32. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 15/32 to 99 1/32, lifting the yield to an even 4 percent.
New York Exchange volume leader on 40.25 million shares was Wachovia, moving up $2.90. As you heard, the company is being investigated regarding its auction rate securities business.
Bank of America did well, up $3.83. And then Citigroup, whose results are due out tomorrow, up $1.53.
Ace Limited (ACE) up $1.97, helped along by a Citigroup upgrade from hold to buy, although Ace's stock will be coming onto the Standard & Poor's 500, being replaced by MasterCard (MA).
Compania Vale (RIO) down $1.69. Weak commodities group.
JP Morgan Chase, there you see it, up $4.86. Those earnings of $0.54 were lower than last year, but $0.10 better than expected, and Standard & Poor's repeated a strong buy today.
Wells Fargo (WFC) edging up $0.60 after good earnings yesterday.
Washington Mutual (WM) $0.46 gain.
GE (GE) up $0.32.
And then Freddie Mac (FRE) gained $1.50. The company's offering of $3 billion in two-year notes was well received, and Fitch affirmed the company's long-term default rating of AAA. Did the same thing for Fannie Mae (FNM), whose stock was up $1.68.
IBM (IBM) closed up $0.58. After the close, company in with second quarter earnings of $1.98, $0.16 above the Street consensus, but the stock actually dropped nearly $1 in after-hours trading on the company's rather cautious outlook.
Coca-Cola down $2. Company in with second quarter earnings, $0.61 versus $0.80, but that includes an impairment charge. Without it, those earnings would have been $1.01 a share, $0.05 above the Wall Street estimate.
Another Dow stock, United Tech, moving up $3.59. Second quarter earnings $1.32, up from last year's $1.16, $0.02 above the Street consensus, and the company boosted its 2008 guidance by $0.10 a share to as much as $4.95 a share.
Nokia moved up $2.18. Second quarter earnings, 0.36 of a euro, versus 0.32 euros last year. Sales were up 4.5 percent, and the company is upbeat on its third quarter outlook.
Blackrock (BLK) moving up $29.31. Second quarter earnings $2.05, up from $1.69, on a 26 percent rise in revenues. And Goldman Sachs repeated a buy, and this action on Blackrock boosted the asset management group in general. Let's have a look at those stocks.
AllianceBernstein (AB), Franklin (BEN), Janus (JNS), Legg Mason (LM), PNC Financial (PNC) doing well. PNC had good earnings out today, second quarter $1.44, up from $1.22, and it does own 34 percent of Blackrock, incidentally.
Nucor (NUE), the steel company, plunging $7.45. Second quarter earnings $0.68, $1.94 up from $1.13, but the company's outlook was rather disappointing.
Textron (TXT) down $2.73, $1.03 in second quarter earnings, up from $0.85, but the company sees lower-than-expected $0.80 to $0.90 third quarter earnings.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) up $2.55. Second quarter earnings $0.95, down from $1.14 a year ago, but that was $0.20 above the Wall Street consensus.
MGIC Investment (MTG) a huge percentage gain, up $1.60. Company had a second quarter loss of $0.79 versus earnings last year, but the CEO sees a return to profits before long, because he's already seeing an improvement in the real estate market.
And Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL), up $10.35. Teva Pharmaceuticals reportedly is in talks to acquire Barr.
NASDAQ's most active -- Apple (AAPL), down $1. Then Google, off $2.16, and it dropped 10 percent from there, as I mentioned. Microsoft moved up $0.26, but it was still lower after hours.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.22.
And Intel (INTC) gained $1.08 per share.
eBay (EBAY) down $3.90 after the close yesterday, as we reported, better-than-expected earnings, but a disappointing outlook. And today, Deutsche Bank issued a sell on eBay.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $1.42.
Cisco (CSCO) $0.42 gain.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up nearly $4.
And then Dell (DELL) $1.27 gain on that one.
Huge loss in Semgroup Energy Partners (SGLP), tumbling $11.80 or 51.75 percent. Moody's and Fitch both cut the company's debt ratings on concerns that it may not be able to meet margin calls due to recent volatility in the oil market.
And those are the stocks in the news.
