Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street started the day mixed with the Dow falling 25 points on some profit-taking but strength in the tech sector lifted the NASDAQ to a 30-point gain by late morning. That and another decline in oil prices had the Dow up 42 points by noontime. The market turned choppy and mixed after the Fed's "Beige Book" noted the economy is slowing, but continuing weakness in oil helped the bulls to carry the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 29.88 points at 11,632.38. The NASDAQ composite gained 21.92 to 2325.88. While the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 5.19 to 1282.19.
Over in the bond market the ten-year note lost 4/32 to 98 1/32, putting the yield at 4.12 percent.
Most active big board issue on 28 1/2 million shares, Citigroup (C) edging up $0.23.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) with a gain of $1.09. Bank of America plans to buy back up to 75 million of its own shares. That will be about $3 3/4 billion worth.
Washington Mutual (WM) down $1.17.
And then Wachovia (WB), an $0.86 gain.
Wells Fargo (WFC) edged $0.02 higher.
Moving along on the active list, we see EMC (EMC) gaining $1.71, nice percentage move. Second quarter earnings out, $0.24 versus $0.20 a year ago. Revenues up 18 percent. The company says now it may spin off VMware. VMware (VMW) today closed at $37.00 but traded as low as $32.31. It ended the day off just $0.97.
General Electric (GE), $0.83 gain there. It's in an $8 billion venture with an Abu Dhabi investment group to provide commercial financing services in the Middle East.
Then we see JPMorgan (JPM) up $1.10.
Ford Motor (F) edging up $0.19.
And Fannie Mae (FNM), you heard the news there, down - I should say up $1.59, pretty good percentage move.
AT&T (T) gained $1.24. Second quarter adjusted earnings $0.76 up from $0.70 last year on a 4.4 percent rise in revenue and Standard & Poor's repeated a strong buy on AT&T.
Boeing (BA) down $2.54. Second quarter earnings lower, $1.16 versus $1.35. Last year the company blamed a drop in profitability.
PepsiCo (PEP) up $1.53. Second quarter earnings of $1.03, $0.01 above the street estimate. That's excluding one time items.
And then Whirlpool (WHR) had a nice move today, up $8.54, second quarter earnings $1.53, down from $2.00 a year ago but $0.16 above the street estimate. And the company reaffirmed its 2008 earnings guidance of $7.00 to $7.50 a share.
Norfolk Southern (NSC), the big rail, up $4.27. Second quarter earnings $1.18, up from $0.98 last year on a 16 percent rise in revenue. The company said it had very strong coal shipments.
And CNH Global (CNH), which distributes farm equipment, among other things, up $8.18. Second quarter earnings jumped to $1.48 from only $0.96 last year. Revenues were up 29 percent in that period.
CEC restaurants - this is the one that operates the Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, up $7.14, second quarter earnings soared to $0.48 from only $0.26 last year, $0.17 above the street estimate.
Gold was very weak today and so were the stocks. New York gold, the August contract, tumbled $25.70 an ounce to $922.80 an ounce and you can see from Agnico-Eagle (AEM) all the way down to the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), major losses in these stocks.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ up $4.24.
Costco Wholesale (COST) down $8.57, the company sees fourth quarter earnings well below the street estimate of $1.00 a share and on top of that JPMorgan downgraded the stock from overweight to just neutral. That sector was very weak on that news.
BJ Wholesale (BJ), that was also downgraded by Jeffries brokerage from buy to just to hold and this even affected Wal-Mart (WMT) which lost nearly $1.00 a share.
Back to Google (GOOG), a $12.11 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $4.13.
Microsoft (MSFT), $0.63 advance there.
Qualcomm (QCOM), $0.72 gain.
Intel (INTC) was up $0.21.
Cisco (CSCO) rose $0.27.
But Yahoo! (YHOO) down $1.01.
And Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) jumping nearly $51.00 a share. Second quarter earnings $1.28, up from $0.79 a year ago. The street was only looking for $1.17.
And finally, after the close, amazon.com (AMZN) reported second quarter earnings of $0.37 per share, that was $0.11 above street estimates. In after hours the stock jumped to $76.38.
