Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: That earnings shortfall from Exxon led Wall Street's blue chips to open lower and that was coupled with some profit taking after a 450-point run-up in the Dow in the previous two days. The Dow fell 65 points at the outset of trading, but the NASDAQ Composite was up 22 points on Bristol-Myers proposed buyout of ImClone, which we'll detail later. After a midday rally attempt failed, the blue chip losses widened as the smaller than expected GDP growth and a surprise jump in jobless benefit claims raised recession fears. The result was a broadly lower market close. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 205.67 points at 11,378.02. The NASDAQ Composite however lost only 4.17 ending at 2,325.55, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 16.88 to 1,267.38. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 24/32 to 99 12/32, putting the yield at 3.95 percent.
Big board volume leader Washington Mutual (WM) on 39 1/2 million shares, moving up $0.59.
Followed by Citigroup (C) with a $0.20 gain.
General Electric (GE) lost $0.68.
Motorola (MOT) moved up $0.96, good percentage move. Second quarter earnings excluding charges, $0.02 per share. The Street was looking for a $0.03 loss. The company sees third quarter break even to earnings of $0.02 a share.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.21.
Bank of America (BAC) fell $0.71.
Wachovia (WB) edging up $0.19.
AT&T (T) dropped a dime.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $3.95. As you heard, second quarter earnings, $2.27, up from $1.83 last year, but that was $0.25 below the Wall Street consensus.
EMC Corp (EMC) in their tenth in volume with a $0.03 loss.
Altria Group (MO) , parent of Phillip Morris, was up - I should say down $1.35. Second quarter earnings excluding one-time items, $0.46, a penny above the Street.
The company affirmed its 2008 guidance of as much as $1.67. The sharp drop you see on that chart represents the spin off of Phillip Morris from Altria.
Moving along, Eastman Kodak (EK) down $1.13. Second quarter earnings excluding a big tax gain, resulted in a $0.13 per share loss. The Street was expecting $0.16 in profit from Kodak.
Intl Paper (IP) moved up $3.40. Second quarter earnings preliminarily, $0.56, up from $0.52 a year ago, $0.16 above the Street estimate. Revenues up nearly 10 percent.
Aetna (AET) a $0.69 gain there, traded as high as $42.66 today after reporting second quarter earnings of $0.94, up from $0.83 last year and a penny above the Street estimate. Revenues up 15 percent.
Prudential Financial (PRU) $2.29 gain there. Second quarter operating earnings $2.02, up from last year's $1.84. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy." The company said it'll buy back up to 2.5 billion of its own stock before the end of this year.
Mastercard (MA) plunging $26.58, traded as low as $237.48 today after reporting a second quarter loss of $5.74 a share. That includes a $1 billion after tax litigation charge in its antitrust settlement with American Express.
Consol Energy (CNX), the coal miner, down $14.11. Second quarter earnings dropped to $0.54 from $0.83 a year ago, $0.26 below the Street estimate and the company notes that its coal operating costs are rising substantially.
Marathon Oil (MRO) up $4.34. The company is considering splitting its oil and gas production operations from refining and marketing operations into two separate companies.
And then Mastec (MTZ) up $2.36, quarter (ph) earnings, $0.25 versus $0.24 a year ago, $0.04 above the Street estimate.
And on the downside, Stoneridge (SRI) down $4.92. Second quarter earnings, $0.20, $0.02 below the Wall Street estimate.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $0.93.
Research in Motion (RIMM) was up $3.60.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.51.
First Solar (FSLR) $0.03 gain there.
Google (GOOG) down $8.95 a share.
Imclone Systems (IMCL) there you see up $17.49. As you heard, Bristol-Myers Squibb is bidding $60 a share for the 84 percent of the stock that it doesn't already own.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.18 drop.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $0.30.
Intel (INTC) a $0.04 loss.
And Akamai Tech (AKAM) down $7.91. The CEO acknowledged the slowing economy is impacting the company's business even though its second quarter earnings were higher, $0.19 versus $0.12 last year.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
