Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, August 08, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a sizzling rally as investors ignored Fannie Mae's huge loss and focused on that steep slide in oil prices and a strong dollar. An hour into trading, the Dow was sporting a 197-point gain with the NASDAQ up 43 points. The rally continued without pause spearheaded by the airlines and retailers as oil and other commodity prices showed further weakness. The major averages went on to end near the day's best levels at the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 302.89 points at 11,734.32. This week, it fell twice, rose three times and had a net gain of exactly 408 points. The NASDAQ Composite jumped 58.37 to 2414.10 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week, gaining 103.14 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 30 1/4 points exactly, closing at 1296.32 today and for the week overall, it gained 36.01 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 4/32 to par and 16/32, putting the yield at 3.94 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue trading 17.7 million shares,
General Electric (GE) participating in the rally, up $1.07.
Then Citigroup (C) up $0.92. Bank of America (BAC) edged up $0.73.
Then a new issue, Rackspace Hosting (RAX), this is a web hosting company, went public today, 15 million shares offered at $12.50, not a great debut. It opened at $10, had a high of $11 5/8 and then slumped back to $10.01, down $2.49 from the offering price.
SprintNextel (S) was up $0.93.
Moving along in the active list, Amer Intl Group (AIG) recouping some of its recent losses, up $1.03.
Wash Mutual (WM) down $0.39.
Ford Motor Co (F) edged up $0.40.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.63 gain.
And then JPMorgan Chase (JPM) with a gain of $1.26.
McDonalds (MCD), one of the stars of the Dow, up $3.81. The company said July global same store sales up 8 percent. US same store sales up 6.7 percent.
Now let's look at some of the other big Dow winners that accounted for that 302 point gain in the Dow. Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Proctor & Gamble (PG), 3M Company (MMM) and United Tech (UTX) all nice gainers.
Live Nation (LYV) up $3.53, almost a 28 percent rise there. It's a concert promoter and second quarter earnings came in at $0.02, down from $0.15 last year, but the Street was looking for a loss of $0.20 a share, so a lot better than expected.
Landry's Restaurants (LNY) up $2.37. Second quarter operating earnings $0.92, more than double last year's $0.45 and revenues were up 1.1 percent.
Then World Fuel Svcs (INT), aviation fuels company, up $3.43, nice second quarter earnings, $0.71 up from last year's $0.58 and revenues jumped up 73 percent.
Then a software firm, Pros Holdings (PRO) down $3.27. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.08, above last year's $0.06 but the company sees flat second or third quarter earnings of about $0.78 and Jefferies brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to just a "hold" recommendation.
Carriage Svcs (CSV), which is in the funeral business, down $1.64, losing a lot of its value. Second quarter earnings was just break even, versus earnings of $0.10 last year. The company blames lower profit margins.
Par Pharmaceuticals (PRX) losing $2.62. Second quarter loss reported, $0.60 in the minus column versus $0.08 in earnings last year. The Street was looking for $0.12 a share in earnings.
And Hormel Foods (HRL) down $1.96. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance from a high of $2.40 to $2.28 a share at best.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, moving up nearly $6.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $6.50.
Microsoft (MSFT) gained $0.74.
And Google (GOOG) up $15.89.
Qualcomm (QCOM) rose $0.48 a share, fifth in NASDAQ volume.
Intel (INTC) $0.56 advance.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.67 advance there.
Oracle (ORCL) gained $0.77.
Amazon.com (AMZN) had a pretty good day, up $3.56.
And Dell (DELL) edged a penny higher.
Congent Communications (CCOI) tumbling $2.72, almost 25 percent drop. The company reported a second quarter loss of $0.12 a share, not as bad as the $0.19 per share loss a year ago, but it was $0.02 worse than the Street consensus.
And on the upside, Fuel System Solutions (FSYS) jumping $12.22, second quarter earnings $0.29, way up from $0.03 last year and $0.02 better than the Street was expecting.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
