Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: The early surge in oil prices unsettled Wall Street, sending stocks slightly lower at the open. The Dow fell about 30 points and the NASDAQ was down two points. Stocks then staged a solid rally as investors digested that stronger-than-expected rise in durable goods orders and some decent buying in the badly bruised financial sector was another plus. By 1:00 p.m., the Dow was sporting a 129-point gain, with the NASDAQ up 31 points. Persistent strength in oil caused a partial market pullback this afternoon. The Dow Industrial Average went on to close up 89.64 points at 11,502.51. The NASDAQ Composite was up 20.49 at 2,382.46 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 10.15 ending at 1,281.66 make that. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 3/32 to 101 31/32, putting the yield at 3.76 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 21.1 million shares, Ford Motor Co (F) losing $0.09.
Then Freddie Mac (FRE) with a $0.78 gain and you heard the story there. Fannie Mae also we'll get to.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.20 loss.
Citigroup (C) $0.28 gain.
General Electric (GE) in there with a $0.05 loss.
Wamu (WM) was a $0.06 loser.
And then Fannie Mae (FNM) up $0.86. That incidentally is the fifth consecutive closing gain on Fannie Mae, a little spark coming into some of these financial issues.
American Intl Group (AIG) was up $0.36.
Bank of America (BAC) $0.63 advance.
And then tenth in volume, AT&T (T) moving up $0.58.
Boeing Co (BA) was up $1.06. Jefferies brokerage says the company will avoid a machinists strike and issued a buy recommendation and of course July durable goods orders were led by demand for civilian aircraft which is good for Boeing.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) up $0.75. The company has three potential bidders for its asset management unit if it wants to sell it. That's not clear. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley today predicted Lehman will report third quarter write downs of up to $3.5 billion.
Ikon Office Solutions (IKN) up $1.46. The document management company will be acquired by Ricoh of Japan for $17.25 a share in cash. Meanwhile, rival Cannon (ph) Incorporated will be a big-time loser because it supplies Ikon with its products which Ricoh now will replace with its products and Cannon stock was down $1.72 incidentally.
MBIA (MBI) up $1.06. After the close, the bond insurer agreed to take over $184 billion in municipal bonds backed by FGIC Corp. MBIA will receive $741 million in premiums and in after hours, the stock was above $13 a share, quite a move.
Cnooc Ltd ADR (CEO), the big Chinese oil company had first half oil and gas sales up 64 percent over a year ago and its profits were up 89 percent from a year ago.
Talbots (TLB) up $2.82. Second quarter loss of $0.34, bigger than the $0.18 lost last year, but the company sees 2009 earnings of $0.15 to $0.25 and its previous estimate was for a loss of $0.17, so looks like it's going to have a good second half.
Borders Group (BGP), the book seller, up $1.03. The company narrowed its second quarter loss to $0.19 a share from minus $0.31 a year ago.
Stoneridge (SRI), an auto parts company, down $1.27. Baird and Company brokerage downgraded the auto sector from "over weight" to "market weight" and downgraded Stoneridge in particular from "neutral" to "under perform."
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $1.03.
Google (GOOG) losing $5.58.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $1.04 gainer.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.29.
Intel (INTC) $0.26 gain there.
Moving along, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMIN) down $6.76. The company and its partner Eli Lily reported four more patients taking their diabetes drug Vietta have died. There were previously two deaths from that particular drug. Lily stock was off only $0.15.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.26 gain there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.74 advance.
Dell (DELL) was up $0.46. Credit Suisse repeated an "outperform" rating on Dell with a $30 a share price target.
First Solar (FSLR) up $4.24.
And finally, shares in SI International (SINT) jumped $8.16 on news the networking solutions provider will be acquired by Serco Group for $32 per share cash.
