Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street cheered at much stronger than expected upward GDP revision and a 10,000 drop in new weekly jobless benefit claims. At 11 a.m. the Dow had surged 141 points with the NASDAQ up 20 points. The market continued its rally this afternoon as bargain hunters bolstered the financial stocks while oil prices fell sharply as you heard. As a result, stocks went on to end the session at their best levels of the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 212.67 at 11,715.18. The NASDAQ Composite was up 29.18 at 2411.67. Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 19.02 ending at 1300.68. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to 101 24/32, putting the yield at 3.79 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 14 1/2 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving up $0.96 in a very firm financial sector.
Bank of America (BAC) did even better, up $1.78.
Fannie Mae (FNM) up $1.47 there. That's the sixth consecutive closing gain for that stock and of course it's a positive reaction to management changes announced after the close yesterday.
Cousin Freddie Mac (FRE) did well, up $0.53.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.17 rise there, fifth in volume.
General Electric (GE) was up $0.61.
And $1.74 advance for JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
Pfizer (PFE) up $0.19.
American Intl Group (AIG) finally with a decent gain, up $1.51.
And Wells Fargo (WFC) up $1.52.
Caterpillar (CAT) rose $2.12. The company's chief exec says sales in China for the company will remain strong doubling to the $4 billion mark by 2010, up from $2 billion this year and that helped a lot of the major machinery stocks post gains today.
Let's have a look at a few of those, Cummins (CMI), Deere & co (DE), Parker Hannifin (ph) and Terex (TEX) all did nicely thanks to Caterpillar.
MBIA (MBI) a huge percentage gain, 35 percent, up $4.17. After the close yesterday as we reported, the company took over the reinsurance of $184 billion in municipal bonds from FGIC Corp. and as a result will receive $714 million in premiums.
Tiffany & Co (TIF) sparkling today, up $4.24. Second quarter earnings jumped to $0.63, more than double $0.29 last year and $0.08 above the Wall Street consensus. Revenues up 11 percent.
Another jewelry doing well, Zale (ZLC) up $4.77, even though it had a fourth quarter loss of $0.15 a share, but the Street was expecting a loss of $0.57 a share. Same store sales were up just over 6 percent. Standard & Poor's upgraded Zale stock from "sell" to a "hold" recommendation.
Jo-Ann Stores (JAS) up $2.27. The company sells crafts and fabrics and things like that. Second quarter loss of $0.47. That's much better than the loss of $0.76 last year. Same store sales up 3 1/4 percent. The company boosted its fiscal 2009 earnings estimate from a high of $0.85 a share to as much as $1.05 a share.
Williams Sonoma (WSM), the house wares company, down $1.43. Second quarter earnings fell to only $0.08 from $0.23 last year. Same store sales tumbled 12 percent and the company says third quarter same store sales will fall by as much as 15 1/2 percent.
Brown Forman "B" (BF.B), the distillery which makes Jack Daniel bourbon and Southern Comfort, down $2.85. Third quarter came in at $0.73, down from $0.77 a year ago and Goldman Sachs today repeated a "sell" recommendation on Brown Forman.
Gerber Scientific (GRB) closed down only $0.88, but it traded as low a flat $8 a share this morning after reporting first quarter earnings of only $0.03, well down from $0.12 last year despite a 3 1/2 percent rise in revenue.
And Greif (GEF), this is a company that makes packaging products, has nicely higher quarterly earnings, $1.10, up from $0.82 last year, 18 rise in revenues.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, down $0.93.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $1.57 loss. Google (GOOG) up $5.20. Microsoft (MSFT) $0.38 advance there.
Dell (DELL) as you heard, a shortfall on earnings, down $0.42 on the close, but I saw it as low as $22.55 after the market closed. Intel (INTC) $0.18 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.29 advance there.
Amazon.com (AMZN) up $1.69.
Amgen (AMGN) rose $0.37.
Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) down $1.79. Analysts are worried about the company's falling profit margins. That's what hurt the stock. They did have higher earnings out today.
And finally Sears Holdings (SHLD) up $3.64. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.21, but that was $0.11 below the Street estimate. The stock apparently higher on optimism on the second half in oil prices stay low.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
