Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a rally on reports Congress was making progress and hashing a deal on the financial rescue plan. In a sure-footed advance, the Dow posted a 245-point gain by midday, while the NASDAQ Composite was up 40 points. Stocks showed little reaction to news that General Electric cut its earnings estimates, or to a big 11.5 percent drop in August new home sales. So the Dow managed to keep most of its solid gains right into the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 196.89 points at 11,022.06. The NASDAQ was up 30.89 points at 2,186.57. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 23.31, ending at 1,209.18. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 7/32 to 101 7/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
The most active stock on the Big Board, 38.1 million shares traded, American International Group (AIG) losing $0.29. Former CEO Hank Greenberg plans to sell some of his 11 percent stake in the company, which in 2005 was worth $20 billion. It's now worth about $1 billion.
General Electric (GE) in there with a $1.09 gain, even though the company cut its third-quarter earnings estimate from a high of $0.54 to $0.48 at best, the company also is suspending its stock buyback program and not boosting its dividend for the first time since the 1970s. On top of that, Standard & Poor's downgraded it from buy to hold. The stock still up on the day.
Citigroup (C), a $0.45 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a 65-point advance.
And a $1.30 gain in Bank of America (BAC).
National City (NCC) dropped $0.03.
AT&T (T) up $1.09.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) gained $2.64.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up nearly $3 a share.
And then EMC (EMC) with $0.84 advance.
McDonald's (MCD) closed up $0.84, and after the close, the company announced it boosting its quarterly dividend 33 percent. It will go to $0.50 a share. In after-hours trading, the stock gained about $0.50 a share.
MetLife (MET) up $2.42. Citigroup repeated a buy with a $0.70 a share price target.
Stifel Financial (SF) down $2.77. The company and Western & Southern Life Insurance priced 1.7 million share public offering of Stifel stock at $45 a share. A little earnings dilution there.
Nike (NKE) up $5.74. Late yesterday, first-quarter earnings came out at a $1.03, down from $1.12 last year. But that was $0.11 better than expected. And today both Citigroup and Standard & Poor's repeated buys on Nike stock.
Owens-Illinois (OI) up $4.94. Citigroup repeated a buy and Longbow Research upgraded it from neutral to buy on the improving pricing outlook for glass containers, which is their major business.
Ameron International (AMN) tumbling $36.12, it traded as low as $68.25. Third-quarter earnings tumbled to $1.63 from $2.32 a year ago. The company sees fourth-quarter earnings below the third quarter because of slowdown in the piping business.
Vail Resorts (MTN) down $2.33. Fourth-quarter loss of $0.29, $0.09 worse than expected. Deutsche Bank downgraded it from buy to hold. And Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) down another $2.53 after losing $3.90 yesterday on credit crunch concerns. Today the company said it's going to have a significant fourth-quarter loss and a possible loan default due to higher feed costs and wheat pricing for its products.
Red Hat (RHT) down $1.53. Second-quarter earnings higher, $0.20 versus $0.17 last year, but sees third-quarter falling to $0.16 to $0.17.
And Texas Industries (TXI) down $2.46. The cement producer says California construction activity is very slow and it reported first-quarter earnings tumbled to $0.38, down from the Wall Street estimate of $0.77.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL), up $3.22. Microsoft (MSFT), and we'll have more news on that shortly, up $0.89.
Research In Motion (RIMM), an $0.82 gain. After the close, Research reported second-quarter earnings, $0.86 up from $0.84 a year ago, a penny below the Street estimate. And also I had a rather discouraging outlook. In after-hours trading, RIMM's stock tumbled 20 points, down to the 77 level.
Google (GOOG), $4.49 gain.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.68, fifth in NASDAQ volume.
Intel (INTC), $0.13 loss there.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.52.
Qualcomm (QCOM), $1.25 gain.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $8.23.
And Amgen (AMGN) gained $1.55.
CRA International (CRAI) down $10.20. It's a business consultancy, and third-quarter earnings came out at $0.32, way down from the $0.88 Wall Street estimate.
And finally Transmeta Corp. (TMTA) up $2.58. The company is exploring its sale and it entered into some licensing pact with Intel.
Those are the "Stocks in the News" tonight.
