Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, October 20, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips surged some 240 points early on as buyers were encouraged by an improvement in bank lending rates. Investors also welcomed Fed chief Bernanke's call for a second fiscal stimulus package. That helped get buyers on board for a strong rally this afternoon which lifted stocks to the day's best levels at the close. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 413.21 points at 9265.43. The NASDAQ was up 58.74, ending at 1770.03, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 44.85 to 985.40. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 23/32 to 101 8/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
Most active big board issue on 16.6 billion shares, Bank of America (BAC) moving up a $1.16.
Followed by General Electric (GE) $0.51 gain there.
American Intl Group (AIG) rose $0.21. Reportedly, Prudential of the United Kingdom is putting a deal together to finance the acquisition of AIG's Asian operations.
Citigroup (C) $0.21 gain.
National City (NCC) an $0.08 loss.
Then Pfizer (PFE) a $0.43 advance.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $6.95. Oppenheimer brokerage today said this is the time to buy oil and gas stocks, especially ahead of Friday's OPEC meeting where a production cut and higher prices are expected. Oppenheimer upgraded Exxon to "outperform" as it did with a number of other major oil stocks.
Look at them go, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Apache (APA), BP plc (BP), Chevron (CVX) and Hess (HES) all major gainers on that news.
Back to the active list, Petroleo Brasil (PBR.A), that's another oil, Brasilian, up $2.16.
Then Wells Fargo (WFC) with a $0.17 gain.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) rose $1.33.
American Express (AXP) $1.02 gain. After the close, third quarter earnings out, $0.74, down from $0.90 a year ago, but $0.15 better than the Street estimate. The stock rose as much as $3 after hours until the CEO said he's still cautious about the outlook. Then it backed down to around $26.50.
Texas Instruments (TXN) closed up $0.33. After the close, third quarter results $0.43, down from $0.54 a year ago and a penny below the Street estimate. In after hours trading, TXN stock fell about $1.
Halliburton (HAL), the oil service company, up $2.15 (INAUDIBLE). Third quarter earnings $0.76 down from $0.79 a year ago, but $0.02 better than the Street was expecting.
NRG Energy (NRG) up $5.67. Exelon is proposing to buy all the outstanding shares for about a half a share of Exelon for each one. That would be worth around $26.50 for NRG shareholders. Today Exelon edged up $0.09.
Weatherford Intl (WFT), oil field service company, up $2.27. Third quarter earnings rose to $0.55 from $0.43 a year ago on a 29 percent jump in revenues.
Then Landry's Restaurants (LNY) up $2.58. Fertata Holdings will acquire all the outstanding shares for $13.50 each.
This is Copa Holdings (CPA), the Panamanian-based airline, up $4.65. Raymond James brokerage upgraded it from "outperform" to a "strong buy."
And Hormel Foods (HRL), the meat packer, down $3.78. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance from a high of $2.28 down to $2.09 a share at best.
Then the toy maker, Hasbro (HAS) down $1.25. Third quarter earnings were up to $0.89 versus $0.78 a year ago, $0.03 above the Street consensus, but the company's cautious about the holiday shopping season and that hurt the stock late on.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $1.04. Earnings for the fourth quarter due out tomorrow after the close. The Street's looking for $1.11.
Google (GOOG) a $6.78 gain.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.79.
Research in Motion (RIMM) tumbling $5.10. Pacific Quest brokerage says the company's sales trends are disappointing and it sees third quarter earnings estimates at risk.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $1.05 gainer.
Then Intel (INTC) $0.54 advance.
Same story for Qualcomm (QCOM).
And then Baidu.com (BIDU) up $14.86.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $1.14. After the close, the company said it's going to buy an additional $8 billion of its own stock. The stock was up $0.30 after hours.
And then First Solar (FSLR) up $8.98.
Sandisk (SNDK) lost $1.09. After the close, third quarter results, a loss of $0.69 versus $0.36 in earnings a year ago. The Street was looking for a loss of only $0.27, so that was worse than expected.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
