Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened with a sharp rally, thanks largely to major gains in overseas markets. The Dow vaulted nearly 300 points in early trading with the NASDAQ up 43 points. But that 41-year low in consumer confidence cut the blue chips' gain to just 32 points by 11:00 this morning and that's when buyers came on strong again though and that's thanks to optimism over a Fed rate cut perhaps tomorrow. Stocks surged uninterrupted right into the closing bell. From there the Dow Industrial Average skyrocketed 889.35 points to 9,065.12. The NASDAQ soared 143.57 ending at 1,649.47. Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 91.59 to 940.51. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 1 11/32 to 101 8/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
Topping the most active board on the big board, 26 million shares traded, General Electric (GE) with a nice gain of $1.76.
National City (NCC) up $0.36. It's being acquired as we know by PNC Financial for stock, which today is worth $2.56 a share mainly because PNC Financial stock jumped $6.81.
Citigroup (C) $1.74 advance.
Pfizer (PFE) up $1.43.
And then ExxonMobil (XOM) gaining $8.77. That was the biggest point gainer in the Dow.
But let's have a look at some of the other good gainers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM), Procter & Gamble (PG), United Technologies (UTX) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) all major gainers.
Bank of America (BAC) was up $2.49.
Wachovia (WB) $0.73 advance.
And then JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $3.60.
Morgan Stanley (MS) up $1.47.
And completing this blizzard of plus signs, Wells Fargo (WFC) up $3.63.
Boeing (BA) was up $6.55. The company's reached a tentative four-year labor pact with the machinists and aerospace union and separately, Edward Liddy, who was named the chairman of AIG just last month has resigned from the board of Boeing.
BP Plc ADR (BP), up $6.32. Third quarter earnings jumped to $3.21 from $1.28 last year. Revenues jumped 45 percent.
And on the energy field, Valero Energy (VLO), the refining company, up $1.85. Third quarter earnings, $1.86, well above $1.34 last year. Revenues jumped 52 percent.
Then a big percentage gain, Apria Healthcare (AHG) up $7. The unit of Blackstone Group will merge with this company and pay $21 a share cash in the deal and that deal did close today incidentally.
Whirlpool (WHR) didn't do so well, down $4.16, traded as low as $38.21 early today. Third quarter earnings $2.15, down a nickel from last year and the company cut its 2008 earnings guidance from a high of $7.50 a share all the way down to a flat $6 a share at best. It's also suspending its stock buyback plan and it'll cut global workforce by 5,000 jobs by the end of next year. Standard & Poor's repeated a "sell" recommendation.
Under Armour (UA) up $4.77. The sportswear company had third quarter earnings of $0.51, $0.11 better than last year. Revenues up 24 percent.
And then WMS Industries (WMS) up $4.34. The gaming machine company had first quarter earnings rising to $0.27 from $0.19 a year ago. Revenues up 14 percent.
Building materials company USG Corp (USG) down $3.02. Third quarter loss reported today of $0.40 versus earnings of $0.07 last year. Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong sell."
And then big steel, US Steel (X) up $4.38. Third quarter earnings jumped to $7.79 from $2.27 last year. Sales up 68 percent but the company predicting lower fourth quarter earnings.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $7.82.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) a gain of $1.92, best we've seen on the upside there for a while.
Google (GOOG) up over $39 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $2.22 advance.
Intel (INTC) up $1.61. That was fifth in volume.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $4.33.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gaining $4.93.
Amgen (AMGN) up $5.26.
Baidu.com (BIDU) rose almost $30 a share.
And then Amazon (AMZN) up $6.46.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
