Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, December 26, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: That news on GM's GMAC unit helped set the tone of trading on Wall Street today. The Dow rose 55 points at the outset of trading while the NASDAQ gained just a fraction. The upturn had trouble gaining traction with post Christmas volume at a crawl, while the NASDAQ faltered. But blue chip buyers stayed on through the afternoon, helping the broader market end on a positive note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 47.07 at 8515.55. In this abbreviated week, the index fell in two of the last four sessions for an overall loss of 63.56 points. The NASDAQ gained 5.34 to 1530.24 today and like the Dow, it rose twice and fell twice, losing 34.08 points on the week. Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.65, closing at 872.80 for the day and for the week, the index was down 15.08. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 15/32 to 114 9/32, putting the yield at 2.14 percent.
The most active New York exchange issue on only 10 million shares was Citigroup (C) down a nickel. It shows you what a slow day it was.
Bank of America (BAC) off $0.17.
General Electric (GE) lost $0.14.
Ford Motor (F) bucking the trend, up $0.18.
And then General Motors (GM) gained $0.41. As you heard, the Federal Reserve board OK'd GMAC's financial services to become a bank holding company, which of course will expand its funding ability.
Moving along in the actives, ExxonMobil (XOM) up $1.41. Oil up over $2 a barrel today. We'll see some more oil stocks in a moment.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.09 gain there.
Wachovia (WB) lost a nickel.
Prologis (PLD) $0.31 advance.
And then Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) down $0.09 a share, tenth in volume.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) did well, up $1.89. The United Arab Emirates is the first Arab nation to buy the company's advanced Patriot antimissile systems. For Lockheed, it's a $3.3 billion deal.
The gold stocks were stars today as gold jumped $23.20 an ounce to $871.20 in the New York February contract and the sector was strong as you can see. Barrick Gold (ABX), Freeport-McMoran (FCX), Kinross Gold (KGC) and Newmont Mining (NMT) all doing well.
Jones Apparel (JNY) gained $1.73. The company successfully completed adjustments to its credit facility, resulting in greater flexibility.
And another firm that did well by that Commscope (CTV) up $1.29. It also amended terms of its credit agreements.
Smithfield Foods (SFD) a $0.91 gain. It traded as high as $13.41 during the day mainly on hopes that feed prices and especially corn and rising hog prices will boost earnings in the months ahead.
Here are some oil stocks responding to that $2.36 rise in the February contract in New York to $37.71. Noble Corp (NE), Schlumberger (SLB), Occidental Petro (OXY) and Transocean Ltd (RIG) all on the plus side nicely.
NASDAQ's most active was Apple (AAPL) $0.77 gain. On Sunday, Wal-Mart as you heard will start selling the iPhones 3G in Wal-Mart stores, about 2200 of them.
Google (GOOG) down $2.59.
Amazon.com (AMZN) a $0.34 gain. As you heard here, the company sold a record number of items so far this Christmas season and at one pace was going at 72 per minute or was it per second? I think it was per second.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.04 loss.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) an $0.08 drop there.
Intel (INTC) $0.05 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) moved up $0.27.
Oracle (ORCL) an $0.11 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) gained $1.28.
And then Research in Motion (RIMM) falling $0.17 a share.
Elsewhere, Integral Systems (ISYS) up $1.53, good percentage gain. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.28 a share, up from $0.23 last year and that was $0.08 better than the Street consensus.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
