Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, March 13, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened higher taking its cue from strength in world markets overnight. The Dow gained 50 points at the outset of trading with the NASDAQ up five points. Then profit takers moved in, sending the Dow to a 45 point mid-day loss. But when the sell off proved to be shallow, the market stabilized and that attracted some late buyers, all resulting in a positive close for the major averages. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 53.92 points at 7223.98. This week, it rose in four out of the last five sessions for a overall gain of 597.04 points. That's 9 percent. The NASDAQ Composite up 5.40 to 1431.50 today. It too made up for lost ground over the last four sessions rising 137.65 points or 10.6 percent for the week. Standard & Poor's 500 up 5.81 to 756.55 today. For the week overall, it advanced 73.17 points. That's 10.7 percent. In the bond market, the 10- year note fell 8/32 to 98 25/32, putting the yield at 2.89 percent.
Once again big board volume leader today on 161 3/4 million shares was Citigroup (C) moving up $0.11. The chairman said today that the bank did not need additional government capital.
Bank of America (BAC) said that earlier in the week, $0.09 loss today.
General Electric (GE) $0.05 gain.
Wells Fargo (WFC) down a penny.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was up $0.55.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.52 advance.
And then ExxonMobil (XOM) rising a nickel.
Morgan Stanley (MS) gained $1.25.
US Bancorp (USB) down $0.19.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) a $0.37 loss there.
Merck (MRK) a Dow member, up $3.04. The Sanford Bernstein brokerage upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform" on the stock's low valuation and incidentally, Bernstein approved of the company's purchase of Schering-Plough.
Humana (HUM) was up $1.77 on vague takeover talks. Some say the suitor could be Aeta. That's just rumors.
Allergan (AGN), this is a health care company, up $1.30 and UBS Financial issued a "buy."
Moving along we see Las Vegas Sands (LVS) big percentage move with that $0.50 gain. Bernstein Research said the company is poised to survive its recent problems because of the value of the assets that it could sell if need be.
PPG Industries (PPG) down $1.34. The company will take a first quarter restructuring charge of $0.88 a share and it's cutting 2500 jobs.
Sunoco (SUN) down $1.23. It'll cut 750 jobs. That's 20 percent of its workforce and that'll happen sometime this year.
Compass Minerals (CMP) tumbling $8.24. "Financial Times" Deutsche reported that Germany's KNS Corporation is delaying a possible buyout bid because the stock ran up on rumors of such a takeover attempt.
National Semiconductor (NSM) lost $0.97, almost 9 percent of its value. Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating to junk status because of pressure on the company's profitability.
And Luxottica Group (LUX), the Italian sunglass maker down $1.43. The company said business in the first two weeks of January was very soft. The company won't give earnings guidance for the rest of this year because it said the current environment is profoundly uncertain.
And finally Sara Lee (SLE) up $0.41, traded as high as $7.83. "Wall Street Journal" reports the company's considering the sales of its European businesses which some analysts say could fetch $2 billion.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $0.42.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) followed with a $0.36 loss.
Google (GOOG) moved up $0.89.
Intel (INTC) $0.18 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $1.28.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) showed no change on the day.0
Qualcomm (QCOM) was down $0.04.
$0.95 drop in Amazon.com (AMZN).
First Solar (FSLR) up $3.05.
And Oracle (ORCL) a $0.07 loss.
Sandisk (SNDK) rising $1.10, good percentage move on takeover speculation. Back in September, Samsung offered $26 a share which the company rejected. Now they say it could revive that bid.
And Netscout Systems (NTCT) tumbling $2.14. The Needham Securities brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
