Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, April 03, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Although Wall Street opened lower on that worrisome jobs report, the selling was muted because investors felt the figures could have been far worse. The Dow fell a modest 60 points by 11:00 a.m., while the NASDAQ lost only five points. The market's resilience attracted cautious buying as the day wore on and the market trend turned positive with the tech sector leading the way higher. The Dow Industrial Average closed with a gain of 39.51 at 8,017.59. This week, it fell one time and it rose 241.41 points overall. The NASDAQ Composite ended with a gain of 19.24 at 1,621.87 today. It fell just once this week and rose 76.67 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 8.12 ending at 842.50 today. For the week overall, it was up 26.56. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 1 2/32 to 98 25/32, lifting the yield at 2.89 percent.
Big board volume leader for a change was not Citigroup, but it was Bank of America (BAC) on about 57 million shares, moving up $0.36. Board of directors at Bank of America approved a $713 million in dividend payments to the U.S. government under the TARP payback plan.
Citigroup (C) in there with an $0.11 gain.
Kimco Realty (KIM) up $1.91, even though the company's cutting its quarterly dividend by 86 percent down to only $0.06 a share but it'll just be in the third and fourth quarters and the company's in the midst of a 91.5 million share offering of common stock priced at $7.10. Looks like demand is good. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "sell" to "hold."
General Electric GE) a $0.20 gain.
Ford Motor (F) up $0.34. Chief Executive Mulally will be paid 30 percent less in 2009 and 2010 than the $13.6 million he received in 2008.
American International Group (AIG) no change today.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) moved up $1.12.
Wells Fargo (WFC) gaining $1.01.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) $0.33 advance.
And then Pfizer (PFE) down $0.22 a share. The company received a request from the Federal Trade Commission for additional information about its proposed acquisition of Wyeth Corporation.
Monsanto (MON) down $0.15 today, traded as low as $0.77. Yesterday, second quarter earnings came out at $2.16, up from $1.77 a year ago, but today JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to "neutral."
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) off $1.16. Bernstein research downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform" on valuation and the belief that the odds of a takeover for the company are fading.
Novo-Nordisk (NVO) down $3.73 on fear that the FDA might delay the launch of its potential blockbuster diabetes drug.
And then Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) a $7.07 gain. Goldman Sachs added the stock to its conviction "buy" list, boosted its price target from $60 to $90 a share.
Cleaning products company Zep (ZEP) off $1.39. The Janney Montgomery Scott brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
And electrical products maker Azz (AZZ) off $0.57, traded as low as $24.86 during the day. Fourth quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.81, up from $0.60 on a 31 percent jump in revenues, but the company said its incoming orders are disappointing and that's obviously hurt the stock.
Research in Motion (RIMM) topped the active list on NASDAQ, jumping $10.20. After the close yesterday as we reported, fourth quarter earnings were $0.90, up from $0.72 and $0.06 better than the Street expected. The company sees first quarter at $0.88 to $0.97 a share, well above the Street estimate of $0.82.
Apple (AAPL) $3.28 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.54.
Google (GOOG) was up $7.28 on speculation the company might make a takeover attempt at Twitter.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.02 gain there, fifth in NASDAQ volume.
Intel (INTC) $0.25 advance.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.47.
Qualcomm (QCOM) dropped $0.12.
Gilead Sciences (GILD) up $2.28. Late stage trials of its hypertension drug are showing promise.
And then First Solar (FSLR) was down $3.64.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
