Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: It was a mixed start for Wall Street today, with the blue chips edging lower on continuing concerns about the banking sector, while the tech sector headed higher on IBM's better than expected results out late yesterday. The market came alive to the upside after the Treasury secretary said most banks have plenty of capital. The rebound lifted stocks to the day's best levels by the closing bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 127.83 points at 7,969.56. The NASDAQ Composite rose 35.64 points ending at 1,643.85. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 17.69 points to 850.08. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 13/32 to 98 23/32, putting the yield at 2.90 percent.
Big board volume leader Citigroup (C) on 102 1/2 million shares, moving up $0.30. You just heard the news there.
Bank of America (BAC) in a firm banking group, up $0.74.
American Intl Group (AIG) gained $0.17.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $1.81 advance.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) did well, up $2.84.
General Electric (GE) $0.35 gain.
$0.11 rise in Ford Motor Co (F).
Pfizer (PFE) dropped $0.07.
US Bancorp (USB) up $3.33. First quarter earnings out, $0.24, down from $0.62 a year ago, but $0.04 better than the Street was expecting.
American Express (AXP) tenth in volume, was up $0.59.
Caterpillar (CAT), there was a number of Dow stocks that were out with earnings today and Caterpillar one of them, $0.91, a $0.91 gain. The earnings, excluding one-time items, $0.39 and believe it or not that was $0.37 better than the Street was expecting. However, the company cut its 2009 earnings guidance from $2.50 all the way down to $1.25 and it's discussing whether to cut the dividend.
Coca-Cola Co (KO), a Dow stock, down $1.24. First quarter earnings excluding items, $0.65, down from $0.67 a year ago, in line with estimates but the company says second quarter results may fall below the Street estimate.
Dupont Co (DD) yet another Dow stock, up $1.32. First quarter earnings, $0.54, $0.02 better than expected and the company thanks strong results from its agro and nutrition operation.
Merck & Co (MRK), Dow stock, down $1.68. First quarter earnings, $0.74, down from $0.89 last year, $0.04 below the Street estimate and sales dropped 8 percent.
Yet another Dow stock, United Technologies (UTX) up $2.18. First quarter earnings, $0.78, up from -- down from $1.03 last year. That was about a penny better than expected, but revenues dropped 12 percent. The company's carrier unit was its weakest segment during that period.
Texas Instruments (TXN), $0.21 loss, but it traded as high as $17.85 today. After the close yesterday, Texas Instruments had a first quarter result of $0.01 in earnings versus $0.49 last year, but the Street was actually looking for an $0.08 per share loss, better than expected.
Delta Airlines (DAL) up $1.30. First quarter loss of $0.96, nowhere near as bad as last year's $16 per share loss and revenues actually took off 40 percent. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" on Delta.
Manpower (MAN), the staffing firm, up $5.73. First quarter earnings excluding one-time items, $0.09, down from $0.94 a year ago but the Street was looking for a loss of $0.14 so better than expected by far.
Emulex (ELX) $3.09 jump there. Broadcom Corp. is offering to acquire it for $9.25 a share in cash.
Western Union (WU) up $1.91. First quarter results, $0.32, up from $0.27 a year ago and that's despite a 5 percent drop in sales.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ's actives, up $1.26.
Followed by Google (GOOG) up $2.17.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.71 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.36 advance.
Same thing with Microsoft (MSFT), $0.36. Thursday is earnings time for Microsoft.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.93.
$0.38 gain in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Northern Trust (NTRS) was down $1.98. First quarter earnings dropped to $0.61 from $1.03 last year. Revenues lost 8 percent.
And then Broadcom (BRCM) down $1.27. As I mentioned, it's bidding for Emulex but it also reported a first quarter loss of $.19 versus earnings of $0.14 a share last year and revenues fell 17 percent.
Qualcomm (QCOM) tenth in volume was up $0.64.
And finally, Yahoo! (YHOO) rose $0.72 but after the close, the web giant posted a 78 percent drop in first quarter earnings and announced plans to cut 5 percent of its workforce. The stock did move higher on those cost cutting plans though, topping $15 a share in after hours trading.
