Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street staged a mild opening rebound from yesterday's steep sell-off, but couldn't hold onto the gains. Early buyers were encouraged by a smaller than expected .2 percent rise in May wholesale prices and a stronger than expected jump in new housing starts. More about those in a moment. By 11:00 a.m., the Dow posted a modest 15 point gain, with the NASDAQ up just 13 points. Continuing worries about the duration of the global recession triggered renewed selling in the afternoon and stocks ended at their lowest levels of the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 107.46 points at 8,504.67. The NASDAQ Composite lost 20.20 at 1,796.18 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell exactly 11 3/4 points to close at 911.97. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 17/32 to 95 22/32, putting the yield at 3.65 percent.
Most active big board issue on 52 million shares, Bank of America (BAC) losing $0.60 a share.
Followed by Citigroup (C) with a $0.12 drop.
General Electric (GE) lost $0.37.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.26 loss there.
American International Group (AIG) dropped a nickel a share.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) dropped a half a dollar.
But Sprint Nextel (S) bucked the trend with a dime gain.
And Pfizer (PFE) was up $0.03.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $0.31 loss.
Same story with Alcoa (AA), tenth in volume.
Best Buy Co (BBY) down $2.82. First quarter earnings, excluding restructuring charges came in at $0.42, down from $0.43 a year ago, but that was $0.08 better than the Street estimate. However, sales fell 6.2 percent in the first quarter and that's despite the demise of the company's chief rival, Circuit City stores.
Nucor (NUE), the big steel company, up $1.11. The firm says its second quarter loss could be smaller than expected because incoming orders have improved recently.
Magna International (MGA) up $2.37. JPMorgan upgraded the auto parts supplier's stock from "neutral" to "over weight" in the belief U.S. auto production will rebound in the second half of this year.
La-Z-Boy (LZB) up $0.71, almost a 20 percent increase, traded as high as $4.58. Even though the fourth quarter sales for La-Z-Boy down 23 percent, but the company in the period still earned $0.04 a share and that's well above the Street estimate for a loss of $0.11. Raymond James financial brokerage boosted earnings estimates, repeated a "strong buy" on La-Z-Boy.
Harman International (HAR) down $2.91. The manufacturer of auto equipment began a public offering of nine million shares. It will use the proceeds to improve liquidity and cut debt.
Another company selling stock, Assured Guaranty (AGO) off $1.72. It plans an offering of $550 million of common shares and equity units to help fund its impending takeover of Financial Security Assistance holdings.
Yet another stock seller, McMoran Exploration (MMR) down $1.46. It began a public offering of 11 million of its shares.
And then Genesee & Wyoming (GWR) down $2.02. It began -- $2.01 I should say. It began a registered public offering of four million shares. This as the company is shutting down its Huron Central Railway unit and that's due to the economic downturn.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, $0.26 gain. Piper Jaffray sees a modest drop in Mac sales this year.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.03 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.09. The company unveiled a new Blackberry product and RBC Capital set a price target of $100 a share on RIMM. And incidentally, earnings due out this Thursday.
Google (GOOG) $0.77 loss.
Genzyme (GENZ) fell $2.87.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.28 loss there.
Intel (INTC) $0.12 drop.
Oracle (ORCL) was down $0.53.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.86 loss.
And Amgen (AMGN) moved up $1.77. The Sanford Bernstein brokerage set a $65 a share target for this stock.
Stec (STEC) up $4.86. The flash memory company increased its second quarter earnings estimate from $0.22 a share at best to as much as $0.36 a share.
Then a major loser, Matrixx Initiatives (MTXX) plunging $13.46. The FDA said consumers need to stop using certain of the company's Zicam cold products because they can cause permanent loss of smell.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
