Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Profit takers took command this morning as Wall Street closed out the second quarter, its first up quarter since the financial crisis began. A drop in June consumer confidence and a jump in oil prices were among the negatives adding to losses. The Dow was off 122 points by noontime with the NASDAQ down 15 points. The market remained broadly lower on end of quarter selling pressures which eased a bit enabling the Dow to close off 82.38 at 8447 even. The NASDAQ fell 9.02 ending at 1835.04. Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 7.91 at 919.32. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 15/32 to 96 19/32, putting the yield at 3.54 percent.
Most active big board issue on 55.8 million shares, American International Group (AIG) down $0.17. The company says it may have to recognize valuation losses on the credit default swap portfolio held by its troubled financial products unit.
Then Bank of America (BAC) managed to gain a penny.
Ingersol-Rand (IR) $0.30 loss, very active. Quanta Services will replace Ingersol-Rand in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index because Ingersol is redomesticating to Ireland.
Citigroup (C) with a nickel loss.
And Quanta Services (PWR) $0.10 loss there. That's replacing Ingersol-Rand in the Standard & Poor's 500.
Western Digital (WDC) up a penny. Here's another change in the Standard & Poor's 500. This will replace (INAUDIBLE) in the S&P 500, Western Digital will. That happened today.
General Electric (GE) $0.04 drop.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.26 loss.
Ford Motor Co (F) managed to gain $0.29.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) $0.27 loss there.
Abbott Labs (ABT) down $0.78, traded as low as $46.26. A Federal jury ruled that the company's (INAUDIBLE) drug violates a Johnson & Johnson patent and the ruling calls for a $1.6 billion damage award. That's a lot of money, but JNJ stock down $0.16 showing little reaction. Abbott incidentally will appeal that ruling.
Deere & Co (DE) down $2.20. A larger than expected 800 employees went for the company's buyout offer and the result will be a bigger than expected $100 million in fourth quarter pre-tax expenses for Deere & Co.
H&R Block (HRB) moved up $1.56. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $2.09, same as last year, $0.04 better than expected and it happened despite a 3 percent drop in revenues. H&R Block will maintain its present dividend through 2010.
Trina Solar Ltd (TSL) up $1.64. Morgan Stanley upgraded it from "under weight" to "over weight."
And then Exco Resources (XCO) moving up $1.80 on news the company and BG Group are in a pact to jointly develop the Haynesville shale project and other natural gas assets in Texas and Louisiana.
And then Southern Co (SO) down $0.70. Citigroup downgraded it from "buy" to "hold," seeing a potential chink in regulatory armor.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ up $0.46.
Followed by Microsoft (MSFT) $0.09 drop there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) did well, up $1.45. BMO Capital brokerage is optimistic about Research in Motion's upcoming product line.
Google (GOOG) down $2.55.
Intel (INTC) edged up $0.17.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.34 loss.
And Apollo Group (APOL) up $5.13. Third quarter earnings, $1.26, well above last year's $0.85. The Street was only looking for $1.12. The Stiefel brokerage repeated a "buy" on Apollo and some of the other profits for education companies did very well on the Apollo news.
Career Education (CECO), Devry (DV), ITT Education (ESI), Strayer Education (STRA) all good gains.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.34 -- we've been there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.89.
And an $0.08 drop in Oracle (ORCL).
Amazon.com (AMZN) fell $0.63.
Schnitzer Steel (SCHN) jumping $7.35. The company reported a first quarter loss of $0.05 a share versus earnings of $2.14 a year ago.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
