Paul Kangas Stocks' in the News
Thursday, July 09, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened narrowly mixed with the Dow losing 13 points at the outset while the NASDAQ posted a six point gain. Stocks began to firm up as investors welcomed news of weekly jobless claims and that they had dropped a much larger than expected 52,000. Adding to the firmness, a report that China's auto sales were up sharply. By 2:30 this afternoon, the Dow was up 40 points and the NASDAQ up 16. Light volume on the rally however made it vulnerable to a late sell-off and that trimmed the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up only 4.76 points at 8183.17. The NASDAQ Composite rose 5.38, ending at 1752.55. Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 3.12 ending at 882.68. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 28/32 to 97 20/32, putting the yield at 3.41 percent.
Most active big board issue trading 40 million shares, Bank of America (BAC) rising $0.13 a share.
Followed by Citigroup (C) with a $0.07 gain. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit under pressure to improve results announced a series of management changes today. This as the government prepares to take possession of 34 percent of the bank.
Alcoa (AA) down $0.23 despite yesterday's smaller than expected second quarter loss.
Then came General Electric (GE) with a $0.15 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.32.
Wells Fargo (WFC) was up $0.37.
And Ford Motor Co (F) gained $0.28.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $0.91 advance there.
Sprint Nextel (S) up $0.17.
But American International Group (AIG) falling $3.62. Now keep in mind, this is a one for 20 reverse split stock that early and late last week was in the 20s, early 20s of all things and today, a Citigroup analyst said there's a significant chance the equity in the company could be worthless and the reason -- due to mounting losses on credit default swaps to European institutions. Meanwhile, the company reportedly is in talks to sell its (INAUDIBLE) unit to Metropolitan Life.
Merck (MRK) down $1.03. The company and merger partner Schering Plough halted clinical trials of the cholesterol drug Zetia for reasons that are still unclear. Schering stock was down $0.67.
The Goldman Sachs Group (GS) moving up $4.66. Bank America Merrill Lynch brokerage upgraded it to a "buy" and also boosted this year and next year's earnings estimates.
Target (TGT) $1.13 gain there. June same store sales fell 6.2 percent, but the company still expects to meet or exceed Wall Street's estimates of $0.64 a share in earnings in the second quarter.
Home builder KB Home (KBH) up $1.06. Credit Suisse upgraded it from "neutral" to "outperform" citing strength in the low end of the housing market.
And then Delux Corp (DLX) up $1.75. The printer of checks and business forms boosted its second quarter earnings guidance from a high of $0.49 a share to as much as $0.54 a share.
Allegheny Technologies (ATI) down $1.91. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "hold" to "sell" on a valuation basis.
Kennametal (KMT) off $1.40. It plans to offer 6 1/2 million shares to the public. Standard & Poor's repeated a "sell" recommendation.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, down $0.86.
Google (GOOG) did very well, up nearly $8 a share.
Intel (INTC) an $0.08 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.12 loss there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.74.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.04 gain.
Amgen (AMGN) down $1.37, a little profit taking after gaining over seven points yesterday on promising results of the company's bone cancer treatment.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.49 loss.
Baidu (BIDU) up $6.87.
And then Oracle (ORCL) down $0.25, tenth in volume.
Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN) up $2.02. The Nevada Gaming Board said the decline in gambling revenues in the state is moderating.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
