Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street edged lower at the outset of trading on some carryover selling from yesterday and a larger than expected rise in new weekly jobless benefit claims. But the market soon turned higher on better than expected results from companies like McDonald's, 3M, AT&T, Travelers and Union Pacific. The sixth straight monthly rise in the leading economic indicators and a continuing flow of solid earnings reports helped stocks close at the day's best levels. So the Dow ended up 131.95 points at 10081.31. The NASDAQ Composite up 14.56 at 2165.29, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 11.51 points to 1092.91. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 8/32 to 101 22/32, putting the yield at 3.42 percent.
Big board volume leader on 49.6 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving up $0.04.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) with a penny gain.
Then the Wisconsin-based bank holding company, Marshall & Ilsley (MI) up $0.09. The company priced $136 million share offering at $5.75 a share. Today JPMorgan upgraded the stock from "under weight" to "neutral."
General Electric (GE) $0.19 loss.
Then Pfizer (PFE) up $0.15.
Wells Fargo (WFC) gained $1.27.
Sprint Nextel (S) a $0.09 advance.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropped $0.02.
Boston Scientific (BSX) up $0.17.
And then AT&T (T) with a $0.16 gain. The company out with third quarter results, $0.54 in earnings, down from $0.55 last year, but $0.04 better than the Street was expecting.
McDonald's (MCD) up $1.17. Third quarter earnings, $1.15, well above $1.05 last year and global sales were up 3.8 percent in the period.
Merck & Co (MRK), another Dow stock, edging up $0.19. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.90, $0.08 above the Street estimate. Sales up 2 percent.
And Travelers Co (TRV), which is now a Dow stock, up $3.68. Third quarter earnings $1.61, way up from $0.35 last year, $0.30 better than expected. The company's boosting its dividend 10 percent to $0.33 per share quarterly and it's going to buy back an additional $6 billion of its own stock.
3M Co (MMM) up $2.46. Third quarter earnings, $1.37, $0.20 better than the Street was expecting there.
Kimberly-Clark (KMB) up $3.40. Third quarter, $1.40, up from $0.99 last year, $0.27 better than expected.
And then Hershey Co (HSY) down $1.34. It had higher earnings, third quarter, $0.73 versus $0.64 last year, $0.06 better than the Street thought, but the company had no comment on a possible buyout bid for Cadbury.
PNC Financial Services (PNC) up $5.69. Third quarter earnings $1 even, up from $0.70 last year and the company very positively said that the credit quality deterioration has slowed markedly in the third quarter. I think that helped the stock more than anything.
Goodrich (GR), which is now into aerospace products, third quarter $1.14, down from $1.32 last year, but $0.11 better than the Street expected.
And Lubrizol (LZ) up $5.12. The company is predicting third quarter earnings will come in at $2.52 a share, well above the Street estimate of $1.89 a share.
Apple (AAPL) was the NASDAQ's most active issue, moving up $0.28. Nokia is suing Apple in Federal court, claiming that the iPhone violates tentative wireless technology patents.
Microsoft (MSFT) you heard the Windows 7 news, up a penny.
And then Intel (INTC) a $0.26 gain there.
Google (GOOG) up $2.99.
Ebay (EBAY) down $1.06. After the close yesterday, the company said its holiday sales outlook does not look cheery.
Amgen (AMGN) down $2.55 despite a 24 percent rise in third quarter earnings, but the FDA is asking for more information on one of its top experimental drugs.
Amazon.com (AMZN) a $0.03 closing gain, but after the close, Amazon in with third quarter earnings way up, $0.45 versus $0.27 last year, $0.12 better than expected on the Street and the company's confident about its holiday sales outlook. In after hours trading, Amazon stock jumped $14 to the $107 per share level.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.33 loss there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.75.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.22 gain.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
