Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, November 05, 2009
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: A bigger than expected drop in weekly jobless benefit claims helped Wall Street stage a sharp opening rally. Buyers were also motivated by a solid jump in third quarter productivity and higher October retail sales. The Dow was up 180 points by 1:00 p.m. with the NASDAQ up 46 points. The market went on to close at the day's very best level thanks to buyers afraid of missing out on the rally and short covering. The Dow Industrial Average soared 203.82 points ending at 10,005.96. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 49.80 to 2,105.32 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 20.13 ending at 1,066.63. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 2/32 to par and 26/32, putting the yield at 3.53 percent.
Big board volume leader on nearly 50 million shares, Citigroup (C) gaining $0.09.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) up $0.43.
Then a major casualty, CVS Caremark (CVX) plunging $7.28. Third quarter earnings were a bit higher out today, $0.76 versus last year's $0.60, but the company had some big client losses in its pharmacy benefits business which is called Caremark (ph). Also the Federal Trade Commission is probing the company's business practices and on top of that, Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock from "strong buy" to "buy."
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.18 gain.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.24.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.09 gain.
IMS Health (RX) went public today. Private equity funds, didn't go public actually. It was taken over by TPG Capital and CTP Investment board. They'll acquire this firm IMS for $22 a share in cash.
Ambac Financial (ABK) down $0.30. JPMorgan says the company may be placed into receivership due to the liquidity shortfall.
Sprint Nextel (S) down $0.08.
And then Hyatt Hotels (H), this one is the one that went public today at a price of $25, 38 million shares offered, had a good debut, moving up three points from the offering price.
The Dow stocks that did very well today included American Express (AXP), Boeing Co (BA), Caterpillar (CAT) and Dupont Co (DD), nice gains all over $1.
JCPenney Co (JCP) however down $1.76. October same store sales fell 4 1/2 percent and the company sees just a little improvement heading into the holiday season.
Another retailer, Aeropostale (ARO) losing $4.56. Its October same store sales were up 3 percent, but the Street was thinking they'd be up 14 percent. Meanwhile, Keybanc brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to a "hold."
Insurance company Allstate (ALL) down $0.57. Third quarter operating earnings, $0.99, way up from a loss of $0.35 last year, but those earnings were $0.02 below the Street estimate.
Protective Life (PL) down $3.65. Third quarter earnings, $0.55, down from $0.88 and $0.21 below the Wall Street estimate.
Sara Lee (SLE) up $0.42. First quarter earnings up 23 percent from last year, $0.41 versus $0.32.
And then finally we see Medtronics (MDT) a gain of $1.87. Credit Suisse brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform."
NASDAQ's most active Apple (AAPL) up $3.22.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.64 gain. After the close yesterday as we reported, first quarter earnings came in at $0.36 a share, $0.05 better than the Street expected.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $2.25. Fourth quarter earnings out today, $0.48 versus $0.52 last year, but the stock is up on news of an extension of a licensing pact with Samsung.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.41 gain.
Directv (DTV) up $1.70. Third quarter earnings, $0.37, $0.02 below last year, but revenues were better than expected and the company added 136,000 subscribers.
Intel (INTC) $0.30 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.18. It's going to buy back up to $1.2 billion worth of its stock.
Amazon.com (AMZN) up $3.51.
Liberty Media (LMDIA) was up $1.76.
And then Google (GOOG) finally up $8.32.
