Paul Kangas' Stocks In the News
Tuesday, January 31, 2006PAUL KANGAS: Stocks opened lower on investor uncertainty about the Federal Reserve and what President Bush would say in tonight`s state of the union address. At the outset of trading, the Dow fell 30 points, the NASDAQ lost 13. The market trimmed losses after the Conference Board said its January consumer confidence index rose to a three-year high. But that Fed rate hike and hesitation ahead of the president`s speech tonight led to a lower close. The Dow industrial average fell 35 points to 10,864.86. The NASDAQ Composite was down nearly a point at 2305.82, while the Standard & Poor`s 500 index dropped 5.42 ending at 1280.08. Over in the bond market, the 10- year note was up 3/32 to 99 27/32, putting the yield at 4.52 percent.
Big board volume leader on 27.9 million shares, Time Warner (TWX) down $0.02. As we reported yesterday, media mogul Frank Biandi (ph) is joining Carl Icahn to elect board directors for Time Warner and Biandi himself is considered a possible new chairman of the board.
General Electric (GE) down $0.18.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) $0.26 loss there.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.36.
Fifth in volume was Lucent Technology (LU) with a $0.03 drop.
Then Boston Scientific (BSX) bucking the trend with a $0.97 gain. HSBC bank downgraded the stock however from "over weight" to "neutral" and cut its price target from $31 to $23 a share. However, optimism remains the company will not be hampered in its acquisition of Guidant by antitrust concerns.
EMC Corp (EMC) down $0.26.
Goodyear Tire (GT) major loser, down $3.12. Goodyear said its fourth quarter results will be about the same as a year ago and Deutsche bank securities downgraded the stock from "hold" to a "sell."
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.25.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), tenth in volume, was off $0.86.
Alcoa (AA) a big Dow stock, up $0.97. UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy." And you`ll notice we do not have any written comments below the charts today due to technical problems.
Let`s have another look at another Dow stock, Altria (MO), parent of Philip Morris, down $1.57. Its fourth quarter profits were up about 18 percent to $1.09 a share versus $0.94 last year, but the company was out with a rather disappointing 2006 earnings guidance statement and that`s what hurt the stock.
Merck and Company (MRK) a $0.04 gainer. Fourth quarter earnings $0.51 versus $0.50 a year ago. Sales however were flat. Fourth quarter, excluding one time charges, $0.64 a share, $0.02 better than the Street estimate. And incidentally, former Merck chairman Ray Gilmartin has agreed to a plaintiff`s lawyer`s request that he testify at a New Jersey Vioxx trial slated to begin in late February.
Unum Provident (UNM), the reinsurance company, down $3.70. Fourth quarter operating earnings lower than expected at $0.43, although higher than last year`s $0.39, but Bank of America brokerage downgraded the stock from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Haemonetics (HAE) up $7.64. Third quarter earnings $1.02, although $0.52 of that was a one-time gain, but it`s still way up from $0.42 a year ago and the company boosted its 2006 earnings guidance.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) up $2.76. Second quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.56 versus $0.48 a year ago. Sales were up 3 percent.
And Harsco (HSC) a $6.04 gain there. Fourth quarter earnings jumped to $1.23 versus last year`s $0.84, nice move.
Google (GOOG) topped the active list. It closed up $5.84 in regular trading, but after the close, Google out with fourth quarter results $1.54 a share of earnings and that was $0.23 below the Street estimate. In after hours trading, Google stock I saw as low as $374. That`s almost $60 lower than the close you see here.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.15.
$0.51 gain in Apple Computer (AAPL).
Intel (INTC) down $0.40.
And then fifth in volume, Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.32 loss there.
Yahoo! (YHOO) was off $0.64.
But Sepracor (SEPR) jumping $8.53. The drug research firm in with first quarter earnings of $0.82 versus a loss of $0.33 last year. The Street was looking for earnings of only $0.04.
Verisign (VRSN) $0.71 gain.
Sandisk (SNDK) up $1.07.
And Amgen (AMGN) was up $0.57.
A new issue today, H&E Equipment (HEES), construction equipment, that`s their business, 10.9 million share IPO priced at 18, opened at $20.31, the high $23.33 and that`s just about where it closed.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
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