Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Monday, February 06, 2006
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks spent the morning hours in neutral amid uncertainty over interest rates and oil prices. A brokerage upgrade on Alcoa however helped the Dow gain 15 points by noon, with the NASDAQ off just a fraction. Stocks traded narrowly mixed the rest of the day, as traders awaited General Motors board meeting results and Disney earnings which we`ll detail in a few moments. So the Dow Industrial Average actually gained 4.65, ending at 10,798.27. The NASDAQ Composite fell 3 3/4 points to 2258.80. Standard & Poor`s 500 up nearly one point at 1265.02. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 4/32 to 99 20/32, putting the yield at 4.55 percent.
Once again, big board volume leader today on 29.1 million shares, Time Warner (TWX) moving up $0.18. The company is selling its book publishing unit to a French firm for $537.5 million.
Motorola (MOT) down $0.64.
Lucent Technology (LU) edge up $0.04.
General Electric (GE) a dime loss.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) tumbling $6.67. That`s a 23 percent deficit. The company is terminating both its chief executive officer and chief operating officer and says it`s voiding all previous 2005 earnings guidance. The Steeple Knopf (ph) Nicholas brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold." It was fifth in volume.
Tyco Intl (TYC) moved up $0.09.
ExxonMobil (XOM) a $0.58 gain.
Nortel Networks (NT) lost $0.04. Citigroup downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold."
Pfizer (PFE) was down $0.19.
Micron Technology (MU) off $1.12. The story here, Citigroup upgraded it from "hold" to "buy" and boosted its price target from $15 to $21 a share.
Disney (DIS) a $0.05 gain or loss during the day, I should say and after the close, in with first quarter earnings, $0.35, $0.05 above the Street estimate. The company also is selling most of its ABC radio unit to Citadel broadcasting. In after hours trading, Disney stock moved up about $0.50 from where it closed in the regular session.
Alcoa (AA) another Dow stock, up $1.45. JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight" because of the high level of aluminum prices, did the same thing with Alcan, which was up $1.72 at $49.78.
Then came General Motors (GM) which closed up $0.19. It elected Jerome York, Kirk Kerkorian`s number one aide to the board of directors, but there`s still no word on the dividend, if there`s going to be any action on it.
Lafarge North America (LAF), construction materials firm, up $17.89. France`s Lafarge, the parent company, is going to make a tender offer for the 46.8 percent it doesn`t already own. The price: $75 a share cash, looks like they may have to sweeten that a bit. But other construction materials companies did very well.
Florida Rock Industries (FRK), Texas Industries (TXI) and Vulcan Materials (VMC) all sharply higher on the news from Lafarge.
Granite Construction (GVA) up $2.41. The company boosted its previous 2005 earnings guidance of $1.55 to $1.60, all the way up to $1.95 to $2 a share in earnings.
Then Huntsman (HUN), the chemical firm, down $1.90. It`s taking itself off the auction block and has ended talks with a number of suitors.
American Real Estate Partners (ACP) up $3.93. This week`s "Barron`s" financial has an article that says the stock should be worth as much as $46 a share. Incidentally, Carl Icahn is a majority holder of this stock.
Apple Computer (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, down $4.55.
Google (GOOG) up $3.55. Steeple Nicholas (ph) brokerage upgraded it from "sell" to "hold" and Bear Stearns said it expects Google to be in the Standard & Poor`s 500 eventually.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.37 loss.
Intel (INTC) $0.13 drop.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.32. That was fifth in dollar volume.
Broadcom (BCOM) up $2.64.
Yahoo! (YHOO) fell $0.62.
Dell (DELL) a $0.06 gainer.
Oracle (ORCL) edged up $0.04.
And Sandisk (SNDK) losing $1.65.
J. Jill Group (JILL), look at that move, up $4.37. Talbots will acquire this firm for $24.05 a share in cash.
Then finally, Blue Coat Systems (BCSI) plunged $15.59 after cutting its third quarter earnings guidance in half from about $0.32 per share to about $0.16 per share.
