Financial Fire

Stock Market Wrapup Aug. 29th

Stocks surged today as investors went bargain hunting following yesterday’s sell-off. At the close, the major market averages gained back most of what they lost yesterday, with the Dow ending up 248 points, and 90% of the stocks in the S&P finishing higher. Oil continued to rise on the week, with the price of crude jumping $1.78 to finish at $73.51 a barrel.

In corporate news, tobacco giant Altria Group (NYSE: MO - News) announced that it will spin off its international tobacco business amid an ongoing corporate restructuring. Current Altria CEO Louis Camilleri will serve as chairman and CEO of Philip Morris International, while Michael Szymanczyk will become chairman and CEO of Altria. Its board of directors also increased the dividend 8.7%. Shares rose 1.1%. Subscribers can read our analysis of Altria in today’s issue.
In the specialty retailing space, Big Lots (NYSE: BIG - News) shares surged 9.9% after the company earned $23.4 million, or 22 cents a share, in its second quarter, up from $4.3 million, or 4 cents a share, last year. Earnings from continuing operations came in at 21 cents a share, higher than analyst estimates of 12 cents a share. Sales rose to $1.08 billion, while same-store sales increased 5.2%. For its third quarter, the company expects to earn between 9-13 cents a share and sees fourth-quarter EPS coming in at a range of 87-92 cents, higher than analyst estimates of 84 cents.
Investors sent shares of Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM - News) higher by 10.6% after the retailer said sales at its key brands drove revenue higher. For the second quarter, the company said earnings equaled $26 million, or 23 cents a share, down from $35 million, or 30 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items in both years, the company said EPS slipped to 24 cents from 25 cent last year. The figure easily topped Wall Street estimates calling for EPS of 16 cents. Revenues increased 4.1% to $859.4 million. The gourmet cookware chain said it expects full-year earnings to come in at $1.82-1.90, up from its previous forecast of $1.73-1.81 a share.
Technology firm Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX - News) announced late Tuesday that it sees a higher fiscal first-quarter profit due to increased sales of high-end devices. Excluding one-time items, it expects earnings of 62-66 cents a share, which is above its earlier forecast of 40-44 cents a share. It forecasts sales to come in at $3.15-3.23 billion and sees margins rising to 24% from 20. Shares rose 3.8%.

By the BullMarket.com Staff

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Credit Card Rental Car Insurance
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secret of nonexistent baggage , loan
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New jobs are spendy.
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Jim Cramer’s Mad Money Lightning Round Aug. 21st
Bullish Calls:
Aecom Technology (NYSE: ACM - News): ‘This may be the cheapest of the infrastructure plays.’Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: JEC - News): ‘ . at $61, should have been bought today. buy, buy, buy! Infrastructure rocks, as does agriculture!’Wachovia (NYSE: WB - News): ‘They just raised the dividend, and they said that the bad loans are under control.’Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB - News): ‘SLB, to me, is the cheapest. It went down today, along with the whole group. I feel like you can trade up to quality. you can trade up to SLB.’Transocean (NYSE: RIG - News)Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM - News): ‘I think, at $15, TTM makes a immense amount of sense.’E*Trade Financial (NasdaqGS: ETFC - News): ‘I would buy some here, and let it come down a bit . There are many companies that have really bad expocertain to this mortgage stuff. ETFC isn’t one of them.’American Capital Strategies (NasdaqGS: ACAS - News): ‘I think that this company is a survivor. a lot of people have tried to call it out a lot of times. They are not going to be successful.’Hudson City Bancorp (NasdaqGS: HCBK - News): ‘I think we are in dangerous territory with FSLR. Don’t buy, do not buy.’Level 3 Communications (NasdaqGS: LVLT - News): ‘I like LVLT for one reason. because I believe there’s going to be a bandwidth shortage . I am picking this as a long-term speculation and, when we run out of bandwidth, I’m not backing away.’Tessera Technologies (NasdaqGS: TSRA - News): ‘I thought the quarter was going to be good. I got the quarter wrong. I like the story longer term. now, in the low $30s, I would definitely buy it.’Principal Financial Group (NYSE: PFG - News): ‘A very cheap stock . I really like this stock. I was going to buy it for my charitable trust. I didn’t get a chance.’LCA-Vision (NasdaqGS: LCAV - News): ‘Upgraded today by Raymond James. a big buyback coming. just finished a buyback. I like it.’IBM (NYSE: IBM - News)
Neutral calls:
Dean Foods (NYSE: DF - News): ‘This has become a very problematic story and I’ve got to tell you something. don’t buy, don’t buy. I don’t think it’s over, and the company does not think the pain’s over too.’Banco Popular (NasdaqGS: BPOP - News)Parker Drilling (NYSE: PKD - News)Foster Wheeler (NasdaqGS: FWLT - News): ‘On a day like today, up $7, sell, sell, sell. on the conference call, they made it very clear that contracts were lumpy.every time the stock runs a little, I think it is going to run into selling pressure.’First Solar (FSLS)
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