CenturyTel Rises, U.S. Stocks Struggle

123jump.com Staff
24 Jun, 2008
New York City

U.S. stocks turned lower in the afternoon after UPS lowered its earnings estimate, metropolitan home prices fell and gasoline demand declined. Crude oil edged higher at closed but fell from its near record intra-day high. Kroger reported higher sales and earnings. CentruTel rose after it raised its dividend ten-fold and accelerated its stock buyback. Markets in Europe closed lower, led by a shap fall in Spain and Sweden.

[R]4:05PM New York – U.S. stocks edged lower in the afternoon trading.[/R]

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.35 or 0.27% to 11,811.4; S&P 500 fell 3.68 or 0.11% to 1,314.28. Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average 17 gained and 13 declined.

CenturyTel increased its annual dividend ten-fold to $2.80 from 27cents and also announced to accelerate its stock buyback plan. The regional telephone company also issued one time dividend of 63.25 cents to adjust its second quarter dividend.

CenturyTel ((CTL)) in the last twelve months traded as high as $49.50 in July 2007 and as low as $30.88 in April 2008.

UPS ((UPS)) declined $2.92 to $63.34 after it lowered its earnings outlook. UPS stock in the last twelve

Cheesecake Factory ((CAKE)) rose after the stock was raised to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Wedbush Morgan. Cheesecake stock in the last twelve months traded as high as $27.92 in August 2007 and as low as $16.41 in June 2008.

ComScore Inc ((SCCOR)) fell after Google Inc. said that it plans to offer a traffic tracking and analysis product that will compete with the company’s service. ComScore stock in the last twelve months has traded as high as $40.90 in October 2007 and as low as $17.93 in April 2008.

D R Horton, Lennar, and Pulte Homes gained after Credit Suisse began the coverage of the industry with ‘overweight’ rating.

North American Markets indexes

Caterpillar led the decliners in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a loss of 2.62% to $77.90 followed by losses in Du Pont of 1.21% to $44.92, in Verizon of 1.06% to $35.53, in Hewlett Packard of 0.73% to $45.18 and in United Tech Corp of 0.7% to $68.34.

American Express led the gainers on the Dow Jones index with a rise of 3.5% to $42.3 followed by increases in Merck & Co of 3.07% to $36.93, in Citigroup 2.8% to $19.07, in General Motors of 2.79% to $13.27 and in Bank of America of 2.78% to $26.60.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 274 increased and 226 declined.

Sunoco led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 5.05% to $38.18 followed by losses in United Parcel of 4.2% to $63.49, in E Trade of 3.4% to $3.39, in Monsanto of 3.4% to $137.29 and in Apache of 3.3% to 139.13.

Century Tel led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 18.1% to $36.89 followed by increases in Eastman Kodak of 15.24% to $14.22, in D R Horton of 12.5% to $13.23, in Centex Corp of 10.43% to $15.57 and in KB Home of 9.95% to $19.23.

Asian Markets Review

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 7.91 or 0.06% to 13,849.56, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index decreased 258.94 or 1.14% closed to 22,456.02. In Australia ASX 200 index higher 6.30 or 0.12% to close 5,290.00. In Malaysia KL Composite index increased 4.87 or 0.41% closed to 1,200.28.

In South Korea Kospi Index decreased 4.75 or 0.28% to close at 1,710.84, in Thailand SET index closed lower 5.15 or 0.67% to 763.75 and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 2.63 or 0.11% to 2,365.38. Sensex index in India decreased 186.74 or 1.31% to 14,106.58.