Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 05, 2007
|
|
|
|
JEFF YASTINE: Weakness among the sub-prime lenders, which spread to some of the other big financial stocks, giving the bears another win. The bottom fishers were ready at the start though with the Dow going from down 75 to up 70 before noontime. But a Standard & Poor's downgrade of Merrill Lynch over concerns about Merrill's exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market cast a pall over the big financial stocks.
And the NASDAQ suffered another late-day rout, dragging the Dow down along with it. So the Dow ending off 63.69 points at 12,050.41. The NASDAQ Composite falling 27.32 to 2340.68 and the S&P 500 dropping a little over 13 points to 1374.12. And flight-to-quality buying was the order of the day in the bond market. The benchmark 10-year note unchanged though at 101 with a yield of 4.50 percent.
Starting things off, New Century Financial (NEW) sinking over $10 or almost 70 percent. The lender says that it is technically in default to several of its lenders. That raised the specter of a potential bankruptcy and late Friday, the company also said it faced a criminal probe of the U.S. attorney's office in California over trading irregularities and accounting questions. Merrill Lynch's analyst said New Century is quote, more likely to enter the death spiral we had feared and that news brought an avalanche of sell orders in New Century's peers.
Accredited Home (LEND), Fremont General (FMT) down big as well. Its management is aggressively pursuing the sale of its sub-prime residential lending unit.
Impac Mortgage (IMM) down big.
So was Novastar Financial (NFI).
And finally Washington Mutual (WM) down over 3.5 percent. About 8 percent of its loan portfolio is in the sub-prime sector.
Now back to the actives, General Electric (GE) down $0.32.
And ExxonMobil (XOM) down just a fraction.
And Pfizer (PFE) down a little bit as well.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropping a penny. Over the weekend, executives told analysts 2007 will be a profitable year as it proceeds with plans to sell its Aston Martin brand.
Citigroup (C) off $0.72.
And JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $.65. Both caught up in the worries over the sub-prime lenders today. In late January, JPMorgan's chief Jamie Diamond said the company had largely exited the sub-prime lending arena. That didn't help the stock today though.
Advanced Micro (AMD) down $0.23. The chip maker issuing a revenue warning because of its feared price war with Intel.
AT&T (T) dropping $0.72. "The Wall Street Journal" says the company may be interested in buying Altel, although that deal would draw a lot of scrutiny from antitrust regulators. Also shares fell $1.30.
And Countrywide Financial (CFC) down $1.82, another big player in the sub-prime area.
Shares of Barnes & Noble (BKS) (INAUDIBLE) over $4. The book retailer issuing a profit warning that it closed an Internet distribution center in Memphis, eliminating 200 jobs and it will even discount the price of the new Harry Potter book due out this summer and that will limit profits.
OM Group (OMG) tumbling over $4.50. The stock caught up in today's sell off, but soaring nickel prices helped the company post a healthy first quarter, excuse me, fourth quarter profits of $1.93, quadrupling year ago levels. The company did settle those assets though in February.
In the plus column though, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rising over $14. Credit Suisse issuing an "outperform" rating and a new price target.
And shares in Celanese (CE) gaining $1 on news of a big $400 million stock buyback and a huge refinancing plan expected to save a lot of money for the chemical company.
On the NASDAQ, Google (GOOG) rising over $2.
Apple (AAPL) gained a little bit from a Prudential upgrade today.
Intel (INTC) slipping a fraction.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.21.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.16.
And there's Research in Motion (RIMM) dropping $1.45. Its chairman will relinquish that title, but remain as co-CEO.
Amgen (AMGN) gaining $0.41.
Applied Materials (AMAT) down for the day.
So was Qualcomm (QCOM)
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) down $0.14.
Aeroflex (ARXX) jumping over $2. Another private equity buyout deal, acquiring Aeroflex for $13.50 a share in cash.
And finally, Pathmark Stores (PTMK) rising $1.21. The northeastern grocery chain to be acquired by A&P, Great Atlantic & Pacific for $1.3 billion in cash and stock in assumed debt. That works out to about $9 a share in cash for Pathmark shareholders.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
