Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: A mixed bag of economic news also impacted the markets today. Rising energy costs helped drive up producer prices last month. The Labor Department says wholesale prices rose 0.6 of a percent in July, above expectations of just 0.2 percent. But stripping out energy and food, the so-called core rate was up just 0.1 of a percent and that was below expectations for 0.2 percent rise.
Well, that producer price number didn't sit well on Wall Street, especially after that disappointing earnings news from Wal-Mart and a weak outlook from Home Depot. By 11:30 this morning, the market had fallen 167 points on the Dow, NASDAQ was off 23 as those Sentinel woes added to a rocky market. A mid-day rally attempt failed amid growing concerns that the sub-prime mess was creeping into the commercial paper market, so it was all downhill from there. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 207.61 points at 13,028.92. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 43.12 to 2,499.12. Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 26.38 points ending at 1,426.54. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 11/32 to par and 7/32, putting the yield at 4.72 percent.
New York Exchange volume leader on 35.2 million shares, EMC Corp (EMC) moving down $0.71 despite a very successful initial public offering of its VMware (VMW) unit which came in second in volume and look at that, 33 million shares offered at $29, opened at $52. The high, $55.50, backed off a little bit, still up a massive $22 a share on the day . This was the most successful technical IPO since Google incidentally.
General Electric (GE) $0.49 drop.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) down $2.35. You heard about the company's lower than expected second quarter earnings and cutting its full year guidance. And on top of that, JPMorgan today downgraded Wal-Mart from "over weight" to just a "neutral" rating.
Ford Motor (F) $0.30 loss.
Time Warner (TWX) $0.61 drop.
Citigroup (C) fell $0.88.
Home Depot (HD) losing $1.72. Second quarter earnings from continuing operations, $0.77, down from $0.82, but $0.05 above the Street estimate. The stock still down.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.31 loss there.
And then came ExxonMobil (XOM) with a $0.21 gain.
Countrywide (CFC) down $2.15. The company said its July mortgage funding rose from a year ago, but it fell 14 percent from June. Also it said that foreclosures and delinquencies rose in July to the highest levels in several years.
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) was halted, down $6.67, a 47 percent drop on liquidity concerns and that did prompt a lot of downgrades by brokerages today, including Jefferies and RBC Capital, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Credit Suisse. After the close in a news conference, Thornburg's CEO said the company will delay payment of a $0.68 quarterly dividend, but it would not seek bankruptcy.
UBS Ag (UBS), the big financial firm, second quarter profit, up 79 percent on record fee income, but the company said the current quarter had very weak trading income and Credit Suisse downgraded it from "out perform" to just a "neutral" rating there.
Fortress Investment (FIG) down $1.35. You can see by the chart this company went public February 9th at $35. Today it reported a second quarter loss of $0.66 a share, versus a loss of only $0.12 a year ago.
Bway Hldg (BWY) which makes all kinds of containers was down $1.97 today. This company went public June 12th at a price of $15, well below it now and third quarter loss of $0.46 reported today versus earnings of $0.37 a share a year ago.
Excel Maritime (EXM), this company owns seaborne dry bulk carriers, big second quarter earnings of $1.02, up from $0.23 a year ago. Revenues jumped 40 percent.
And DeVry (DV), the higher education firm, up $0.75. Fourth quarter earnings up 35 percent to $0.22 versus $0.17 a year ago.
Apple (AAPL) topped NASDAQ's most active list, down $3.76.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.57 drop.
Google (GOOG) got hit a bit today, down $6.90.
Research in Motion (RIMM) losing $5.81.
And then Intel (INTC) with a $0.22 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.26.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $1.14.
Nvidia (NVDA) bucked the trend with a gain of $1.69.
Ebay (EBAY) $0.66 drop.
And then Comcast Corp A (CMCSA) a $0.26 closing loss.
Physicians Formula (FACE), you'll notice the symbol, it's face. It is a cosmetics firm and the company warned of a third quarter loss due to flagging sales.
Then came Jamba Inc (JMBAU) down $1.82. This is a holding company for the Jamba Juice chain. Second quarter revenues were up 14 percent. Same store sales actually fell 3.3 percent.
And on the American exchange, Environmental Power (EPG) was a big loser, falling $1.45 or 22 percent. The renewable energy firm posted a wider second quarter loss of $0.71 versus a $0.30 loss in the year ago period and that's despite a 13 percent jump in revenues.
