Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, November 01, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened in a nosedive on those analyst downgrades of big banks like Citigroup and downgrades of many bond and mortgage insurers. Exxon's earnings shortfall was another factor that helped to send the Dow off 221 points just an hour into trading, while the NASDAQ Composite was down 40 points. As oil futures touched $96 a barrel, stocks remained sharply lower this afternoon and fell even further in the final hour of trading on nervousness over tomorrow's jobs report. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 362.14 at 13,567.87. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 64.29 points to 2794.83, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 40.94 points, ending at 1508.44. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note jumped one full point to 103 5/32, pushing the yield down to only 4.35 percent. By far the most active big board issue, trading 50.7 million shares of big board volume and 169 million of composite volume was Citigroup (C) down $2.85. As you heard, many analysts see the company facing challenging problems.
Then came a new issue, Giant Interactive (GA). This is a Chinese online gaming company, 57.2 million shares offered to the public at $15.50, opened at $18.25, the high of the day, $20.46, backed off a little, but still had a strong debut.
General Electric (GE) $0.82 loss.
Bank of America (BAC) off $2.57. CIBC World Markets downgraded it from "sector outperform" to "sector perform."
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.65 loss. Then we see Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), another weak bank stock, off $1.86.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $3.49. Third quarter earnings came in at $1.70, down from $1.77 a year ago and $0.05 below the Wall Street consensus.0
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $2.65, financial sector also weak because of fading hopes for another Fed rate cut any time soon.
Ford Motor Co (F), there you see it, down $0.37.
And then came EMC Corp (EMC) with a $0.60 per share loss.
Ambac Financial (ABK) tumbling $7.26, traded as low as $26.96. Stocks of bonded mortgage insurers down on expectations the value of what they're insuring will continue to drop. Let's look at some other stocks in that sector.
MBIA (MBI), Radian Group (RDN) and Security Capital (SCA) all major losers percentage wise especially. But not all insurance companies were down.
Those that do more in the health and life insurance like Unum Group (UNM) up $1.98. Big third quarter earnings $0.60, well above $0.46 a year ago.0
And another one of those, Aon Corp (AOC) up $1.73, health and life insurance company. Third quarter earnings doubled to $0.64 from $0.32 last year. The company is going to cut 2700 jobs. Citigroup upgraded its price target from $50 to $58 a share.
Then Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS) doing very well. Third quarter earnings $1.09, up from $0.86. Revenues jumped 22 percent from last year.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) tumbling $2.42. The company turned in a third quarter loss of $0.13 a share, versus earnings of $0.14 a share a year ago.
Another major loser, Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) down $7.20. Fourth quarter loss of $0.11 out today, versus earnings of $0.02 a year ago. And the company said that its 2008 earnings will be flat to even slightly lower.
Timberland Co (TBL), the boot maker, down $2.08. Third quarter earnings fell to only $0.42 from $0.88 a year ago and a 14 percent drop in revenue. Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong sell" on Timberland stock.
Microsoft (MSFT) bucked the overall trend with a gain of $0.25 on NASDAQ, volume leader.
Then Apple (AAPL) down $2.51.
Google (GOOG) off $3.79, although it signed up myspace to its open social platform.
baidu.com (BIDU) bucking the trend, up $3.46.
And then Crocs (CROX) down $27.01, losing its footing on disappointing sales forecast, even though after the close yesterday, the earnings were strong third quarter, $0.66, up from $0.27.
Intel (INTC) down $0.40.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $2.43.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) it's an $0.88 loss.
Garmin Ltd (GRMN) down $7.39.
But then look at this, United Therapeutics (UTHR) up $25.67. Late stage trials are very promising for the company's inhalable drug to treatment pulmonary lung disease. Its stock really showed it.
Flotek Industries (FTK), over on the American exchange, down $14.35. The oil drilling tools and chemical company had third quarter earnings higher, $0.26 versus $0.19 a year ago, but that was below the Street estimate of $0.31 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
