Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, November 05, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: More major management shakeups and more huge credit market write-offs were not what Wall Street wanted to hear today and it showed its frustration with a broad sell off, which took the Dow to a 76-point midday loss, while the NASDAQ was off 19 points. The downturn took the blue chips off as much as 125 points this afternoon, but a sharp drop in oil futures and some late bargain hunting helped the market close above the day's lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended off 51.70 at 13,543.40. The NASDAQ Composite fell 15.20 ending at 2795.18, while the Standard & Poor's 500 was down 7.48 at 1502.17. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 6/32 to 103 7/32, putting the yield at 4.34 percent.
No surprise to see at the top of the active list, Citigroup (C). It traded nearly 63 million shares on the big board and 228 1/4 million of composite volume, down $1.83 on those management shakeups and also the big write offs.
Then came EMC Corp (EMC) with a loss of $1.06.
Ford Motor Co (F) lost $0.28, although the company and the UAW signed a new labor pact over the weekend.
Wells Fargo Co (WFC) losing $0.38.
And Merrill Lynch (MER) down $1.40. As we know, it's got its problems. Word has it that Merrill offered the CEO job to Lawrence Fink, the CEO of Blackrock. No word on whether he accepted it. Bank of America (BAC) a $0.66 loss.
General Electric (GE) $0.13 drop there.
No change in Pfizer (PFE) today.
Then came Time Warner (TWX), you just heard the news there, down $0.07.
And Morgan Stanley (MSN) another weak financial stock, down $3.31.
American Financial Realty (AFR), which owns office buildings and things like that, it's a real estate investment trust, up $1.56. Gramercy Capital will acquire the company for $5.50 a share in cash plus .12 of a share of Gramercy Capital. Today that combination works out to a value of about $8.41 a share for American Financial.
Legg Mason (LM), the big investment bank, down $1.64. Wachovia downgraded it from "market perform" to "under perform" and there's also concern that Citi will sell its 9.7 million shares of Legg Mason.
Wellcare Health (WCG) finally a good gain. That stock about eight business days ago was around $123 and then Federal and state agents began investigation. But today the company reported preliminary third quarter earnings sharply higher, $1.71 versus $1.06 last year on a 42 percent jump in revenues and the stock really made a nice comeback.
Marvel Entertainment (MVL) up $3.77. Third quarter earnings, $0.45, up from $0.16 a year ago, sales up 34 percent. Standard & Poor's upgraded it from a "strong sell" to a "hold."
Cardinal Health (CAH) losing $4.30. First quarter earnings were higher, $0.82 versus $0.61 but the company itself was disappointed in the performance of its health care supply segment. Down went the stock.
Nu Skin Enterprises (NUS), a personal care products firm, down $1.36 despite higher third quarter earnings, $0.21 versus last year's $0.19, but that was $0.03 below the Wall Street consensus.
And Stillwater Mining (SWC), which is into palladium and platinum, down $1.30. The company reported a third quarter loss of $0.12 a share versus earnings of $0.07 last year. Revenues dropped almost 10 percent from last year.
Midas (MDS) up $1.57. CL King brokerage upgraded the muffler company from "neutral" to a "strong buy."
And then came a big drop, almost $33 in Petrochina ADR (PTR), but the stock doubled in its debut on the Shanghai exchange making it one of the biggest cap stocks in the world, but it came down a little bit later on the New York exchange.
And then Beazer Homes (BZH) closed down only $0.12. After the close, the company warned that its fiscal fourth quarter, they'll have to take a $230 million charge. It's going to cut 25 percent of its staff and eliminate the dividend, tough times in the home building business.
Google (GOOG) topped NASDAQ's most active, up $14.40. As you heard, it's in a pact with IAC Interactive and that incidentally is a new closing high.
Then came Apple (AAPL) down $1.69.
Followed by Baidu.com (BIDU) $7.88 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.02. Then came Microsoft (MSFT).
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.57 gain.
Intel (INTC) up $0.15.
Crocs (CROX), the shoe company, down $6.07. Some negative comments in this week's "Barron's" financial about it.
Yahoo! (YHOO) was a $0.25 gainer.
And then came Ebay (EBAY) losing $0.92.
Dell (DELL) $0.08 drop, but the company said it's going to buy Equalogic, a privately held Internet technology firm and the price, $1.4 billion.
And then came Novacea (NOVC), a biopharmaceutical company, down $4.30, huge percentage drop on news the company halted late stage trials of its prostate cancer drug due to safety concerns.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
