Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Given all those negative factors, it's no wonder the Dow plunged 121 points at the very outset of trading while the NASDAQ fell 24. The bears remained firmly in control as the day wore on because with all the gloom, even the most ardent bulls weren't willing to step in on the buy side. As a result, without so much as a hint of a technical rebound, the market closed at the day's lowest level. The Dow Industrial Average tumbled 360.92 points to 13,300.02. The NASDAQ Composite lost 76.42 to 2748.76, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 44.65 to 1475.62. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 21/32 to 103 18/32, putting the yield at 4.30 percent.
For the third day running, the most active big board issue was Citigroup (C) today on 35 million shares and it hit a 52-week low with that loss of $1.67. A shareholder derivative lawsuit was filed today against the company and some top executives, including former CEO Charles Prince.
Then some more weak financial stocks, Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) down $1.88.
General Electric (GE) off $1.10.
Bank of America (BAC) dropped $2.25.
And Washington Mutual (WM) plunging $4.19. Regulators are probing the mortgage appraisals that the company sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the company sees mortgage lending in 2008 slumping to $1.5 trillion from the consensus of $2 trillion. Washington Mutual did say it's going to maintain its dividend for now, but it will review it as the fourth quarter progresses.
Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.39.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.32 loss there.
EMC Corp (EMC) dropped $1.16.
AT&T (T) off $1.38.
And then came ExxonMobil (XOM) down $2.83 a share.
Agria Corp (GRO), this must have been a bad market today, because a Chinese initial public offering actually went down. This is a Chinese farm services company, 17.2 million American depository shares offered to the public at $16.50, opened at $16.50, the high of the day $16.96 and down it went after that.
General Motors (GM) down $2.21. As you heard, it posted that massive $39 billion quarterly loss. Standard & Poor's today issued a "sell" recommendation on GM.
American Intl Group (AIG) down $4.05. After the close, first quarter earnings, $1.19, down from last year's $1.61 and $0.43 below the Street estimate. In after hours trading, I saw the stock around $56.50.
Capital One Financial (COF) plunging $9.26. Company sees 2008 credit losses of up to $5 billion. The Keefe Bruyette brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform" and Citigroup cut the price target on Capital One from $84 down to $66 a share.
Avis Budget Group (CAR) down $3.67. Third quarter earnings of $0.60, versus a big loss last year, but the company sees 2007 results at the low end of its previous guidance.
Mastec (MTZ), specialty construction firm, down $3.94. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.18 from $0.22 a year ago and it sees fourth quarter falling to $0.14 to $0.16. The Street was looking for $0.25 in the fourth quarter.
Assured Guaranty Ltd (AGO), a gainer, up $1.61. Third quarter operating earnings $0.70, well above $0.53 last year. JPMorgan upgraded it from "under weight" to "neutral."
And then we see NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) getting hit for a change, down $5.49.
Followed by Google (GOOG) losing $8.85.
But Research in Motion (RIMM) up nearly $2. Yesterday, Credit Suisse upgraded RIMM from "neutral" to "out perform," could be some carry over buying.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $1.33. After the close, Cisco reported first quarter earnings $0.40, versus $0.31 a year ago, $0.04 above the Street estimate, but the company also said it's bracing for weakness in business from financial institutions and the auto companies in the fourth quarter. After hours trading, I saw the stock down almost $3 from this level.
Microsoft (MSFT) - and we'll have an interview coming up with CEO John Chambers in a short time -- $0.89 loss there.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $12.70.
Intel (INTC) $0.59 loss.
Yahoo! (YHOO) down $2.30.
And Garmin Ltd (GRMN) plunging $11.22. Its rival Tom Tom has boosted its buyout bid for the Dutch digital map maker Teleatlas (ph) to 30 euro and that's 5 1/2 euro above Garmin's bid.
Oracle (ORCL), tenth in volume, was down $0.73.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
