Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, November 12, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's blue chips opened with a modest technical rebound from last week's steep sell off. The Dow rose 43 points at the outset of trading, but the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 8 points. Sharp sell offs in oil and gold futures along with strength in the dollar all helped lift the Dow to a 108 point mid-session gain, but the NASDAQ was up only 8 points and that lackluster NASDAQ market acted as a drag on the blue chips this afternoon resulting in a broadly lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 55.19 points at 12,987.55. The NASDAQ Composite down 43.81 ending at 2584.13, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 14.52 to end at 1439.18. The bond market was closed today in observance of the Veterans Day holiday.
For the eighth consecutive session, Citigroup (C) topped the active list today on 33 3/4 million shares, traded as high as $35.06, ended up with just a $0.47 gain. But a "Barron's" financial magazine article says the stock may fall a bit more, but in a few years could top $60 a share. Its biggest shareholder, Prince (INAUDIBLE) says Citigroup will survive.
EMC Corp (EMC) taking a hit, down $1.08. Word has it that Oracle is getting into the same business as EMC's 86 percent-owned VM Ware, could be some tough competition there.
Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.33.
General Electric (GE) $0.18 drop.
Pfizer (PFE) bucked the trend, up $0.19 a share.
Then we move along to Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) $0.69 gain there.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) was up $0.42. This week's "Barron's" financial suggests it might be the time to do some bottom fishing in the major retail stocks, just like Wal-Mart.
Co vale do Rio (RIO), the Brazilian mining company, down $2.85 in that weak group.
No change in Bank of America (BAC).
And ExxonMobil (XOM) down $2.31 on the tumble in oil prices.
IBM (IBM) closed up $0.80, traded as high as $104.19 on news the company will acquire business software company Cognos for $58 a share. We'll see Cognos in a moment.
Honeywell Intl (HON) down $0.63, even though it signed a billion dollar deal with Airtrans to supply avionics for that airline's new aircraft and new maintenance on its entire fleet through the year 2030, big contract there.
The gold stocks notably weak, New York December contract gold closed at $807.70 an ounce. That's down $27 an ounce. Agnico Eagle (AEM), and Anglogold Ashanti (AU), Barrick Gold (ABX), Freeport-McM C&G (FCX) and Newport Mining -- Newmont Mining (NEM) all major casualties.
And the steels were very weak today on fears of higher iron ore prices if Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton (ph) manage to pull off a merger, major losses in the steels today.
AK Steel (AKS)
Allegheny Tech (ATI)
Nucor (NUE)
US Steel (X)
Blackstone Group (BX) down $2.02. Third quarter loss of $0.44, not as bad as the $0.65 loss last year, but the company said lack of liquidity in the financial markets is slowing new and large corporate private equity transactions and of course, that's their business.
Mattel (MAT), the toy company, up $0.84, traded as high as $21.14 after JPMorgan upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
And the mattress company, Tempur-Pedic Intl (TPX) up $0.82. Citigroup upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
And the construction company, McDermott Intl (MDR) plunging $6.01. Citigroup downgraded this one from "buy" to just a "hold" recommendation.
Then we see Apple (AAPL) topping the active list. Some of these high flyers got hit today, down $11.61 on Apple.
Google (GOOG) down nearly $32.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off $10.60.
Microsoft (MSFT) fractional loss (ph).
Baidu.com (BIDU) was off $41.45. That took a pretty good hit. Of course, these stocks have had a big run up.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) edging up $0.53.
$0.14 rise in Intel (INTC).
First Solar (FSLR), another weak group, down $29.15. There's concern in the solar sector that the latest U.S. energy bill may not extend solar tax credits, so look at those stocks take a tumble, here we go from Ascent Solar Tech (ASTI), all the way down to Daystar Tech (DCTI), Sunpower (SPWR), Suntech Power (STP) Trina Solar (TBL), major losses percentage wise particularly.
And then the rest of the list here, Qualcomm (QCOM) was down $0.81.
And there we see Cognos (COGN) up $4.17. The business software firm as I mentioned going to be acquired by IBM for $58 a share in cash.
And over on the American exchange, Cagle's Inc (CGLA), the poultry producer, up $1.25 on news the Cagle family, which owns 64 percent, is offering $9 a share for the remaining stock it doesn't own.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
