Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened lower in an extension of yesterday`s late sell off. The Dow fell 20 points at the outset of trading, while the NASDAQ lost 9 points. The market turned narrowly mixed for the rest of the morning, reflecting the mixed reports on mild inflation, but a big 20,000 rise in weekly jobless benefit claims. JC Penney`s lower earnings undermined the retail sector and the financials joined the late sell off after Wells Fargo said the housing market is the worst since the depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped to a closing loss of 120.96 points, putting it at 13,110.05. The NASDAQ fell 25.81 points, ending at 2618.51. Standard & Poor`s 500 Index lost 19.43 at 1451.15. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note climbed 28/32 to par and 27/32, putting the yield down to 4.15 percent.
For the 11th consecutive trading session, Citigroup (C) topped the active list today on 22 million shares, down $1.46 in that weak financial group.
And then came General Electric (GE) with a $0.70 loss.
Followed by Pfizer (PFE) down $0.32.
EMC Corp (EMC) fell $0.25.
And there you see Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.20. In addition to the news you just heard, Ford`s going to sell its auto interiors plant to Johnson Controls.
Moving along in the active list, Energysolutions (ES), a new issue came public today. It`s into nuclear services, 30 million shares offered to the public at $23. That`s where they opened. They got as high as $23.60 and slumped back to the debut price, not much of a hot new issue there.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) down $1.28 in the weak financials.
Bank of America (BAC) same story, off $1.65.
Merrill Lynch (MER) down $0.68.
And JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was tenth in big board volume, losing $1.62.
Another new issue today, MSCI Inc (MXB), that stands for Morgan Stanley Capital International. This is a spin off from Morgan Stanley. It`s involved in indexing and investment analytics. Fourteen million shares offered at $18, opened at $23, the high of the day $28.45, backed off a little, but a very strong debut.
American Intl Group (AIG) a Dow stock, down $2.48. The company is boosting its stock buyback plan by $8 billion, but today Citigroup downgraded its price target from $77 to $69.50 a share.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) down one penny. It plans a major reorganization, including the creation of a new office of strategy and growth, which might diversify beyond its main businesses now.
JC Penney & Co (JCP) down $2.40, leading the retail sector lower, on lower third quarter earnings of $1.17 versus $1.26 last year. Same store sales fell 3 1/2 percent and the company cut its fourth quarter earnings guidance from $2.41 down to $1.80 at best.
Ralcorp Holdings (RAH) up $5.77. It`s going to acquire Kraft Foods post cereal operations for $2.6 billion in stock. Ralcorp also said fiscal 2008 earnings will be 5 percent above this year`s fiscal earnings.
LDK Solar Co (LDK) up $5.20. The company sees fourth quarter earnings as high as $0.41 a share, Wall Street estimate only $0.37.
Sotheby`s Holdings (BID), the big auction house, up $3.46. The company reportedly auctioned a white flawless diamond for $16.2 million above the high end estimate of $12 to $16 million and did well on some paintings as well from Koons and Bacon.
And Carmax (KMX) up $1.62. The news there, reports that Warren Buffett`s Berkshire Hathaway Corp. owns 14 million shares or 6 percent of the stock.
Novastar Financial (NFI) tumbling $2.52. The company had a third quarter loss of $598 million. That translates to $64.05 a share. The company plans no dividend in the foreseeable future, which seems logical and also says there`s a strong likelihood it`ll be delisted from the New York exchange.
If you thought that loss (ph) was bad, look at this one. Global Cash Access Holdings (GCA) down $5.49. The company provides cash advances to gamblers and it delayed its fourth quarter results pending an outcome of an internal probe of a confidential acquisition by one of its employees.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active down $1.81.
Research in Motion (RIMM) hit by profit taking, down nearly $7.
Google (GOOG) down $12.03.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $16.30.
Microsoft (MSFT) a loss of only $0.17.
Then Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.41.
Intel (INTC) dropped $0.32.
By finally some gainers, Oracle (ORCL) up $0.24.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.77 rise.
And Applied Materials (AMAT) was up $0.06. After the close yesterday, AMAT reported fourth quarter earnings, $0.30, same as the year before.
Finally, Petsmart (PETM) up $1.69. Third quarter earnings were flat, $0.23, same as last year, but that was a penny better than Wall Street expected. The stock did well.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
