Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, November 19, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened in a decidedly bearish mood, as the already battered financial sector was hit by that Goldman Sachs downgrade on Citigroup stock from "neutral" to "sell." To make matters worse, Lowe's reported weak results and a disappointing forecast. By 1:00 p.m., the Dow was already off 178 points, just below the 13,000 level, with the NASDAQ off 40 points. The bleak homebuilders' survey and a rise in oil kept the pressure on and the market ended near its lowest level of the day. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 218.35 points at 12,958.44. The NASDAQ Composite lost 43.86 points ending at 2593.38. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 25.47 to close at 1433.27. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note climbed 26/32 to 101 13/32, putting the yield all the way down to 4.08 percent.
The most active big board issue on 30.4 million shares was not surprisingly, Citigroup (C) down $2 at $32 even and that was the low of the day, just where it closed. Goldman Sachs downgrading it from "neutral" to "sell" as you heard, in the belief that the company will write off up to $15 billion in bad debt, up from the company's forecast from $8 to $10 or $11 billion write down.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a $0.68 drop.
Countrywide Financial (CFC) in that very weak financial sector, down $1.50.
Wells Fargo (WFC) was off $0.61. Punk Siegel (ph) brokerage cut its price target on Wells Fargo from $42 down to $36 a share.
AT&T (T) losing $1.80. There is renewed speculation AT&T might make a buyout bid for Echostar by the end of the year.
Moving along, Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.36.
Then General Electric (GE) a $0.49 drop.
Bank of America (BAC) off $1.55.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a Dow stock, down $1.72.
And then came Time Warner (TWX) with a $0.48 loss.
General Motors (GM) dropped $2.48. The company is offering zero percent financing for the next five years and some steep discounts and incentives to clear out 2007 inventory, big drop in the stock
Lowe's Companies (LOW) off $1.89. Third quarter earnings came in at $0.43 from $0.46 a year ago and same store sales actually fell 4.3 percent. The company sees fourth quarter dropping to only $0.25 to $0.29 a share.
Fannie Mae (FNM) down $3.11. The Friedman Billings brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform."
And Freddie Mac (FRE) off $3.22 there. Credit Suissie cut its $68 a share target down to $45 a share and Freddie Mac's results are due out tomorrow incidentally.
Big loss in Genesco (GCO) the footwear company, down $9.25. The company's CEO denied that he defrauded UBS Financial and said he'll enforce the fact for Genesco to be acquired by Finish Line for which UBS was to provide that financing. Now UBS wants to walk away from the deal. It had bid $54.50 for Genesco.
Tween Brands (TWS), the young ladies' apparel marketer, down $3.87. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.46 from $0.58 a year ago. The company cut its fourth quarter earnings guidance by 4 to 5 percent.
And what's this, a gainer and a good one, Quanex (NX) which is in steel aluminum products, plans to spin off its building products business to shareholders as a stand alone company, nice gain in the stock today.
And Downey Financial (DSL) did well, up $3.59. Billionaire Gerald J. Ford and his company have acquired about two million shares or 6.8 percent.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $2.44.
Research in Motion (RIMM) bucked the overall trend, up $0.64.
Google (GOOG) down $7.78.
Baidu.com (BIDU) off $7.51.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.13 drop there.
And First Solar (FSLR) bucked the trend with a gain of $3.13.
Intel (INTC) losing $0.34.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.51 drop.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.39 gain.
And then you see Echostar Comm (DISH) jumping $7.66. As I mentioned, AT&T might make a buyout bid, just speculation.
Pharmion (PHRM) up $15.84, there's a move. Celgene Corp. will acquire it for cash and stock worth $72 a share, nice to see a big gain in a day like this.
And Natrol (NTOL) did pretty well, dietary supplement company up $2.02. Plethico pharmaceutical will Natrol for $4.40 a share and a tender offer, which will start a week from tomorrow.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
