Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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JEFF YASTINE: Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn's comments touched off a storm of buying on Wall Street. The Dow opened sharply higher and just kept going. By midday, the Dow was nearly 250 points higher. Investors also figured that today's batch of bad economic news -- a drop in existing home sales, a drop in average home prices and weakening orders for durable goods -- were pretty well reflected in the recent market declines. So, with support from the high techs, the rally continued into the afternoon, with stocks ending near their highs. The Dow finished 331.01 points higher to 12, excuse me, 13,289.45. The NASDAQ surged 82.11 to 2,662.91. And the S&P 500 jumping almost 41 to 1,469.02. In the bond market, the 10-year note backtracked a bit, falling 23/32 to 101 23/32 and the yield at 4.04 percent.
Citigroup (C) leading off the list once again, up a little over $2 on a strong financial sector today. Executives downplaying a "Wall Street Journal" report alluding to a potential link up with Bank of America, but that much-needed cash infusion from the Abu Dhabi investment authority breaking the banking giant's freefall from multi-year lows in recent days.
General Electric (GE) gaining a little over $1.
Pfizer (PFE) rising $0.56.
EMC Corp (EMC) gaining $0.92 in that broad-based rally in technology stocks.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) up $0.89. Analysts were not happy with the bank's plan to take a $1.4 billion loss on bad mortgage loans in the fourth quarter, but it didn't seem to matter today, stocks still up.
Fannie Mae (FNM) up $2.90 on reports of recent insider buying.
And then Ford Motor Co (F) gained $0.29. Ford's going to settle the long-standing class action lawsuit having to do with the Explorer SUVs which have been prone to rollovers.
Then Countrywide Financial (CFC) falling a quarter.
Bank of America (BAC) gaining $1.91 against strong financials today.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $1.61.
And a quick look at some of the other Dow standouts, American Intl Group (AIG), Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM (IBM), all doing nicely and finishing near their best levels of the day.
Freddie Mac (FRE) jumping $3.69. Investors cheering the company's aggressive steps to shore up its balance sheet with a dividend cut and that huge $6 billion preferred stock offering announced the other day.
Then AMR Corp (AMR) taking flight, rising $1.42. American Airlines looking to sell or spin off its American Eagle regional air carrier and the nearly $4 pull back in oil prices today was another plus for the air sector.
Surf's up for (INAUDIBLE) shipping stocks, Excel Maritime (EXM) rose a whopping $8. Morgan Stanley likes the sector and despite Excel missing its earnings targets two weeks ago.
Some of the other ones in that group, Danaos (DAC), Diana Shipping (
DCX), Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE), Genco Shipping (GNK) also clear sailing in today's sessions.
The coal stocks were also on fire thanks to a bullish report from UBS. Peabody Energy (BTU) rising over $3. The analyst sees tighter coal supplies in the years to come as they try to satisfy demand from China, India and other developing countries.
Some of the other coal companies, Arch Coal (ACI) gaining $1.52.
Consol Energy (CNX) and Massey Energy (MEE) settling at 52-week highs.
AutoNation (AN) coming to life, gaining $1.03 on word the auto retailer's largest shareholder, hedge fund manager Eddy Lambert (ph) has boosted his stake to 30 percent from 28 percent ownership of the company.
Then checking under the hood of Pep Boys (PBY) financial, not encouraging there for Manny, Moe and Jack. The stock tumbling over $2. The auto parts retailer with a huge third quarter loss of $21 million, double year ago levels.
Now onto the NASDAQ where Apple (AAPL) jumped a little over $5.
Google (GOOG) gaining more than $18.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up another $25, nearly $26.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up more than $5.50.
Microsoft (MSFT) gaining $0.64.
Then Cisco Systems (CSCO) gaining $0.56.
Intel (INTC), the semis are all hot today.
Amazon.com (AMZN) gaining more than $4.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.67.
First Solar (FSLR) up more than $8 after losing $4 yesterday.
Marvell Tech (MRVL) down $1.69. The company beat estimates in its latest quarter, but investors were disappointed with its forecast for sequential growth.
Then Dell (DELL) up $1.05. It's partnering with Google to sell something called a Google search appliance which will use Google search technology to help companies locate data files on their corporate networks.
And finally, Verigy (VRGY) up nearly $6. The chip test equipment maker posting fourth quarter earnings which were above estimates and said first quarter results will also come in above current forecasts.
