Paul Kangas Stocks in the News
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened on a firm note with the Dow and the NASDAQ both moving modestly higher in the early going. But buyers soon backed away on caution ahead of the Fed's decision. Even so, as the 2:15 p.m. Fed rate announcement approached, the Dow was up 35, but judging by the sharp sell off that followed, today's quarter point cut had obviously been factored into the recent market advance so stocks sold off steeply into the close. The Dow Industrial Average plunged to a closing loss of 294.26 points, putting it at 13,432.27. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 66.60 to 2652.35, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 38.31 points ending at 1477.65. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note soared 1 18/32 to 102 8/32, putting the yield all the way down to 3.97 percent.
Topping the active list on the New York exchange trading 37.2 million shares, Washington Mutual (WM) down $2.46. As we reported yesterday, the company's cutting its quarterly dividend from $0.56 a share down to only $0.05 a share. It's closing its sub-prime lending operation and plans a convertible stock offering of about $2.5 billion. Today, Citigroup downgraded the stock from "hold" to "sell," Standard & Poor's from "sell" to a "strong sell."
Citigroup (C) losing $1.47. You just saw the interview with the new CEO. Meanwhile, the "Financial Times" reports the company has sold over $15 billion in SIVs. That's those structured investment vehicles.
General Electric (GE) lost $0.38, even though the CEO predicted 2008 earnings will rise 10 percent to do about $2.42 a share, but that's $0.07 below the Street consensus. The company also is boosting its quarterly dividend 11 percent to $0.31 a share and plans to buy back $15 billion of its own stock.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.54 loss.
AT&T (T) bucked the trend, up $1.56. This company is boosting is quarterly dividend from $0.35.5 to $0.40 a share, a 13 percent rise, the biggest boost in company history. It also plans a 400 million share buyback. The company will stop offering DirecTV in the first quarter incidentally.
Moving along in the active list, Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.17.
And then a weak banking group, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $1.48.
Bank of America (BAC) lost nearly $2.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) off $1.87.
And then Countrywide Financial (CFC), the mortgage lender, off $1.18, tenth in volume.
Boeing (BA) down $3.94. Even though the company is boosting its quarterly dividend 14 percent to $0.40 a share. It also said it is on track for delivery of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
Another Dow stock, not Freddie Mac. We had another one we were looking at, but not this one, Freddie Mac (FRE) down $3.73. The company's CEO reportedly said the firm will have a $10 to $12 billion credit loss on the book of mortgages it now owns.
Then Genworth Financial (GNW), a spin off from GE a while back, down $2.06. The company says 2008 operating earnings will be $2.65 to $3.15 a share and that's well below the Street estimate of $3.28 a share.
NCI Building (NCS) plunging $7.66. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $1.27, $0.32 below the Street estimate and down from last year's $1.33. Sales actually fell 7 percent during the period.
Then Temple Inland (TIN), the forest products company, down $3.58. It's cutting its fourth quarter and 2007 full year earnings estimate for its financial services unit due to an increase in loan loss provisions.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, losing $5.67. Some profit taking finally hit Google (GOOG) off $19.22.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $18.92.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell nearly $4.50.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) bucking the trend with a $0.36 gain.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.66.
$0.85 drop in Intel (INTC).
First Solar (FSLR) off $13.71.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $2.27.
And Comcast (CMCSA) fell $0.57 a share, tenth in volume on NASDAQ.
Genesis Microchip (GNSS), there's a gainer for you, up $3.09. ST Microelectronics will acquire the firm for $8.65 a share in cash.
On the downside, Medarex (MEDX) tumbling $2.79. Late stage results for the company's melanoma treatment were disappointing.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
