Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, December 28, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened higher in a technical rebound from yesterday's sharp sell off. After the first half hour of trading the Dow was up 60 points and the NASDAQ gained 12. But the early upturn was soon quashed by that worse than expected 9 percent tumble in November new home sales. By 1:00 p.m. the Dow fell to a 61 point deficit and the NASDAQ posted a 15 point loss. Trading slowed to a crawl for the rest of the session and stocks ended on a mixed note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 6.26 at 13,365.87. In this shortened trading week, the Dow fell once, rose three times, but still had a net loss of 84.78 points. The NASDAQ Composite lost 2.33 to end at 2674.46 today. This week, it gained twice, fell twice and lost 17.53 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 was up 2.12 today, ending at 1478.49 and for the week overall, it lost 5.97 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note jumped 1 1/32 to 101 13/32, putting the yield down to 4.08 percent.
Big board volume leader on 42.7 million shares was Sallie Mae, SLM Corp (SLM) showing no change on the day. As you heard, it sold $3 billion in common stock and convertible securities and that was $500 million more than first announced.
Then Citigroup (C) down $0.27. "Wall Street Journal" reports Citigroup may sell a number of branches or even entire units like its 80 percent held student loan corporate.
Temple Inland (TIN) made it in the active list, down $0.46. The stock was moved from the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to the Standard & Poor's madcap 400 today, because the company is breaking up into three separate entities.
General Electric (GE) up $0.15.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.36.
Moving along in the active list, Ford Motor Co (F) dropped $0.14.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.02 drop there.
And there you see AT&T (T) moving up $0.42.
Washington Mutual (WM) a $0.47 drop.
Then came ExxonMobil (XOM) with a gain of $1.33.
MBIA (MBI), the bond insurer, tumbling $3.53. As you heard, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Corp is starting a bond insurance company who will likely be a tough competitor in the business. Ambac stock, which is another major bond insurer, fell $4.02 to close at $25.12 today.
Genesco (GCO), the shoe retailer, a $5.44 gain. The Tennessee chancery court has ordered Finish Line Corporation to complete its agreement to acquire Genesco for $54.50 a share. Finish Line stock dropped $0.75 to close at $2.30.
Another shoe retailer stock did well and that was DSW (DSW), up $1.86 on news the chairman of American Eagle Outfitters has acquired a 14.3 percent stake in DSW.
Checkpoint Systems (CKP) up $3.89. The company sees 2008 earnings at $1.65 to $1.75 and that's above the estimate of $162 on Wall Street. Also the company has a new CEO.
MGM Mirage (MGM) edging up $0.81. Dubai World has boosted its stake by 5 million shares to a total of 6 1/2 percent now.
Centerline Holding Co (CHC) down $2.57, major casualty. The company cut its 2007 cash distribution estimate from $1.89 down to $1.70 to $1.75 a share.
Christopher & Banks (CBK), the women's apparel retailer, third quarter earnings in, $0.29 versus $0.24 on a 9 percent rise in same store sales, but the company sees fourth quarter earnings of only $0.02 to $0.05 on flat sales, hence the loss in the stock.
MSC Industrial (MSM) down $1.63. Bear Stearns downgraded it from "out perform" to "peer perform" on concern of a slowdown in the U.S. maintenance repair and overhaul business.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $1.26.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $10.33.
Google (G00G) up $1.79. The company increased its lead in the Internet search market in November to 57.7 percent from 55 1/2 percent in October and that came at the expense of Microsoft and Yahoo!
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.42.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.23 drop there, fifth in NASDAQ volume.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.15 gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.07 drop.
First Solar (FSLR) down $1.46.
And then Amazon.com (AMZN) $0.20 gain.
Dryships (DRYS) did well, rising $3.71.
Elsewhere, Pemco Aviation (PAGI), look at that percentage gain, almost 126 percent. The Government Accountability Office upheld the company's protest against Boeing, regarding a $1.2 billion contract for mid-air refueling.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
