Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, January 04, 2008
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JEFF YASTINE: President Bush's comments did little to stem today's market slide. The Dow dropped more than 200 points in the first hour of trading. There were few places for investors to hide. Energy and precious metals stocks, which had been strong in recent days and months, came in for selling too. Technology favorites like Apple, which fell more than 7 percent, also saw lots of sellers. So the Dow ended the day down 256.54 points at 12,800.18. And the blue chips this week closed higher just once in this shortened trading week and posted an overall loss of 565.69 or 4.2 percent. The NASDAQ ended the day down 98.03 to 2504.65 and the tech index losing ground in all four trading sessions this week for a net loss of 169.81 or 6.3 percent. And the Standard & Poor's 500 falling 35.53 to end at 1411.63 and for the week overall, the S&P losing 66.86 or about 4 1/2 percent. And the rally in bonds continued as investors look for safe haven from stocks. The 10-year note gaining 5/32 with the price of 103 2/32 and pushing the yield down to 3.87 percent.
Citigroup (C) topping our list losing $0.69 on volume of 23.9 million shares. Late yesterday, Credit Suisse said it sees a wider fourth quarter loss at Citi of $1.35 a share. That's nearly half of the amount that was expected previously, more than half of what was expected previously.
Ford Motor (F) off $0.32.
GE (GE) losing $0.76. Its (INAUDIBLE) and inspection technologies unit is buying Germany's Rayonik (ph), maker of flow meters used in the oil and gas business. No price tag on that deal.
Pfizer (PFE) dropping $0.35.
Motorola (MOT) losing nearly $1. The CIBC brokerage says its channel check (ph) showed weakness in cell phone sales in the second half of December and also late today, Motorola saying it's cutting 1,600 jobs and will take a charge of $90 million to cover those costs.
Wells Fargo (WFC) off more than $1.
And Bank of America (BAC), part of that weak financial sector, down $0.45.
Also under pressure, Adv Micro Devices (AMD) falling $0.52 after its rival Intel was downgraded by JPMorgan.
EMC Corp (EMC) losing $0.84.
And then Countrywide Financial (CFC) down $0.35.
Bear Stearns (BSC) down almost $5. A report saying that Bear Stearns will meet with a U.S. attorney in New York later this month to talk about two of its hedge funds that failed last month on bad bets in the sub-prime mortgage debt arena.
And Regions Financial (RF) falling nearly $2.50. The bank will set aside $360 million for loan losses in the fourth quarter, those related to the housing slump.
Wendys Intl (WEN) down $1.52. Fourth quarter same store sales falling nearly 1 percent after growing more than 3 percent in the year ago period.
Azz Inc (AZZ), one of the big gainers, rising nearly 13 percent. The maker of electrical products reported third quarter profits which were 50 percent above year ago levels.
Greatbatch (GB) also a gainer, up $1.88. The maker of defibrillator batteries receiving an upgrade from Bank of America.
And SLM Corp (SLM) Sallie Mae down nearly $2.50. The lender will not be originating as many student loans after new Federal legislation which cut subsidies to commercial lenders.
Global Payments (GPN) losing over $7. The processor of credit card payments warning third quarter earnings will fall below analyst estimates.
And Talbots (
TLB) shares dropping $1.22. The specialty retailer closing its Talbots kids and Talbots men's shops and also warned about weaker fourth quarter sales.
On our retailers today, not a pretty group here, Macy's (M), JC Penney (JCP), Nordstrom (JWN), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) all posting gains into the closing bell.
On the NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) topping our actives there, dropping $14.88.
And then Intel (INTC) losing $2. JPMorgan downgrading those shares citing worries about a pullback in spending on PCs.
Google (GOOG) down more than $28.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down nearly $9.50.
Microsoft (MSFT) dropping $0.99.
Baidu.com (BIDU) losing over $14.
And First Solar (FSLR) down $20.29.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) losing $0.63.
Dell (DELL) down on that downgrade of Intel, dropping $1.62.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) losing $0.87.
There was a gainer, NASDAQ star of the day, North Pointe Holdings (NPTE), it'll be bought by QBE Holdings for $16 a share in cash.
Cleveland Biolabs (CBLI) dropping $4.69 or more than 50 percent. Its treatment for radiation syndrome was not selected by the Department of Defense for a contract with them.
And finally, Arctic Cat Inc (ACAT) shares getting frozen, losing $2.98. The maker of snow mobiles and all-terrain vehicles warning of a wider than expected fourth quarter loss.
Those are our stocks in the news tonight.
