Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Despite Merrill's huge loss and that sharp drop in housing starts, Wall Street attempted an opening rally, which lifted the Dow some 50 points at the outset. The early upturn abruptly reversed itself after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported a sharp drop in manufacturing in its region. At noon, the Dow posted a 150 point loss. Fed chief Bernanke's urging Congress to stimulate the economy did little to assuage recession fears and investors sold heavily all afternoon. The Dow Industrial Average plunged to a closing loss of 306.95 points at 12,159.21. The NASDAQ Composite lost 47.69 ending at 2,346.90, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 39.94 to 1,333.25. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 30/32 to 105 3/32, putting the yield down to 3.63 percent.
Once again at the top of the active list today on 58 1/2 million shares, Citigroup (C) down another $1.30.
General Electric (GE) fell $1.35, earnings due out for GE tomorrow morning.
Ford Motor Co (F) dropped a dime.
And then Merrill Lynch (MER) tumbling $5.64. As you heard, fourth quarter loss of $12 a share versus earnings last year and interestingly, at the end of 2007, the book value was down to $29.37 a share versus $41.35 book value at the end of 2006.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.44 drop there, fifth in volume, excuse me.
Schering-Plough (SGP) off $1.87. A class action lawsuit has been launched against Schering and its partner Merck regarding their Vytorin cholesterol drug.
Bank of America (BAC) off $1.78.
Ambac Financial (ABK), another sharp drop, off $6.73. Yesterday it was off over $8 on the company's estimate of a fourth quarter loss of $33 a share and it's cutting its dividend 67 percent. Today, Moody's put ratings under review for Ambac with a possible downgrade and of course, this undermines the whole bond insurance sector.
EMC Corp (EMC) a $0.09 gain, bucking the trend.
And then we see Co vale do Rio (RIO), the Brazilian mining company, down $0.71.
IBM (IBM) closed down $0.53, but after the close as reported Monday, when the company gave preliminary earnings, fourth quarter came in at $2.80, up from last year's $2.31, $0.20 above the Street estimate. In after hours trading, big blue stock was over $105 a share.
Monsanto Co (MON) tumbled $13.21. UBS financial started coverage with a short-term "sell."
Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH) down $3.40. The company will exit the mortgage lending market on a wholesale basis in the United States because of the turmoil in that market. It's also cutting 1300 jobs.
Blackrock (BLK) up $1.25, traded as high as $217.75. This morning the company reported fourth quarter earnings of $2.48, up from $1.28 last year, $0.33 above the Street estimate.
Comerica (CMA), the bank, down $4.67. Fourth quarter operating earnings $0.77, down from the Street estimate of $1.05.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) fell $2.68. Citigroup downgraded it from "hold" to "sell," citing expectations of a 10 to 12 percent drop in U.S. motorcycle sales this year.
BorgWarner (BWA), which makes vehicle parts, up $2.78. It sees 2008 earnings up 20 percent, as much as $3 a share.
Stoneridge (SRI), which makes electronic parts, mostly for vehicles, up $2.30. The company sees fourth quarter earnings coming in at $0.30 a share and that is way up from the $0.10 Wall Street estimate.
Perini (PCR), a $10.05 drop. One of the company's units is a general contractor for the Cosmopolitan resort and casino being built in Vegas and the project financing is in trouble apparently.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (APPL) up $1.25, bucking the trend.
Google (GOOG) fell over $15.
Intel (INTC) a $0.55 drop.
$0.12 loss in Microsoft (MSFT).
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $28.31.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $2.27.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) an $0.82 loss.
Bea Systems (BEAS), which is being taken over by Oracle, down a penny.
First Solar (FSLR) a $14.36 loss.
And Oracle (ORCL) itself down $0.51 a share.
Adobe Systems (ADBE) fell $2.15 after UBS financial today downgraded it from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
