Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Cascading global marks overnight took a steep toll on Wall Street early today. The Dow plummeted 460 points at the outset of trading, while the NASDAQ Composite plunged 117 points. The severity of the early sell off attracted bargain hunters over the next several hours. So by 1:00 p.m., the Dow slashed its loss to only 68 points. But the comeback was blunted by sellers who doubted today's rate cut could avert recession. So, while stocks closed lower, they were still well above today's worst levels. The Dow closed down 128.11 at 11,971.19. The NASDAQ Composite ended down 47 3/4 points exactly, putting it at 2,292.27. Standard & Poor's 500 Index skidded 14.69 points ending at 1,310.50. Today's surprise rate cut sparked flight to safety buying in U.S. Treasuries across the board. The 10-year note surged 1 24/32 to 106 24/32, pushing the yield down to 3.43 percent, its lowest level since the summer of 2003.
Big board volume leader on a hefty 64.7 million shares was Citigroup (C) losing only $0.03 a share.
And then Bank of America (BAC) in a strong financial group basically, up $1.42. Bank America had fourth quarter earnings of $0.05, way down from $1.16 in earnings last year, but still earnings. The CEO says no dividend cut is planned and the outlook is rather upbeat.
Motorola (MOT) downbeat today, off $1.01. Fourth quarter results due out tomorrow and some analysts are concerned that the company's been losing market share to Nokia.
General Electric (GE) $0.26 drop there.
And EMC Corp (EMC) $0.68 loss on the big board, fifth in volume.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.34. Its earnings are due out tomorrow.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) in that firm banking group, up $1.47.
Followed by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $1.27.
Then Ford Motor Co (F) with a penny gain.
And ExxonMobil (XOM) down $2.63.
The retail group was very strong today after the Sanford Bernstein brokerage upgraded the retail sector from "market weight" to "over weight" and the stocks you see here were all upgraded from "market perform" to "out perform." Home Depot (HD), Kohl's (KSS), Lowes Companies (LOW), Macy's (M) and Williams Sonoma (WSM) all doing very well.
Another strong group, the brokerage stocks, Bear Stearns (BSC)
nice gain. And Merrill Lynch (MER), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Wachovia (WB) joined in with decent gain there, nice comeback.
Elsewhere, we had good gains in Ambac Financial (ABK) and incidentally, I want to apologize for our standard graphic charts are not available to us tonight due to a computer problem. But anyway, Ambac up $1.77. The company had a fourth quarter loss of nearly $32 a share, versus earnings of almost $2 last year, but it said it's talking to a number of parties about how to grow shareholder value. In some cases that means a possible buyer.
Then MBIA (MBI), another bond insurer, doing well, up $3.98. This week's "Barron's" financial notes that some observers see the company's liquidation value at $30 to $40 a share and they think that dead or alive, this stock has a big upside potential.
Getty Images (GYI) up $2.81. The company has retained Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value. Sometimes that means they're looking for a suitor.
Then came Barrick Gold (ABX) up $2.85. Credit Suisse upgraded it from "neutral" to "out perform" and New York February gold today was up $8.60 to close at $880, $890.50 an ounce.
And finally Medco Health Solutions (MHS) down $4.66. UBS financial brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
Waters Corp (WAT) took the plunge today, off $14.65. Fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.98 versus $0.79 a year ago, but that was $0.08 below the Street estimate and the company's outlook was rather disappointing.
CSX Corp (CSX), the major rail, up $2.21. Fourth quarter earnings excluding one-time items, $0.85, up from $0.57 last year, $0.21 above the Wall Street estimate.
There you see Apple (AAPL) topping the NASDAQ active list and the rather disappointing outlook had the stock down as low as $138 a share in after hours trading.
Google (GOOG) hit today with a loss of nearly $16.
Microsoft (MSFT) losing $1.02.
But Research in Motion (RIMM) up $1.50.
Baidu.com (BIDU) edged $0.23 higher.
Intel (INTC) $0.37 loss.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.88.
But First Solar (FSLR) did well, up $6.91.
Oracle (ORCL) off $1.36.
And then came Dell (DELL) with an $0.83 loss.
A very weak group today, the education stocks hit after the student loan companies like Sallie Mae decided against lending to students who have bad credit and it hurt all three of these stocks, Corinthian Colleges (COCO), Career Education Corp (CECO) and ITT Education (TSI).
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
